mmm... dumplings

nǐ hǎo friends! I'm really excited about a recipe I recently discovered. I'm a big fan of steamed dumplings (or the steamed dumplings better known fried friend- Potstickers). Usually when I'm craving them I buy the Ling Ling brand at our neighborhood bulk store. I think, for being a store bought frozen food, they are pretty darn tasty. Not anymore my friends, not anymore. I've been wanting to figure out how to make dumplings for a while, but I thought it would be a lot of effort... and well, the thought usually stopped there.

But...

I have been trying to cook (from scratch-ish) my favorite things that I normally buy pre-made. This way I know what's going into my food, I can make it healthier (if I choose to), and a lot of the time it's cheaper (per serving).
So last week when I was craving dumplings, I went to an old dependable friend Alton Brown from the Food Network. He is great at making seemingly complicated recipes simple and no fail. In other words, Desiree friendly. I came across this appropriately named Perfect Potstickers recipe.

The results:

Please excuse the picture quality, I couldn't find my camera
 ( honestly I really didn't look) and used the camera on my phone.

These things were not only pretty darn tasty, but reasonably cheap and easy to make. The time consuming part was wrapping the little buggers, but I'm sure if you had a couple extra hands it would go by much faster. I didn't. Also, I was able to freeze my leftovers, reheat in the microwave a few days later... and they still tasted awesome. Tonight when I made them, I doubled the recipe and froze a bunch (and of course packed some in moms lunch) so I could have have some on hand for a quick snack or emergency (meaning I don't want to cook) dinner.
I did make a few modifications to the original recipe:

• Instead of ground pork I used ground chicken breast, I love bacon, so my diet has plenty of pork.
• I added about a half cup of chopped cabbage. The brand I usually eat has cabbage and I had some in my fridge from taco night that needed a home before it went bad.
• The first time I made them I used veggie oil, (as the recipe called) but tonight I made them with extra virgin olive oil and that worked just fine. The recipe doesn't call for a lot of oil so if you're watching your girlish figure you'll be fine, I just prefer the EVOO.

I love the soy/sesame sauce that comes with my usual brand of potstickers so I was happy to find out that they sell it here. I haven't actually purchased any, but good to know. Also, I think freshly grated ginger would be pretty tasty to add, maybe next time.

Probably more than anyone wanted to read about dumplings, more than I planned on writing, so thanks for reading... if you made it this far.

P.S. According to Wikipedia, 'Dumplings' are steamed, and 'potstckers' are dumplings that are fried instead of steamed.