Dim Sum Potstickers and Chili Garlic Black Bean Hot Sauce

There are as many recipes for pork dumplings as there are chefs and the ingredients are not sacred but traditionally, pork, sometimes chopped shrimp, garlic, ginger with a little sugar is present in the list of ingredients. These dumplings may be prepared ahead of time and frozen until ready to cook.

Filling

2 Cups ground pork

2 Cups chopped Chinese cabbage (also called Napa cabbage)

2Stalk green onion, finely chopped

Garlic chives, chopped (optional)

2 Teaspoon minced ginger

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 Teaspoon white pepper

1 Teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

2 teaspoons cornstarch

Cooking

Peanut oil for cooking

Chicken stock as a release agent

Combine filling ingredients mixing well. Cover with plastic and allow to marinate for 15 minutes. Spoon 2 teaspoon of filling into center of a wonton wrapper. Wet ½ of the outside of one edge with a wet finger with water. Press the far edge into the wet edge at the center. Pleat one side of just the outside edge typically in six pleats. Do next potstickers until all are done. Bring a non-stick pan to hot. Add two tablespoon of oil to pan, press bottom of uncooked dumpling against bottom of pan. Cook several minutes on high until the dumplings take on color. Add a ¼ cup of chicken stock and cover with a lid to steam. Reduce heat to medium and cook covered for five minutes to steam well. Drain pan. Place cooked potstickers browned side up on a plate garnished with diagonally chopped scallion greens. Serve with a tasty dipping or hot sauce and soy for saltiness.

Dim Sum Dumpling Dough (Wonton Wrappers)

Asian wheat flour wrappers are traditionally made with hot water.

2 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 Cup hot water

Put the flour in food processor’s work bowl equipped with a pasta blade. Turn on processor and add 3/4 cup of hot water in a steady stream through the feed tube. As soon as all the water is added, stop the processor to inspect the dough. Pulse processor for another few bursts to knead and form a ball around the blade.

                                                                                                                                                                                      

Bag the dough in a sealed plastic bag and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. The dough-resting period will help make the dough more pliable. The dough can now be used to roll the wrappers or may be refrigerated overnight. Before rolling, return dough to room temperature

Don't want to make your own, buy the ready made in the freezer section of a good Asiam market. I like the Wei Chuan brand.

http://www.weichuanusa.com/potsticker.html

Chili Garlic Black Bean Hot Sauce

The recipe came from Chinese Garden Restaurant in Santa Clara California. I had been dining there for lunch for near 18 years. I would order the pot sticker just to have a good excuse to eat the hot sauce. Unsuccessful at gaining access to the recipe no matter what I tried, I finally succeeded only when the Mandarin chef and his wife retired and sold the restaurant. The recipe sounds very simple (because it is) but the sauce gets increasingly more complex and more delicious as it ages. My Chinese friends are as crazy about this sauce as I am.

1 cup peanut oil

1 cup crushed red pepper¹

6 ounces of minced fresh crushed ginger

8 cloves minced crushed garlic

1/3 cup fermented black beans (douche), chopped a bit

Heat oil until hot (300 F)  Drop in all the crushed red pepper. (Avoid putting your face too close to the sauce pan as a breath of this could knock you flat out and require paramedics.) Heat to very hot again. Add all other ingredient. Stir once and cook for two minutes on high. (At this high temperature the moisture is driven off and is sterile.) Ladle into sterile jars and seal lid tight. Refrigerate and allow to age for a minimum of three months (is best six or more months). Once opened, keep refrigerated. Keeps at least a year. Especially great on pot stickers.

Note:

1. How hot do you like your hot sauce? crushed red pepper could be a comination or New Mexico Pods (mild), California pods (very mild) and arbor peppers (very hot) or a mix of these.
2. If you need some hot sauce for your potstickers in a hurry, use Black Bean Garlic sauce which replaces the black beans and garlic in the above recipe. This is available in many Asian markets or online like as in Amazon.com 
3. The CDC suggests oils infused with garlic or herbs should be refrigerated. 
4. The salt in  the black beans help preserve the sauce.
5. see my notes on hot sauce for discussion of health concens

On Amazon