Mushroom, Pork, and Vegetable Potsticker

These potstickers are a whole mouth experience. While some potstickers are merely an instrument to eat sauce, these are not. They boast a meaty richness amped up the umami flavor thanks to the mushrooms. If you hesitate eating mushrooms because of the texture, these little pockets of goodness are for you. The mushrooms are finely chopped so you have all of the flavor with none of the sponginess.

About three years ago My Armo and I were browsing the gift shop at Ten Thousand Waves, a Japanese spa in Santa Fe. He picked up Gyoza: The Ultimate Dumpling Cookbook by Paradise Yamamoto and asked “you want it?”. I gave a firm no. In his true fashion, he asked why. I gave several reasons, none of which sufficed and he bought it anyway. It sat on my shelf unused until this weekend.

The book has 50 dumpling recipes, who knew there was even so many options. Most of the ingredient list is far simpler than I imagined and the recipes are freakishly short (that does not translate to quick). However, it is not written for beginners and it has several quirks. For example, it tells you to buy gyoza wrappers in packs of 50, yet the recipe is for 10 dumplings. The dumpling recipe called for ¾ c “meat filling”, but I wanted to use “meat & vegetable filling” which you need 1 c of meat filling to get 2 c of vegetable filling. Ayayayaya!

Remember how I said the book has 50 recipes, consider this recipe the 51st dumpling recipe. I stayed in the spirit of the book, I promise. Also remember how I said it’s not quick? It took me a solid 2.5 hours of hands-on time. I am slow so you could do the same. If you sub in ground pork and use a food processor to chop the vegetables, it would save you plenty of time.

Makes about 90 potstickers
Pork, Mushroom, and Vegetable Potsticker Ingredients
1.25 lbs pork loin
¼ c fresh ginger
salt
2 tsp Better than Chicken Bouillon
1.5 tsp coarse black pepper
1.5 Tbl toasted sesame oil
2 Tbl Shaoxing rice wine (or see the notes)
2 c chopped green onions
¾ c chopped celery
1 tsp salt
¼ c minced garlic
2 c chopped green cabbage
1 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms
100 – 3.5” gyoza wrappers (also known as egg roll wrappers, wonton wrappers, dumpling skins)
oil and water for frying

Pork, Mushroom, and Vegetable Potsticker Directions
If your gyoza wrappers are frozen, lay them on the counter to thaw.

Use a sharp knife (a dull knife will be very frustrating), and cut 3 – 1/8” inch medallions off of the 1 1/4 lb pork loin. Stack them on the flat end and cut them into 1/8” strips. Turn them 90 degrees and cut it into 1/8” cubes. It should resemble coarse ground pork.

You can play around with how many medallions are comfortable for you to cut at once. Three was my magic number – I had trouble keeping more than that together. Less then that and I thought I was wasting time. Put the cubed pork into a large mixing bowl.

Wash the chopping board and knife well. Yes, I’m aware the produce will get mixed in the raw meat and will be cooked. In my head, it is still cross contamination so roll with me here.

You have two options for the ginger. You can zest it or grate it on the smallest holes of a box grater. The alternative is to slice it into thin medallions, then into strips, then slice again crosswise. Rock a knife back and forth to make a finer dice. Sprinkle 1/4 c of ginger evenly over the meat mixture. .

Sprinkle 1 tsp of salt and 1.5 tsp coarse black pepper on top of the ginger. Add 1.5 Tbl sesame oil and 2 Tbl of Shaoxing rice wine to the mixture. Mix well.

Take the green onions and hold the root end with your non-dominate hand. Slice it as thinly as possible starting from the top until you hit the roots. Rock the knife back and forth to get a fine dice. Dump 2 c of the onions evenly on top of the meat mixture.

Take a celery stalk and slice into long, thin strips., Rotate it 90 degrees and slice it as thin as possible. Go ahead and use the celery leaves as well. Spread ¾ c of the diced celery evenly on top of the onions.

Sprinkle 1 tsp salt on top of the celery.

Take the garlic cloves and slice off the dry end. Hold the blade flat on top of the clove and make a fist with your non-dominate hand. Hit the flat side of the blade with the exterior (pinky side) of the fist. The skins should pop off and the clove should be crushed. Rock the knife back and forth to get a fine mince. Spread ¼ c of minced garlic on top of the celery.

Take a cabbage and cut off the stem. Cut it in half lengthways. Lay it down flat on the cutting board and slice it into as thin strips as possible. There’s no need to remove the core. Turn it 90 degrees and slice it as thin as possible. Sprinkle 2 c of chopped cabbage on top of the garlic.

Slice 1 lb of shiitakes. I hold them top side down to do the initial slice. Then I rock the knife back and forth to get a small dice. If you aren’t used to shiitakes, the texture may throw you off, but don’t worry. They are denser than criminis. As you continue to rock your knife back and forth, it will appear the volume of the mushrooms is shrinking and will seem sticky. Keep dicing away until it’s very fine. Spread it on top of the cabbage.

Mix the meat mixture completely. You can take a small amount on a plate and cook it in the microwave. Taste it for salt. Add more if necessary.

Fill a saucer with water and put it at your “assembly station”. Take a single gyoza round and put it in on a flat surface (as you practice, you can do it in your hand). Wet your index finger on your dominate hand and trace the exterior circle. The water will act as glue.

Add about 1 Tbl of filling (estimate it high not low) to the center of the round. With your non-dominate hand, pinch together a small piece of a rim to begin creating a seam. Your fingers should be pointing towards the open side of the dumpling. With your dominate hand, use your thumb and index finger to push dough around your fingers on the non-dominate hand. Then, slide your non-dominate hand away as your dominate hand seals in a pleat. Repeat until the circle is filled. Repeat.

After you have about 5 made, start heating oil in the bottom of a 9.5” frying pan. You want the bottom of the pan to have a generous coating of oil. Heat the oil until it shimmers. In a pot, boil water. Add one dumpling to the pan, you should hear the faintest of sizzle. If you don’t hear it, remove the dumpling and allow the pan to continue heating. Once you heat the pan, add as many dumplings as you can without them touching. Once a dumpling hits the pan, do not lift it. If it’s not perfectly spaced, no problem. Drizzle a little oil on top of the dumplings.

You should continue hearing a low sizzle. You can shape more dumplings as the initial ones cook. When the dough becomes translucent, very carefully add 2 Tbl of boiling water to the pan. Make sure you do not add cold water, it will splatter everywhere and burn you – do not try it or think heating the water is an unnecessary step. I forgot to heat the water the first round and had hot oil splatter on my face and arm. Also it is best to add the hot water in one pour (as opposed to 2 pours) and do it at arms length. Cover the pot immediately with a glass lid (so you can see what’s happening).

Allow it to sizzle away and the water will absorb. When all that’s left is oil at the bottom of the pan, uncover it and use a spatula to remove the pot stickers. The pot stickers should come out with ease. If you moved them in the pan, they will most likely stick.

After you finished shaping the dumplings, make the sauce.

Goyza Sauce Ingredients
½ c soy sauce
½ rice vinegar
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
¼ tsp hot chili oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp grated ginger

Goyza Sauce Directions
In a jar, add ½ c soy sauce, 8 Tbl rice vinegar, 2 tsp toasted sesame oil, and 1/4 tsp hot chili oil. Mince the garlic and 1 tsp of ginger using the above method. Add it to the jar and mix.

Notes
Shaoxing rice wine substitute. The cookbook suggests using Sake or dry sherry. Let’s be real. How many of us actually have that on hand? You can also use 2 parts soy sauce and 1 part alcohol (vodka or rum I imagine would work the best but use what you have).

Chopping the pork loin is time consuming. I’m not an idiot nor am I above using ground pork. However, chopping the pork will yield a more tender texture.

If you don’t have fresh ginger, don’t hesitate and use the powder. Supposedly ¼ tsp of ginger powder equals 1 tsp of fresh ginger. I do not find that accurate (possibly because powder ginger loses flavor fast) so I would use about ¾ tsp ginger powder per 1 tsp of fresh ginger.

The cookbooks suggests using peanut oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil, or sesame oil for frying. I used coconut oil because that’s what I had enough of. Coconut oil can be overpowering, however you cannot taste it here.

You can make the dumpling dough from scratch. However, I don’t think it’s worth the time.