Adapted from Chinese Gastronomy, by Hsaing Ju Lin and Tsuifeng Lin

Please Note: The amounts are taken from the recipe; I have written the instructions based on our annual adventures with this wonderful food. Like all great homemade food that starts with excellent ingredients, we have always found the results delicious, though not necessarily perfect. This is a homemade recipe, untested by professionals, so use your own cooking sense as needed to make improvements.

Dough for the wrappers:
5 cups (1 pound, 2 ounces) plain flour, sifted
1 ½ cups (12 fluid ounces) water

Filling:
1 ¾ pound Chinese cabbage (or bok choi, Savoy cabbage or plain old green cabbage)
8 cups boiling water in a large pot
1 pound minced or ground lean pork or beef
½ pound minced or ground fat pork (or another ½ pound lean pork or lean beef)
2 green onions (scallions), very finely chopped
3 slices fresh ginger, very finely chopped
3 level teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons soy sauce; we use Kikkoman
1 level teaspoon sugar

To make the dough: Mix the flour and water in a large bowl. Shape the dough into a ball, and knead it on a lightly floured counter top or board for 10 minutes. (Yes, that’s ten minutes. It gives the wrappers their strong, chewy texture.)

Cut the round ball of dough into roughly equal quarters. Shape each quarter into a smooth tube shape that is 12 inches long. If you are not ready to shape and fill the pot stickers yet, cover the four rolls with a barely dampened cloth so they will not dry out.

To make the filling: Wash the cabbage, remove the thickest stalks from outside leaves if they seem touch, and sliver or chop it very fine. Drop the cabbage into the boiling water. Cook three minutes. Dump the pot’s contents (carefully) into a colander or strainer. Rinse with cold tap water, and drain thoroughly. Squeeze lightly or pat with paper towels to get it quite dry. Put the cabbage in a large bowl and mix it with the pork, green onions, ginger, salt, soy sauce, and sugar. Wash your hands and plunge in, mixing the ingredients very thoroughly.

To form the pot stickers: Cut each of the four rolls of dough into 15 pieces each. Dust very lightly with flour. With a stroke or two of a rolling pin, roll each piece into a flat circle, about 3 ½ inches across. Put the pieces on a lightly floured cookie sheet or tray, not touching.

Put a round of dough on one palm, and then put one rounded kitchen teaspoon of filling in its center. Gather the edges of the circle to meet above and to the sides of the filling. Pleat and pinch them a little, sealing the packet. Seen from the side, the shape will look like a half moon with rough outer edges. Set each shaped piece on a floured tray.

To cook the pot stickers: The idea is to brown the crescents on their flat bottoms, and boil the whole thing so it gets cooked and chewy all the way through. Use your heaviest 10 inch skillets or frying pans. You will need lids for each. We use cast iron skillets. You will need to cook the pot stickers in batches unless you have four large skillets and can put them all squarely on a good burner at the same time. Put two tablespoons peanut or grapeseed oil in each skillet and heat it until it shimmers and is fragrant. Put the pot stickers around the outside edge of the skillet in a tight circle, snuggled up to each other. Fill the center of the circle with more pot stickers. You may be able to get 15 pot stickers in each skillet. Reduce heat to moderate and fry the pot stickers for three minutes, until the bottoms are medium brown. Watch them carefully (and use your nose) so they do not burn. After three minutes, hold a lid above the skillet, facing away from you, and with your other hand, gently pour ½ cup water into the skillet. Use the lid as a shield against splatters, and then put the lid on the skillet. Lower the heat to medium-low. Boil the pot stickers for 10 minutes. If the skillet still contains liquid, evaporate it by boiling until it evaporates. Watch and smell closely to avoid burning. As the potstickers finish, lay them on a white side on a serving dish to protect the crunchy-chewy-crispiness of their flat, browned bottoms until they are moved to a lucky eater’s plate.

Serve with small bowls of dipping sauce for each person. Small ramekins work well for this.

To make the dipping sauce: (Adapted from Fine Cooking, December, 2006) Mix together these ingredients, and divide among the individual small bowls:

½ cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup finely sliced green onions, about 3, both white and green parts in tiny circles
2 Tablespoons Mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 Tablespoon Asian sesame oil
1 teaspoon ginger, chopped extremely fine

Add red pepper flakes or hot chili oil if you wish.