Deconstructed Pot Stickers

 I used to have an obsession with pot stickers and made it my goal to eat them at every opportunity. I mean who wouldn't...they're delicious. I guess there's just something about being able to have so many different tastes all at once that makes them addicting.

I ran into a problem the last time I made them with Olivia who told me that she didn't like the meat on the inside because it was "too weird", but she liked eating the wrapper. She also told me that she used to take the meat out as a kid and eat the wrapper...So I decided to appease her by taking a pot sticker and making it exactly to her liking. Instead of putting the meat inside of the dough, I took it out. Instead of putting the vegetables in the filling, I put it in between the wrapper and the meat giving a really nice veggie crunch. I also decided to increase the surface area of the dumpling wrapper to give as much crispy friedness as possible. 

As with lots of Chinese dishes, I eyeball everything and honestly I think that's the best bet. It let's you really understand how the flavors react with each other. 

To make the dumpling wrappers, put two cups of flour in a bowl and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Add boiling water half a cup at a time until the dough can be formed into a ball. Then, flatten it out and cut out circle shapes. Fry these in oil until they have a nice crunch on BOTH sides and then pour a little bit of chicken stock in, like you were making a potsticker. To make the filling, put a pound of ground pork in a bowl and mix in a good dose of light soy, dark soy, sesame oil, some sriracha, and a big handful of green onions. Mix it all up and form into little disks. Fry this in a pan with oil. To make the bok choy, simply stirfry in garlic for a couple of minutes to slightly sear it and still leave a bit of a crunch. For the sauce combine light soy, dark soy, chili sesame oil, and a corn starch slurry in a pan and heat up to near boiling. This creates a nice thick sauce you can put on the plate and not have to worry about running everywhere. 

I really like the idea of playing with classic dishes and reinventing them, even though I guess that's cliche now...it's still fun!