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.

Its Crispy Prawn & Jellof Rice- Made ridiculously easy

Hi Guys!!!

So I had a long day at work today, and I came home hungry and exhausted. I had branched into Tesco on my way back and just picked up some cooked king prawns. Im getting a bit tired of chicken at the moment, so decided to try something different. I really didn't want to start making anything that would keep me in the kitchen longer than 30 minutes, so I figured a nice surf and turf would be perfect. 

Now remember, I said I didn't want anything too fancy or time consuming, so my turf isn't going to be a nice juicy steak or fillet minion ooh....its simply my old best friend bacon. 

Now I must admit, theres a little work to be done in the preparation, but thats my fault cos I wanted my prawns crispy and not plain. 

But for the entire preparation, I didn't use more than a pot and a pan for the cooking process. Even though I knew well and good that I could have just used one pot for it all. And ohh yeah, everything was done in under 30 minutes. 

So for this you'll need;

Ingredients

• 2 bags of 62.5g uncle ben's long grain rice (boiled)
• King prawns (as much or little as you want)(thawed)
• Half a teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• Half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• I tablespoon of corn flour
• 2 Strips of bacon
• Half a cup of chopped/crushed tomatoes
• Half an onion (chopped or diced)
• Half a cup of olive oil
• Half a teaspoon of garlic granules 
• Half a teaspoon of curry powder
• 2 cubes of maggi or 1 cube of OXO chicken
• Chopped parsley (garnish)

Instructions

1. Place your king pawns in a small bowl, and season with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Add the cornflour to the prawns and toss it to combine well.
2. Put half of the oil in a pan/wok and allow to heat up (but not smoke). Then transfer the coated prawns. Allow the prawns to become crispy, then remove then from the oil.
3. Transfer the bacon in to the same pan and allow to sizzle away. Once its crispy enough, remove it from the oil.
4. Toss in your chopped onions into the same oil, and allow it become tender. It would absorb those delicious bacon fat and fond (brownish stuff) stuck to the pan. You can add more oil if you wish.
5. Add in your crushed tomatoes and allow it to cook for about five minutes. (Maggi cubes/OXO + Half cup of Water = Good stock). Add your stock into the tomato and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Add your curry powder and garlic granules.
6. Transfer the bacon into the pan accompanied by the rice and mix well. Season with the remaining salt as desired.
7. Once its hot enough and well combined, serve in a plate, top it with your crispy prawns, and of course a little parsley garnish never hurt.

Tips

Now, I know some people just can't stand the thought of mixing their rice, and would prefer to allow it cook. But remember, the rice is already cooked. Just imagine it as stir-fry. So unless you want your rice to turn to mush, stir that pot honey.

Also, theres nothing wrong in boiling your rice as soon as you start. Actually Uncle ben's only takes about 8-10 minutes to boil, which is still within my time range, especially if you're multi-tasking. 

This recipe is so deliciously easy, trust me....you'll be going in for seconds.