Beef and Shrimp Pot sticker

Hi Guys!!

Hope you are having a great week? ....I certainly am!

So, over the weekend I had some girlfriends from church over for lunch. I had been procrastinating this get-together for a while now, just because I couldn't really find the time to host or cook something exciting, especially with all the school work I had going on. But after going over to Anna's place, and relaxing a bit, I figured it was about time. Of course,  keeping with my inspiration over at Bristol, a Chinese themed meal couldn't be half bad. 

So, I decided to make a three course meal for them, but I really didn't want to spend all day in the kitchen. I had also gone grocery shopping the day before, and just got the essentials I needed for the week. So, with this three-course meal, I was also on a budget. Usually, most Asian cuisines have a tonne of ingredients, which actually makes them pretty yummy. But this igbo chick wasn't going to spend any more than she had to. 

For my appetiser, I decided to make some 'Potstickers'. I felt it was probably the simplest, in-expensive and excitingly yummy thing to make. Plus I already had all the ingredients in my fridge from my shopping. So here's how I made them.

Ingredients

For the filling

•  1 cup of minced meat
• 1/2 cup of shrimps/prawns
• 1/2 cup coriander
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp pepper (fresh or dried)
• 1tsp chopped garlic
• 1tsp chopped ginger
• 1-2 Mushrooms (optional)

For the dough

• 1.5 cups of flour
• 1 cup of hot water
• 1tsp of salt

Extras

• Rolling pin
• Cling film
• A cup or cookie cutter
• Frying pan (with a cover or a large plate)
• 1/3 cup of water
• 2 Tbsp of oil

Instructions

1. To make the dough, put the flour into a clean bowl, add the salt and mix. Gradually add the hot water into the flour, and mix to form a dough. Knead the dough on the work surface very well, and ensure it is not too sticky (add a little flour if it is). The dough should spring back when pressed. Place in a cling film to prevent it from drying out.

   

   Dough covered with cling film

2. Add all the filling ingredients into a food processor, and pulse until its well combined, then transfer into a bowl.

   

   Coriander, mushroom, shrimps, beef mince, pepper (filling)

   
   

   

   Filling in the food processor

   

   The filling pulsed

3. Roll out the dough (use half) with a rolling pin, until its about a millimetre thin. Use a cookie cutter to cut out large circular shapes from the dough.

   

   Circular shapes cut out of the rolled dough

    
4. Taking one of the circular dough pieces into the palm of your hands and place a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of the dough.
   
5. Dip a finger into the extra cup of water, and create a seal round the edges of the dough. Then use your other hand and press both edges together and crimp. 

   

   Crimping the edges together

6. You can make pleats with the dough for a more decorative look. Do this for all the others.
   
   
   

   

   Pleats on the dough

7. Add about 4 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of oil into the frying pan and place it on low to medium heat.
   
   
   
   
8. Add the potstickers into the pan, and cover it. Allow it to steam for about 3 minutes.
   
   
   

   

   Steaming the potstickers

9. Remove the cover and allow the water to evaporate, leaving the oil in the pan.

   

   The water evaporating from the pan

   
   

   

   Golden brown potstickers

10. Once this is done, remove the potstickers from the pan, and serve.
    

Tips

1. Potstickers can be served with a variety of sauces, from regular soy sauce, to teriyaki. But I used my Sweet and Sour sauce (recipe would be shown in the next post).
2. 3-4 minutes is enough for the meat to cook by steaming because the dough wrapper is thin enough. 
3. You can use any combination of meats you like as your filling. 

Try out the recipe and #eleanorzkitchen to share pictures on instagram and Facebook.