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.

Trying Eggs in the Circulator

America's Test Kitchen showed a different way of "poaching" eggs recently. They refer to it as Sous Vide (but that is technically incorrect because there is no vacuum involved). The link here (at around 20 minutes in) shows how it is done. I won't go into the details here, but encourage you to look at the video. I had no expectation that the method would work. But I  was wrong. Not only did it work, it was spectacuar.

This dish was intended to show off the technique, and to make the eggs an integral part of a light supper.

Ingredients (For 2 people)

4 Large eggs at refrigerator temperature.

3 oz Soba noodles.

1 lb Asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces.

1T vegetable oil

2 oz dried exotic mushrooms (reconstittued, reserve the liquid), chopped finely

1T sesame oil

4T soy sauce

1t hot sauce (Habanero vodka in our case).

Salt to taste

Method

Start the eggs in the circulator at 167F for 11 minutes. Meanwhile bring a pot of water bring to the boil and cook the soba noodles according to the directions. Drain the noodles  and leave to stay warm in the pot. 

While the noodles are cooking, heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over high heat until smoking. Cook the asparagus stalks over high heat for 1 minute. Add the asparagus tips and cook for a minute longer. 

Add the mushrooms. Mix the sesame oil, soy sauce, and hot sauce together with 2 or 3T of the reserved mushroom liquid. Add the mixed liquids to the skillet and cover to steam for 2 minutes. Toss in the soba noodles and mix thoroughly.

Divide the noodle mixture into 2 bowls. Break the eggs over the dish and serve immediately.

Asparagus and Shiitake

This recipe is (very slightly) adapted from Americas Test Kitchen. The episode was broadcast a week or so ago, and can be found here. Slight modifications included adding some of our "secret ingredient" (aka habanero vodka) for some heat and the habanero floral flavors and poached eggs for added body.. This is a simple (but not necessarily easy) dish. It only takes a few minutes, but you do have to resist the urge to fiddle with it. I don't know how critical the quantities are - I probably had more shiitake than the original recipe called for, but that was fine by me!
The poached eggs are not in the original recipe, but poached egg yolks and asparagus are such a great combination.

Ingredients

14 oz bunch of asparagus (no more than 1/2" diameter) cut into 1 1/2" lengths. Woody bottoms removed

6 oz Shiitake mushrooms sliced into strips the same thickness as the asparagus

1 T Neutral oil

2T Soy sauce

1T finely minced (or grated) raw ginger

2T Dry sherry

1t Habanero vodka

1T Jaggery (indian brown sugar)

1t Toasted sesame oil

2T Water

2 Eggs, poached

2 Scallions (green parts) thinly sliced on the bias for garnish.

Method 

Heat the oil in a 12" non stick saute pan over high heat until almost smoking. (Thin wisps of smoke are OK). Add the asparagus/shiitake in a single layer, turn the heat down to medium and leave to fry while you make the sauce/glaze, and start to poach the eggs.

Whisk together the soy sauce, ginger, sherry habanero vodka, sugar, sesame oil and water in a small bowl. 

When the asparagus.shiitakes have been in the pan for 2 or 3 minutes, turn them over to cook on the other side. The idea is to get a little char on the asparagus. When they are charred all over, add the sauce, stir and cook to evaporate. The steam from the liquids will finish cooking the asparagus.

Pile into bowls and serve with a poached egg on top of each bowl.

Maybe garnish with some scallions (green parts).