Potstickers

This started innocently enough. I had dinner at a Chinese dumpling house with my friend Dave Gilbert instead of watching the "Presidential" debate. I was left with a hankering for some more. I like them so much. And my favorites are steam fried

As it happened, Madame had found an amazing deal on pork chops - we had some pan fried with an onion/apple side, another time we had some with a smoked paprika dusting - again pan fried but with apple, green beans, almonds garlic on the side. And still we had some left over - about 12 oz as it turned out.

I had also made a very hearty beef stew for a friend who is very ill. So had a chunk of salt pork too. Now all I needed were the wonton (gyoza) skins, kaffir lime, lemon grass, Napa cabbage, hot peppers, soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, ginger, and scallions As it happens all that I had to buy were the skins, scallions and the Napa cabbage. Everything else either grows in the garden or is a pantry staple.

Now I am generally lazy, so I was looking for a way to get everything to the size I wanted. The meat grinder (mincer) attachment to my stand mixer did the trick. Who knew that you could put the various ingredients in, and let it do the work?

Ingredients

2 cups Napa cabbage, shredded, salted and drained

12 oz lean pork cubed

5 oz salt pork, cubed

2 stalks lemon grass, cut into 1 inch lengths

1 1/2" piece of ginger, peeled and cut into small pieces

2 kaffir lime leaves - woody spine reoved

6 scallions - white and light green parts cut into 1/2" pieces

2 hot Thai peppers - minced

A couple of grinds of white pepper

2T toasted Sesame oil

36 Wonton skins

1T neutral oil for frying the dumplings

Method

Pass half of the salt pork through the grinder. Follow with the ginger. Then half of the lean pork. Follow with the lemon grass. Add the rest of the salt pork then the scallions, kaffir lime leaves peppers. Finish with the rest of the lean pork. Doing them in this order means that the meat has the opportunity to push the aromatics through the grinder. Once all the ingredients have passed through the grinder, add the seame oil into the bowl. Mix up the contents until almost pasty. It wants to be quite tightly textured. Break off a small piece of the mixture and microwave on high for 45 seconds (until cooked through). This will allow you to check the seasoning.

Unfortunately I could only find square wonton skins, so had to improvise. 

I placed the wonton skins onto a cutting board. 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling into the center. Brush all the edges with warm water, and fold to look like this

Cover with a damp cloth until they are ready to cook.

To cook them, heat the neutral oil in a skillet until almost smoking. Place the dumlings into the hot pan, flat side down. They will take about a minute to brown. Check the bottom for doneness. When they are suitably brown, put in 3T of water and innediately cover the pan tightly. Steam for 90 seconds, remove the lid and allow the pan to dry out. Then another 3T of water, tight covering and 90 seconds. Remove the lid and evaporate the water. 

Serve immediately with a dippimg sauce.

Ingredients - Dipping Sauce

1/4 Cup soy sauce

3T Mirin

3T Sake

1T Toasted sesame oil

2 Thai chillis finely chopped

The green parts of the scallions from above

Method - Dipping Sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and leave to stand for the flavors to meld.

Jerk Pork

This dish is, apparently, Usain Bolt's favorite. It is adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe which in turn is inspired By Usain Bolt's Aunt Lilly. It is unbelievably rich, but very tasty. I guess that the sprinter requires a lot of calories. By the time you have added dumplings and yams (well in our case sweet potatoes) you have a potentially very high Calorie course. Again this was done for a good sized group of people, so the amounts look huge. Starting with 10lbs Pork Belly. Fortunately we have a good connection (Ali Morgan at rare edibles in Dallas). She was able to source a big piece of Berkshire pork belly for us. So big that I will be using some of it to make bacon.

Ingredients (marinade)

16 green onions (trimmed, but both the white and green parts)

2 heads garlic

3 Habanero peppers

24 stalks of thyme - leaves only

8 fresh bay leaves - no stalks

2 t ground cloves

2 t ground all spice berries

1 t ground nutmeg

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup Jamaican rum

2 T honey

Ingredients (bonus flavor)

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

12 whole allspice berries

1 habanero sliced thinly

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 cup water

1 t kosher salt

Ingredients (everything else)

10 lbs pork belly. Remove some of the exterior fat, but you do want to make sure that you leave plenty. Do remove the skin if the pork still has skin on.

6 large yellow onions sliced.

12 fresh bay leaves

6 lbs sweet potatoes (mixture of yellow and red) cubed into 3/4" cubes

8 oz AP flour

3 t baking powder

pinch salt

2 oz masa harina (corn flour, usually used for making tortillas)

1 cup water (for the dumplings)

2 oz unsalted butter

oil for frying (unmeasured, but generally shallow)

Method (marinade)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If it won't blend, add a little oil. 

Method (pork)

Cut the pork into 1 12" cubes. Cover with 1/2 of the marinade and leave to sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 300F. Oil a saute pan, heat the pan until you just see some wisps of smoke. and start to brown the pork. At these quantities, you will want to work in batches. It is important to get the meat browned. Better to do in 3 or 4 batches than to overcrowd. Place the browned meat into a dutch oven with a tight fitting lid. With the last batch of meat, add the onions to the pan and stir, scraping the brown stuff off the bottom of the pan. Add a little salt at this stage. It helps the onions release some liquid which in turn deglazes the pan somewhat. Pick the meat pieces out and add them to the dutch oven. Continue to sweat the onions until they are soft. Add the rum and cook down. I suggest that you briefly turn the heat off, add the rum, and then turn it back on. You don't want the rum catching fire and spreading. When the rum is almost dry, add the remainder of the marinade. and 2 cups of water. Stir to combine.

Pour these contents over the browned meat in teh dutch oven. Stir well to combine. Cover and place in the oven for 3-4 hours. Check every now and again to make sure it has not dried out. It will release a lot of fat. Depending on your sensitivities, you may want to pour some of the fat off.

Meanwhile make the bonus flavoring by bringing the liquids to a boil, adding the flavorings, simmering for a few minutes and allowing to rest. Strain the liquid and discard the solids. The bonus flavorings are there to boost the flavor of the dish as it nears the end of the cooking time. This was not in the original recipe, but the long cooking time had dulled the flavors a bit, so this boosted it back up. Add the strained bonus flavors at about 30 minutes before serving

Also, about 30 minutes before serving remove the prok from the oven and crank up the heat to 400F, Bring the sweet potatoes to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain and dry. Heat the butter and a similar quantity of oil in an oven proof (not nonstick, and make sure the handle isn't plastic) saute pan. Transfer the sweet potatoes to the hot saute pan and place in the hot oven. They will take about 15-20 minutes to brown and cook through.

Make dumplings by combining the flour, masa harina, salt and baking powder together with the cup of water. You will have a sticky dough. Knead a few times, and form into a log about 1" in diameter. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Break off pieces of the dough about the size of a ping pong ball. Roll into a sphere and then flatten the ball into a disk. Boil the disks in the water for 12-15 minutes. They wil initially sink, but then float. I flip them over about 1/2 way through. They become nice and puffy.

Transfer the pork to a warmed dish - bringing as much or as little of the fat as you want. Do make sure you get the thick, tasty onions and other juices, though. Serve with the dumplings in the dish and the sweet potatoes handed separately.