Ginger Pork Potstickers

Lots of steps but the steps aren't hard. Also, fairly forgiving -- mess with the proportions and ingredients and you will still probably get a tasty dinner. This is my recipe, melded from a survey of many recipes and about ten years of practice. I regularly get rave reviews.

Potsticker wrappers
3/4 lb pork, trimmed into little cubes
6-10 spinach leaves
6-8 cloves garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 or 3 cans chicken broth

Cube up the pork, mince the spinach leaves and garlic, grate the ginger. Stir up with the soy, rice wine and sesame oil. Let mixture marinate up to 1 day.

Lay out 6 potsticker wrappers, paint a thin circle of water around the rim of each, scoop a small spoonful of pork mix into center, fold in half and pinch-pleat the edge shut. Repeat till you have a small army of little potstickers awaiting your command.

Fry each dumpling a little bit on each side and bottom to crisp up the wrapper. I put several in a pan at once and fry one side, then flip, then stand 'em all up to fry the bottoms. Tongs are great for this.

With all the potstickers you can fit in a pan standing upright on their bottoms, pour in enough chicken broth to mostly cover the little guys. Simmer until most of the broth cooks away (maybe 20-30 minutes). Start eating.

For dipping sauce, mix soy with a bit of rice wine and sesame oil (plus a little garlic salt).

A nice presentation is to stir-fry some snow peas (just until they are bright green), layer those on a dish and place the potstickers on top.

Makes about 30, depending on how much you fill each wrapper (the wrappers are available at Asian or chi-chi groceries). I have yet to figure out a good healthy side dish for this because I simply start wolfing them down until I'm not hungry anymore, but the snow peas are a start!