I pretty much was a cooking fool on Sunday. I mean that in both a good and bad way….see, Steph got me this issue of cooks illustrated that had a recipe for pork potstickers. Being the adventerous type of joe, I thought that would be a good opportunity for me to get to know how to cook with wanton wrappers. Being the nice guy that I am, I also thought it would be nice if I could cook somevegetarian potstickers for Steph. Armed with both recipes I set out to cook.

Let me say that although I totally understand if someone is a vegetarian…prepping for a vegetarian dish takes 3x as long when lots of veggies and tofu is involved Bok Choi and Nappa Cabbage were two of the primary ingredients as I began slicin’ and dicin’

Needless to say, it didn’t take me long to inflict my first injury…maybe baking is easier…less knives around for me to hurt myself with

As Steph is the tofu expert in the family I enlisted her help to determine what would be the best way to press the tofu to get out the excess moisture. Apparently, “1000 Vegetarian Recipes” is the way to go!

It was about at this point that things took a turn for the Monty Python when I beveled one of my fingers. See, I generally have considered myself a fairly good veggie chopper…since I’ve been cooking, I’ve been able to increase my speed. However, what I can’t control is the old people (lots of old people live in my condo complex) leaning on their car horns generally getting me upset. That said..welcome to cut #2…probably my worst so far…yet Steph was able to get me bandaged up pretty quick.

As the cut was fairly deep, Steph told me to take a seat and she took over some of the prep work. I have to say, watching her made me realize how far I have to go…she should be onIron Chefshe is so fast and so neat. She makes me look like I’m standing still and when she was done and let me take over again, the place was super clean. Back on track, mypotsticker fillings were both done

With that I began assembling the individual potstickers. Let me tell you, if the Chinese have many hells, one of them has to be the hell of making tofu potstickers. The tofu doesn’t hold together like meat and blows up super easy.

After a few broken wonton wrappers…I started getting into it, yet never truly mastered the process. The key, I found, was the first fold and pinch (going diagonal). If that didn’t work…forgettaboutit. Eventually, I got 18 veggie and 16 pork ready for fryin’

Yeah…some don’t look super hot…but the new ones are the ones on the bottom and to the right…not too bad if I do say so Then it was on to the frying pan for some crisping prior to the steaming (which was followed by a bit more crisping).

This part of the operation went fairly smooth…though the potstickers did stick to the pan during the second crisping and had to be removed with a spatula. In addition, they also stuck to the paper towel that was recommended for blotting excess oil. The end result was fairly tasty I have to say!! The porkpotstickers were just as good as anything I had got in a restaurant…while the vegetarian, truth be told, could’ve used a bit more flavoring.

Lessons Learned: This process took a DAMN long time. I started at 4:30 and was eating at 7:30. Don’t let your potstickers cool…they are best warm, but that could be tough as you can only fry so many at one point. The dipping sauce should not be overlooked…I mistakenly pitched the extra green onion and the sauce wasn’t as good without it. Oh yeah…don’t chop while one is angry!!lol
FINISHED!!