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potstickers-3 recipe



Date:    Tue, 21 Feb 95 13:26:58 CST
 From:    cgibas@wraightc3.life.uiuc.edu (Cynthia J. Gibas)
 
 Having found the Long Life Vegi House while I was in CA last week, and 
 experienced the joys of potstickers made with faux meat (gluten) I made a 
 low-fat version of these last night.  This looks like a phenomenal amount 
 of work but it only took about 1.5 hours total.  Of course, that may seem
 like a phenomenal amount of time to some.
 
 GLUTEN
 
 This is hard to make from regular flour, but if you buy the (more expensive)
 de-starched wheat gluten, it's practically foolproof.  
 
 2.5 c. 'vital wheat gluten' flour
 1/4 c. spelt flour or ww flour
 2 c. cold water
 
 mix until a dense dough forms, adding more gluten flour if the blob feels 
 wet.  Knead for a few minutes, but don't fold over.  If you fold the blob
 after most of the water is absorbed, the parts won't stick together, and
 the gluten will fall apart when you slice it.  Slice the gluten into about
 10 chunks, after letting it rest for a few minutes.
 
 Boil for approximately 1 hr. in a large pot, starting with about 10 c. of
 broth made of water plus 1/2 c. dry white wine, 1/4 c. soy sauce, nutritional
 yeast, garlic, and ginger.  The gluten will puff up so leave space at the
 top of the pot.  Let cool.  Properly made gluten will un-puff and become 
 fairly dense.
 
 On to the potstickers.
 
 FILLING
 
 In a food processor, chop:
 
 5 large carrots
 3/4 c. dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated
 8 scallions, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces
 2 t. salt
 2 T. rice wine
 1 T. cornstarch
 1 t. white pepper
 
 put this mixture in a large bowl and add
 
 1.5 c. cabbage, finely shredded or foodprocessed if you lack the patience to
 		 shred
 
 press the liquid out of about half of your batch of gluten, and cut the 
 chunks into smaller pieces.  Put these in the food processor and whirl until
 the gluten is similar in texture to cooked ground meat.  (This worked 
 beautifully for me with the batch of gluten I made last night, but results
 may vary).  Add this to the filling mixture.  
 
 SKINS
 
 This is straight from the Betty Crocker LeeAnn Chin chinese cookbook.
 
 3 c. unbleached flour
 1.5 c. boiling water
 
 mix to make a soft dough and knead 5 min.  This is sticky dough, you will need
 to add some extra flour but don't add too much as it needs to be soft.  
 Basically it's a dough-handling nightmare but once you make a few mistakes
 your potstickers will start looking normal and the thick yummy noodle skins
 will be well worth the trouble.  Divide the dough into 1" diameter balls.
 Take each ball, roll it out to about 4" in diameter, put a blob of filling
 in the middle, pinch several pleats in the edge on one side, and fold the
 other side over.  The sticky dough sticks together much better than prefab
 skins, so you won't have to worry about the potstickers opening up.  Place
 finished potstickers on a floured plate (VERY important to flour).
 
 Put a layer of large cabbage leaves in a bamboo steamer and lay potstickers
 on top.  They will stick to the moist leaves, but not as much as they 
 would to the steamer.  Steam until skins become translucent.
 
 You will probably need 2 batches of skins for the amount of filling.  One 
 today and one tomorrow...
 
 DIPPING SAUCE
 
 1/4 c. soy sauce
 1/3 c. rice vinegar
 1 scallion chopped fine
 1 t. grated fresh ginger
 small amount of sugar if desired
 
 mix and let stand for a while, then dip...
 kwvegan vegan