One from the archives here but one I return to again and again and again – two reasons 1. they’re ridiculously delicious and 2. there’s a bit of theatre and drama involved in the cooking.

Doing pot stickers is a crackin’ party piece especially if you’re lucky enough to have a hob that people can sit around and observe as they quaff down your expensive imported Hong Kong Ale ale (I’m not bitter).

Pot stickers are named appropriately – they stick to the pot (or wok) and as a result you end up with a wonderful crispy skin…BUT…you also include a steaming element resulting in a soft and silky skin…”what wicthcraft is this” – well it’s kinda cool as you are essential melding the Steamed wonton and the Deep fried wonton which gives you a pot sticker.

So Pot Stickers are simply dumplings, filled with whatever you want – the ever classic chicken and Prawn or the less known Beef and Mushroom. This recipe adheres to the classic Chicken and Prawn.

Get your mates round and give this a shot.

Makes 12 Pot Stickers

Ingredients:

12 wonton wrappers

10 raw tiger prawns

4 small chicken thighs, boned and skinned

2tbs Hoisin sauce

2tbs Oyster sauce

1tbs light Soy sauce

2 spring onions

1/2 birds eye chili

1tps cane sugar

1tps Chinese 5 spice

4 cloves garlic

Method

Kick off by making the Prawn and Chicken filling – drop all of the ingredients (except the wonton wrappers) into a blitzer and wazz to a rough paste. To check the seasoning just take a small teaspoon of the mix and nuke it in the microwave for  a few seconds – this is the only opportunity to check it so season until you are happy before wrapping things up. I prefer the nuke method as this represents more accurately what the final steamed version will taste like.

Making the wrappers is entirely up to your own groove – fold in half, make a little ‘beggars purse’ or just bring up the corners like this:

 

 

Next up is the fun bit – heat up a  wide frying pan with about 2 tbs veg oil and get it spitting hot. Drop in the wrapped dumplings and brown on one side only – then sling in about 100mls of boiling water – be warned things get pretty funky now so stand back and cover the pan with a wide baking tray to create a steamer.

A cool alternative to water is to use rice wine – it will give the wontons a funky kick but it’s entirely optional.

Simply leave the pot stickers in the pan until the water boils off completely – your pot sticker should now be done but just cut into them to check.

To serve I usually lug over some seseame oil and soy – but these pot stickers are equally perfect on their own eaten as an accompaniment to your really good expensive imported Hong Kong ale (!!!!!)