Guotie/Pot Stickers

Pot Stickers

OK, I promise that this will be the last post (at least for this week heh heh) about transforming leftovers. But I did have quite a bit of meat and prawn filling left from my wantons and I've bought a new head of green cabbage to go with my leftover Pot au Feu stock, only I ended up with more cabbage than stock. So after staring at my leftovers (and I needed to clear them so that I can buy new stuff to stock in my small fridge - I'm a compulsive buyer), I was left with the conclusion that making Guotie would be inevitable. Besides the Hubby loves them and so do the kids.

Actually one could fill them in many different ways and pot stickers are popular in many parts of the Confucius-influenced world e.g. China, Japan, Korea...In Japan they are called Gyoza and are usually made with very thin skins and tend to contain quite a bit of garlic. In Korea they are called Mandu (like Mantou) which is not too surprising as when you're making your dough for the skins they do like like mantous at one stage. Theirs are usually filled with meat, cabbage, kimchi etc.

I made mine the cina way, of course. With prawns, meat, chives, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dry sherry, sesame oil, cabbage, coriander leaves, egg...All mixed quickly in the mixer.

The Skins (makes about 15):

150g Flour

Salt

1/2 Tbsp Oil

40ml Warm Water

Very easy to make and handle. Just mix all the ingredients together with your hands. Knead a little till you get a smooth dough and then make a long roll, divide it into small portions (they will look like mini-mantous). Roll out each portion as thinly as you can into a flat round and as you fill it with the meat filling you should be able to stretch it a little with your fingers as it is quite elastic. Seal with a little water.

There are different ways to cook the Guoties. Some fry them, some steam them, some like me will combine the methods and do them in a pan. In a non-stick pan heat up a little oil and grill the Guoties on 2 sides (they should have 3). When they are nicely browned, pour in a little water very quickly and cover the pan, allowing the Guoties to finish their cuisson in the steam.

Serve hot with a dip made of rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and chilli oil or fresh chopped chilli.

with Spaghetti

I served them accompanied by some spaghetti in a sweet, salty and hot sauce made of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, dry sherry, chilli oil, sesame oil, fresh red chillis and a dash of hot meat stock..Don't I just love leftovers. LOL

PS : If any of my Chinese friends in Paris is reading this, do know that I've missed those days when we would be making pot stickers together in our humble hostel rooms...