It’s been several months since I’ve taken part in a “Waiter There’s Something in my…” challenge. So, it was with great excitement that I saw that this month’s theme was dumplings. Who doesn’t love dumplings?!? And I have tons of variations on the theme!… Then I read the rules more closely… oh my… the definition of dumpling was being taken into a whole new direction than the one my mind had been heading in…

* Any kind of dough that is wrapped around a filling of some sort (fruit, meat, vegetable, etc) and rolled into dumplings, then cooked.
* Dumplings can be boiled, steamed or baked: not fried.
* Dumplings can be refined after cooking by dusting with sugar, rolling in crumbs, smothering in butter and herbs, etc
* Your dumpling MUST have a filling.

Oh dear… what was I gonna do now? Only one thing jumped out to me, pot stickers! Except I’d never made them before. This would be mighty interesting I read several recipes to get an idea of the general technique and then dove right in!

Mom had some leftover stir fried vegetables in the fridge that I thought would make the perfect basis for my filling. I bulked it up with 1 diced carrot, 1 tablespoon of diced fresh ginger, 1 chopped garlic clove and a heaping tablespoon of Chinese chili garlic paste (man I love that stuff!)

After stirfrying everything together on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes I moved the pan off the stove and turned my attention to the wanton skins.

Working with 4 at a time I placed a little less than a tablespoon of filling onto each skin and folded them in half, sealing the edges with water. Not all sealed properly, but most survived this phase

With a huge pot of salted water already boiling I dumped ten at a time into the water and boiled them for 5 minutes. A few opened up (probably those that didn’t seal properly to begin with) but most made it through this stage, sealed, slippery and shiny!

So yum! I really had to restrain myself from eating them at this point, as there was still one more step…

Pan-frying until golden brown and crunchy on both sides

In between all the boiling and frying I assembled the dipping sauce by combining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons water, 2 teaspoons rice vinegar, 1 heaping teaspoon chili garlic paste and 1 teaspoon sugar.

Once everything was done I was tired and frustrated and wondered if I would ever be willing go through all this stress again. Then I took one bite of a still-hot potsticker that had been dipped in sauce, and man oh man oh man… I’ll leave the rest to your imagination

About Sarina

Passionate foodie, founder of Trinigourmet and Caribbean Lifestyle Maven. Author of "Glam By Request: 30+ Easy Caribbean Recipes"