Pan Fried Dumplings With Crispy Lattice Food

POTSTICKERS

Steps:

• Shiitake Mushroom: Place the mushrooms in a bowl and pour over plenty of boiled water. Leave for 20 minutes or until rehydrated. Squeeze out excess water, then finely chop.
• Cabbage: Place cabbage in a bowl with salt. Toss with fingers, then set aside for 15 minutes. Squeeze out excess liquid from cabbage using hands.
• Filling: Place cabbage, mushrooms and remaining Filling ingredients in a bowl. Mix with your hands until well combined.

PAN FRIED DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, combine gochujang, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic. Reserve 2 tablespoons and set aside.
• In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine gochujang mixture and chicken; marinate for at least 2 hours to overnight, up to 8 hours, turning the bag occasionally. Drain the chicken from the marinade, discarding the marinade.
• Preheat grill to medium high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers; brush with canola oil.
• Add skewers to grill, and cook, turning occasionally, until the chicken is completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 10 minutes. Brush skewers with reserved gochujang mixture, cooking for an additional 1-2 minutes.
• Serve immediately, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds.

PAN-FRIED DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Blend first 4 ingredients in a food processor. Add vegetables. Using on/off turns, pulse until vegetables are just minced. Drain excess liquid from vegetable mixture. Arrange 12 wonton wrappers on work surface. Lightly brush edges of wrappers with water. Spoon 1 tablespoon vegetable mixture into center of each wrapper. Top with remaining wonton wrappers, pressing to enclose filling completely. Using ravioli cutter or sharp knife, cut edges of wontons. Heat canola oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, fry dumplings until just golden, about 1 minute per side. Bake until dumplings are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer dumplings to serving tray. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve with dipping sauce.

DUMPLINGS WITH A CRISPY SKIRT

Steps:

• Soak the mushrooms in a medium bowl with 3 cups cool water. Stir to moisten the entire surface of the mushrooms. Set aside at room temperature for at least 3 hours and up to 4 hours.
• When the mushrooms are nearly rehydrated, toss the cabbage with 1 tablespoon salt in a medium bowl and let sit until liquid pools at the bottom, about 15 minutes. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the cabbage in between two hands and transfer the cabbage to a large bowl. Add the pork, 1/2 cup of the mushroom soaking water, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, sugar, white pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix only in one direction using chopsticks until the pork-and-cabbage mixture starts to become sticky. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the neutral oil until evenly mixed.
• Remove and discard the stems from the mushrooms. Finely chop the mushrooms and add to the pork filling. Stir until combined.
• Set up a dumpling wrapping station with the following: a small bowl of cold water for sealing, the pork-and-cabbage filling, gyoza wrappers kept in the package and a large plate or baking sheet lined with plastic wrap to prevent the dumplings from sticking.
• Place one gyoza wrapper in your palm, add 1 tablespoon of the filling to the center, then lightly dab the perimeter of the wrapper with cold water (I use my index finger). Fold into a half-moon shape and seal the midpoint, leaving the sides open. Make 2 pleats starting from the left side of the half-moon folding towards the midpoint then firmly press the pleated side to seal. Repeat the pleating on the right side. Firmly press to seal the dumpling and thin out the edge of the wrapper slightly. Place the finished dumplings on the prepared plate. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling (see Cook's Note).
• Whisk together 1/2 cup cold water, 1 teaspoon of the cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon of the flour and 1/4 teaspoon of the white vinegar in a small bowl until the slurry is smooth and free of lumps.
• Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons neutral oil in a large nonstick skillet (about 11-inch) over medium-high heat until shimmering. Arrange 10 dumplings in a concentric circle or flower pattern (place the pointy end of each dumpling in the center of the skillet with the pleated side of the next dumpling facing the flat side of the previous one). Fry until the bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Stir the slurry before pouring into the skillet, cover with a lid, and cook over medium heat until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Uncover and cook over medium heat, moving the skillet as needed for even browning, until the skirt looks dry, crisp and golden brown. Remove from the heat, place a large dinner plate over the skillet and carefully invert the dumplings onto the plate with the skirt-side up. Serve immediately with Chinese black vinegar, for dipping.
• Repeat making the slurry and frying the remaining dumplings or freeze the dumplings on the plastic wrap-lined plate until frozen, then transfer the frozen dumplings to a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.

PAN-SEARED GYOZA

Steps:

• Prepare the gyoza dipping sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce and rice vinegar, plus chile oil, if using. Set aside (makes a generous 1/2 cup).
• Finely chop the cabbage or process it in a food processor into confetti-size bits, then transfer it to a sieve set over a large bowl. Toss with 2 teaspoons of the salt and let sit for 20 minutes in the sink. Gently press the cabbage to squeeze out as much water as you can.
• Combine the drained cabbage, pork, ginger, garlic, chives, soy sauce, sesame oil and the remaining 2 teaspoons salt in a large bowl and mix thoroughly just until everything is evenly distributed. (Don't overdo it: Too much handling and the fat in the pork will begin to melt.)
• Here's where you want to employ some extra hands to help you: Fill a small bowl with water. Sprinkle a rimmed sheet pan or two with cornstarch or potato starch to prevent the finished gyoza from sticking. For each gyoza, place a wrapper in the palm of your hand and spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons of the filling into the center. Use the back of the spoon to smoosh it lightly (it should fill about half the wrapper). You don't want the filling to run to the edges, but you also don't want it sitting in a fat clump in the middle. Dip your finger into the water and run it along the perimeter of one half of the wrapper. Now fold the wet edge of the wrapper over to meet the dry edge. Crimp the edges together at one corner, then proceed around the dumpling, using your finger to push the dough into little pleats on one side and pressing them against the other side to seal it. (If you need more guidance, there are hundreds of gyoza-folding videos online.) Place the gyoza on the sheet pan as you finish them. If your gyoza seem to be sticking to one another, sprinkle each layer of gyozas with potato or cornstarch.
• To pan-fry the gyoza, you will need a lidded 10-inch nonstick pan or a well-seasoned carbon steel pan. (You could also use whatever skillet you have, but increase the oil and keep a close eye on the gyoza.) Heat 1 tablespoon neutral oil in the pan over medium heat. When hot, add 10 to 15 gyoza, flat-side down, and cook until browned on the bottoms, 2 to 3 minutes. Add enough water to come just under a quarter of the way up the gyoza (about 1/2 cup, depending on how many gyoza you have in the pan), cover, and let the water cook away until the pan is dry and the gyoza wrappers have softened completely, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the lid, increase the heat to medium-high, and let the gyoza crisp up on the bottoms for another minute or two, depending on how crisp you like them. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce and additional chile oil. Wipe the pan clean and cook the remaining gyoza. (Alternately, uncooked gyoza can be frozen on a baking sheet in a single layer until firm and then stored in resealable plastic bags for a couple months. To cook frozen gyoza, add a second batch of water in step 4 after the first batch evaporates.)