Brett and I came across a bottle of Mae Ploy sweet chilli sauce at the grocery store recently and were immediately whisked back to our college days. Brett and his roommates always had a giant bottle of the good stuff and a family size bag of frozen potstickers on hand. I can't even count how many times we ate potstickers for dinner. It wasn't until several years after college that we realized how unhealthy frozen potstickers are with exorbitant amounts of sodium and sometimes fat. So we decided if we were going to ever have them again, we would make our own. Several years after that, we've finally gotten around to doing it.
A quick search on the Food Network's website gave us a recipe and we set to work. We have honestly never bought Napa cabbage before. I actually had to ask the produce guy just to be sure I had the right thing! I chopped up an entire mixing bowl full! I also chopped up some green onion that we had on hand (instead of leeks), some garlic, and some ginger, and I grated a handful of baby carrots.
Next I got to cooking. Unfortunately I didn't read the directions closely enough and ended up cooking the filling in three tablespoons of oil instead of two. The third tablespoon was supposed to be saved for cooking the potstickers in once they've been assembled. Oops. So our filling was a touch oily, but it tasted OK.
In addition to the cabbage, green onions, garlic, ginger, and oil I added rice wine vinegar and soy sauce. The carrots go in once everything is all cooked down and off the heat.
Then the fun part starts. We laid out a whole bunch of won ton wrappers, got a little bowl of water and a fork ready, and started spooning the filling onto the center. We wet a finger with water and trace around the edge, fold the wrapper over the filling, and then seal it all up with a fork. With two people working, this job actually goes pretty quickly.
In college, the method we used to cook potstickers was pour a little water in the frying pan, cover them, and when the water had evaporated off, add a little oil and crisp up the outsides. This recipe, perhaps because the potstickers were fresh and not frozen, recommended the opposite. Fry them in oil first, then add the water and cover.
They turned out quite beautifully actually. I was a little impressed with my own handiwork.
They tasted good too. They were little bit oily (entirely my fault) and a little bit vinegar-y, so we may play around with different fillings in the future. If any of you have any recommendations, I'm happy to hear them. And, of course, the sweet chili sauce was just as good as I remembered. There will definitely be more homemade potstickers in our future.
