Pork Pot Stickers

Before I start with the instructions, let me just clarify a few things. Don’t let the weird ingredients and unusual things scare you. You can make substitutions for many of the ingredients and these will come out just fine. Now, the exception to this is the oyster sauce and the sesame oil. If you don’t typically keep some around, then buy the smallest bottles you can (they last a long time) in the Asian food aisle of your grocery store and either make these pot stickers often or quadruple the batch.

As for the fresh ginger, kosher salt, and white pepper, you can use powdered ginger (about 1/2 teaspoon) instead of fresh, regular salt (same measurement), and regular pepper (same measurement). I do recommend using fresh garlic, of course, but if you have to cheat and use powdered, then go with about 1 teaspoon of garlic powder instead of the 2 cloves of fresh.

Lastly, the number of wonton wrappers you use depends on the size of the wrapper. You can find square ones or round ones and the round are usually bigger. No matter how big, though, don’t put more than 1 Tablespoon of filling inside to ensure they cook thoroughly.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Place cabbage in boiling water for a few minutes, just until it begins to soften. Remove cabbage from hot water immediately and rinse in cold water. Drain and rinse then drain again. Squeeze handfuls of cabbage to release the excess water, then wrap in paper towels and squeeze again until you’ve squeezed and wrapped all the cabbage. Wrap and squeeze in paper towels one more time. This is necessary to decrease the moisture in the filling and prevent breakage of the wonton wrappers during cooking. Set cabbage aside.

Whisk together the egg white, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, corn starch, sugar, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in the cabbage, green onions, ginger, and garlic. Add the pork and mix until thoroughly combined.

Take one wonton wrapper at a time, brush outer edge (about 1/2 inch) with water all around just to moisten. Place a small amount (how much depends on the size of your wrapper–usually 1-2 teaspoons) of filling in the middle. Fold wrapper over (forming a triangle, if wrappers are square), squeezing out the air and pressing the edges together to form a seal. Sometimes you can find round wrappers which are larger and are more traditional. Either one works. You can pleat the edges, if you like, to have a good seal.

Heat a skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil, tilting the pan to coat. Once the pan is heated, place pot stickers in a single layer in the pan without letting them touch. Fry until the bottoms are brown. Flip them over, add 1/2 cup water, cover, and let steam/cook for 6 to 7 minutes, or until the water is evaporated and bottoms are golden brown. If the water evaporates quicker than this, turn your heat down. You need this much time for the filling to cook through (based on 1-2 teaspoons of filling). Be aware that when you add the water, there will be a lot of spitting and sputtering of the oil. I used the lid as a shield and moved quickly at that step. Repeat this process as often as needed, adding more oil if needed, until all of the pot stickers are cooked. If you have smaller wrappers, then you can cook more pot stickers per batch and do fewer batches, needing less oil most likely. In other words, you may use more or less than 6 Tablespoons of oil during the frying process.