Healthy Make-Ahead Potstickers

Potstickers make a meal that adults and children can both fall in love with. Potstickers can be eaten with a fork, chopsticks, or cute little fingers.  They can be baked, broiled, fried or steamed, and then dipped into a variety of sauces.

Perfect meal.

Perfect way to teach kids how to cook too.

I love potstickers. In my home, we make potstickers every week because I am a ninja. Actually, at the beginning of every month, I make a batch of 200 potstickers and freeze them.

Talk about hard work, but it definitely pays off on those nights that I have nothing left and am on the verge on committing fast food suicide. And then a child reminds me that she "sure wishes that she could just have a potsticker" and BAHM...dinner is done.

Once you have mastered this recipe, you will find yourself doing all sorts of good and not-so-great  variations. Honestly, I like to think of potstickers as teeny tiny vegetable delivery pouches. Kids and picky adults love love love them.

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Recipe

Potsticker Dough (makes 40)
2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup hot water

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.

2. Add the hot water, little by little, stirring lightly in between additions.  Keep adding the water until you can form the dough into a ball.

3.  Let the ball sit, covered with a damp cloth for an hour.

4. On a floured surface, knead the dough for 5-6 minutes.

5. Shape the dough into a log and cut off 40 pieces.

6. Roll out into a 3-3.5 inch circle. Use a cookie cutter to cut them out.

7. Wrap the wrappers in plastic wrap until you are ready to use them; otherwise, they will dry out.


Potsticker Variations:
Now, because I am short for time at the moment, I am not going to list all of the ingredients and directions. The basic idea is to cut the meat and vegatable into very small pieces and then saute it with sesame oil, ginger, hot chiles, or whatever spice combination you would like to eat. I will return with the variations in a few weeks.

Here are some ideas:

• Chicken and broccoli with black bean paste
• Pork and ginger
• Carrots, onion, cabbage, and red curry paste
• Asparagus, tofu, fava beans, garlic, and ginger

To Fill:
You will want to fill each wrapper with a spoonful of filling and then seal the potstickers with oil, preferably sesame oil. You can choose to bake them at 350 for 20 minutes or pan fry them in oil. You choose your poison.