Well we already told you about making pasta, but that’s not the only thing you can use a pasta machine for. We also made Pot Stickers.
Pot stickers are little Chinese dumplings (won ton) which are fried on one side to get them all brown and crunchy and then steamed to cook the filling and the rest of the outer casing. This way giving you a mixture of textures and flavours.
You can serve them with all sorts of dipping sauces, we’ve even eaten them with salad but this week we served them with a noodle soup. (We love Chinese food so have a few recipes under our belt that we’ll share with you, if you’re good).
So how do you make them?
Ingredients for won ton wrappers (serves 2 – 4)
Well essentially, the wrappers are just pasta. You’ll see some recipes with water some without but we used the same recipe as we used for our pasta.
- 100 grams pasta flour
- 1 egg
- salt & pepper
Mix it together into a ball of dough and then chill in the fridge for half an hour wrapped in cling -film. Once chilled, you need to roll it out as thin as you possibly can and then cut your little wrappers. We used a cookie cutter.
Ingredients for the chicken and leek filling (serves 2 – 4)
- 200 grams minced chicken
- 2 tablespoons of finely chopped leeks
- 1 finely chopped spring onion
- 2cm piece of peeled ginger, finely chopped
- 2tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp shaoxing rice wine
- salt & pepper
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp ground nut oil (for frying)
Combine the chicken, leek, ginger, spring onion, shaoxing, sesame oil, salt & pepper. If need be you can use a little egg white to combine.
Making the pot stickers
Take one of your won ton wrappers and place it in the palm of your hand. Then add a tea-spoon of filling to the centre.
Just like with pasta you want to brush around the edge with water or beaten egg yolk to help stick the wrapper together and stop your filling from escaping. Next fold the wrapper over and start pinching the edges together to seal.
To stop them sticking while you make the others, we usually sit them on a floured board.
Cooking your pot stickers
As I said earlier, pot stickers are both fried and steamed, so here’s how you get that mix.
Heat the ground nut oil in your wok over a medium heat then add your pot stickers arranging them around the bottom and lower sides. Fry for about 30 – 60 seconds, just enough to begin to go golden.
Then pour around 200 ml of water into the pan to create steam and cover the pan. Allow them to steam for around 5 – 8 minutes. (Don’t let the pan dry out, top up the water if you have to).
Our favourite dipping sauce
To make a dipping sauce for the pot stickers, mix together 2 tbsp of runny honey and 1 tbsp light soy sauce with 1 tbsp chopped chives.
Serve your pot stickers crispy side up, heaped on a plate and let your dinner guests help themselves.
We are Eli and Kate 