Mother’s Day Dinner: Asian Potstickers

Spring has sprung and it’s time once again to celebrate and honor all of our Moms! Last year I shared a breakfast recipe for Apple Cinnamon French Toast. This year, I’m going to share a recipe that you can make for a nice Mother’s Day lunch or dinner – Asian Potstickers, also known as Asian Dumplings.

I grew up in a very traditional household. My dad went to work and my mom took care of the house. When I was a kid, she handled all of the meals. So our tradition on Mother’s Day was Chinese food for dinner. As we got older, and my brother and I both became interested in cooking, we put aside the wonton, lo mein and fried rice for our own home made meals and grill-outs. A few years back, my wife and I bought bamboo steamer baskets as part of my mom’s Mother’s Day gift. I thought it would be fun and nostalgic to once again have Chinese food for dinner. We all sat in her kitchen and made home made dumplings together and put the steamer baskets to use right away. Not only was it fun to be in the kitchen with my mom for that day, we also had a great meal that brought back old memories…even if it didn’t come in a white cardboard box.

Happy Mother’s Day!

ASIAN POTSTICKERS

Potstickers are made with wonton wraps* and a filling that can be a mixture of scallions, garlic, ginger, shredded vegetables and your choice of minced meat (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, etc.). I found this recipe online for Minced Chicken Potstickers. Perdue Short Cuts works great for this – it’s pre-cooked and one package makes for the perfect amount. You can make the potstickers by either steaming them in a basket or steamer, pan frying them in a pan or a wok, or baking them in an oven on an oven stone (they may stick to a regular oven dish or baking sheet).

*Wonton wraps are square shape and can be found in the vegetarian area of the produce section in your grocery store. They come in a package that resembles pre-sliced cheese. You can also use dumpling wraps (if available), which are a bit larger and are round in shape. You would fold the dumplin wraps in half, rather than folding them into a purse shape.

2 tablespoons chicken broth
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch , plus extra for dusting
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons minced scallions
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced ginger
1 package Perdue Short Cuts, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
40 wonton wraps

In a small bowl, combine chicken broth, soy sauce, and cornstarch until smooth; set aside.

In a large skillet, heat sesame oil over medium heat. Add scallions, garlic, and ginger; cook, stirring, about 1 minute. Stir in cornstarch mixture; cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute (mixture will be thick). Stir in chicken, salt and pepper until well combined; let cool.

Lightly dust a baking sheet with cornstarch. Place 1 teaspoon filling in the center of each wonton wrap. Brush edges of wrap with water; bring each set of opposite corners up over the filling so that they create a purse shape; pinch the edges together to seal. Place dumpling on baking sheet; repeat with remaining wonton wraps and filling.

To Steam in Steamer Basket:
Fill a large pot with 1 inch of water and bring to a simmer. Spray a steaming basket insert with nonstick cooking spray. Place eight to 10 dumplings in basket (they should not be touching). Set basket in pot and cover tightly; steam until dough is cooked, six to seven minutes. Repeat, steaming the remaining dumplings. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

To Pan-Fry:
Pre-heat wok or large frying pan until a bead of water dances and evaporates in the pan. Add two tablespoons of peanut oil into the wok/frying pan. Sesame or peanut oil are preferred for their authentic Chinese flavors. Sesame oil will tend to smoke a bit more than peanut oil at high heat. Heat the oil for about a minute. (You might see bubbles starting to form.) Fry the pot stickers until they are golden brown on the bottom, for about 3 minutes each. Add about 1/2 cup of water and place a cover on the pan. This will allow the pot stickers to steam and cook all the way through. Steam until all the water is gone – you’ll start to hear crackling sounds – and the pot stickers again begin to brown. If you like them well browned, gently lift and turn them with a spatula to brown the sides.
Remove from the heat and serve.

To Bake:
Place potstickers on large round baking stone; lightly spray with oil. Repeat with remaining wontons. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges of potstickers are golden brown; remove from oven and serve.

Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 green onion, finely chopped
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk or stir well

Salmon Cakes with Ponzu Dipping Sauce

This recipe was influenced by my good friend Lisa, who passed it along as an appetizer suggestion. It is a nice alternative to the traditional crab cake or fish cake. There’s hardly any additional filling, so you’re getting nice chunks of salmon in each bite. You can use fresh salmon, cooked and finely chopped (as Lisa did), or you can use canned salmon (which I chose to do).

Now, here’s the thing on canned salmon. It’s made from top quality salmon, and is only flavored with a pinch of salt. So it’s very nutritional. You’ll notice a couple of varieties. First, you have a choice of traditional (the big cans), or boneless and skinless (the smaller cans). Traditional cans are packed with the skin and tiny, delicate bones. Both the skin and bones are edible…seriously! The salmon is pressure cooked in the cans, so the bones become so soft, they can smushed into the meat with a fork. The bones are also rich in calcium and magnesium. The smaller cans have the skin and bones removed, so the meat resembles the texture of chunk white tuna. The smaller cans cost more, but I prefer no bones or skin in my canned salmon. Next you have a choice of pink or red (sockeye) salmon. The pink is lighter and milder, while the red is more intense in flavor and color. Both work well in all dishes.

I spoke about ponzu sauces a few posts back (click here for previous article). For this version, I’m using low sodium soy sauce as a base, and flavoring it with brown sugar, minced green onions, grated ginger and lime juice.

Thanks, Lisa, for this great recipe suggestion!

SALMON CAKES WITH PONZU DIPPING SAUCE

Salmon Cakes
3 (5 oz.) cans salmon
3/4 c. bread crumbs
1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter

*Note – the mixture worked well for me without using any eggs as a binding agent. However, you can use an egg to help bind the mixture if you wish.

Mix all ingredients together. Form mini cakes by rolling the batter into meatball-shaped balls and patting down into small cakes. Heat butter in a frying pan. Pan fry 2 to 3 minutes on each side, adding more butter if necessary. Makes 10-12 cakes.

Ponzu Sauce Recipe
1/4 cup of soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime

1-1/2 tsp of brown sugar

1 tbs of minced green onions

1/2 tbs of grated ginger

Mix all ingredients together.

Stuffed Artichokes

This past weekend we hosted a nice family dinner for my mom’s birthday. I decided to serve a special dish that my mom always enjoyed, stuffed artichokes. My grandmother would make them and send them over to my house a few times a year when I was younger. It has to be at least 25 years since we’ve had them last, so I knew that they would make for a special birthday dish. I searched out a bunch of recipes and found a great one on italianchef.com. The recipe was simple enough to follow, and contained the perfect combination of flavors. What made this dish even more special was that it was almost the exact same recipe that my great grandmother (my mom’s grandmother) would use. It was the perfect birthday treat.

There are many more great, authentic recipes at italianchef.com, I highly recommend you check it out! I also placed a link under the Recommendation section. Special thanks to Chef Paolo Torre for allowing me to share his recipe.

STUFFED ARTICHOKES
(click here for link to original post)

Serves 4

1 cup bread crumbs
½ cup grated Pecorino-Romano Cheese
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
6 tablespoons olive oil
4 artichokes
2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1. Combine bread crumbs, Pecorino-Romano Cheese, parsley, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium bowl. Mix together well.

2. Cut stems off artichokes, flush with bottom. Cut pointy leaves off the top of the artichokes. Spread leaves of each artichoke out and push stuffing in between them. (I also scooped out and discarded the hard, purple leaves in the center of the artichoke prior to stuffing).

3. In a pot just large enough to fit the artichokes, add the sliced garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the artichokes. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the top of the artichokes.

4. Turn heat on to medium and cook until sizzling about 1-2 minutes.  Add water to reach half way up the sides of the artichokes.

5. Cover and cook until the artichokes are tender and a leaf is easily pulled out, about 45 minutes.  If liquid is evaporating too quickly add a little more water.

6. Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle a little of the liquid from the pot over the artichokes and serve.

Sausage and Escarole Bites

This recipe was inspired by an episode that I recently watched of The Essence of Emeril. The original recipe, Swiss Chard Boules Stuffed with Lemon Barley Risotto, was made of a pancetta, barley and risotto filling, wrapped with swiss chard leaves (click here for the original recipe). I was intrigued by the recipe and started to think how I could put my own spin on it. Being snowed in for a two day weekend left me the perfect opportunity to experiment. I decided on ground sausage stuffed with provolone cheese for the filling. I went with escarole leaves for the outer wrapping. I blanched the leaves in chicken broth for a few minutes, enough time to make the leaves soft and pliable enough to wrap around the cooked sausage stuffing. I placed the wrapped sausage in a baking dish, added a little bit of the broth to the dish for extra flavor, then baked them for about 20 minutes. Gotta say, I was very happy with the end result! As expected, the sausage and provolone were perfect together. The fresh, crisp taste of the escarole was a nice compliment and the additional chicken broth added great flavor. I definitely plan to use this recipe again and suggest it as a party appetizer.

SAUSAGE AND ESCAROLE BITES

1/2lb sausage (hot or sweet), removed from casing
chunk of sharp provolone cheese, broken up into 12 small, sugar-cube size pieces
1 bunch of escarole (you’ll need 12 nice size leaves), thoroughly washed
1 chicken bouillon cube

Remove sausage from casing. Grab a small bunch at a time, enough to roll to the size of a meatball. Place a piece of provolone cheese onto the sausage, then roll into a small ball. You should end up with 12 sausage balls filled with cheese. Fry the sausage balls in vegetable oil in a frying pan, turning often so that all sides are done and inside is thoroughly cooked. Remove sausage from pan, set aside to let cool.

Fill a large pot with water, add a chicken bouillon cube; bring to boil. Add 12 escarole leaves, blanching for about 3-4 minutes until just soft and pliable. Remove leaves from broth. One by one, place the sausage onto the bottom edge of 1 of the escarole leaves and roll the ball in the leaf, tucking edges in and rotating the ball so that the sausage is evenly covered and the edges of the leaf are smooth. Place them in a baking dish, add 1/4 cup of broth to the dish and cover with foil. Place baking dish in the oven at 350º for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven, place on a dish and serve.

Makes 12 pieces.