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VEGAN FEAST SUBSCRIBERS' COOKING AND RECIPE FORUM>
Vegetarian/Vegan pot sticker recipes?
jtnippon1985
76 posts
Mar 07, 2007
5:46 PM
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During the chinese new year festival I had bought a couple bags of pot stickers only to find out that the dough had eggs in them. Needless to say I was a tad dissapointed, but my parents didn't mind them too much, as they arent vegetarians anyway. So I went my first Chinese New Year without pot stickers, oh well, there's always next year.
I had been doing a lot of research on making pot stickers, looking at both meat filled and vegetarian filled recipes, along with tips and tricks at making them.
I found that a bit of fat helps keep the insides moist, so most times the meat versions use either fattier ground meat, or lean meat that is sauteed in oil, or boiled instead of the pan fried/steam option to keep the insides moist.
I wanted to make a pot sticker that was fairly authentic, perhaps using not to many ingredients, and mostly made from a marinated fake meaty ingredient and garlic chives (or chinese chives as they're also known) I also thought about the addition of a hard fat, like earthbalance or the new trans-fat free crisco to give a "saturated fat" texture and moistness that can be found with the real ground meat.
The only problem is the meat part. I immediatly thought of using something that was already prepared, and could stick together well, like the LightLife brand pork sausage, but I haven't been too thrilled with it in the past, and the fact that it comes pre-seasoned as with more traditional sausage mixtures AND has no fat, made me wonder if this would be a good option.
Then I remembered that Byranna had a ground "pork" recipe in her Chinese book, and I think it was included in one of the newletters as an accompanying master recipe to one of her other variations of it. I made it once for the chinese sausage recipes, but didn't know if it would be a good substitute for pot stickers, and if it would stick together well when I blended it with the other filling ingredients.
To make matter worse, I can't find the book, OR the newsletter with the recipe in it.
Another option was something along the lines of Debbie's filling for her "Pocket Pagodas".
And then I have to worry about a binder. Flax would probably impart too much of its own flavor to the dish, so cornstarch, or Ener-G (if that's even possible) or plain (just soybean and water) soymilk might work. I really don't know.
Any one here had any succesful attempts at making pot stickers? Any suggestions?
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
2039 posts
Mar 07, 2007
8:17 PM
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Actually, there is a potsticker recipe in the Chinese book, on p. 69.
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Debbie
1333 posts
Mar 08, 2007
10:33 AM
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I like Bryanna's pot sticker recipe from her Chinese cookbook. They are the ones with chopped chinese greens, the Northern Style. The chinese green is called mustard greens. I think there is crumbled tofu, mushrooms, etc. They are delicious.
But if you want to make the meaty kind, I suggest to use ground tvps, add some soy sauce, mirin/rice wine, cornstarch, sesame oil, a bit of sugar, some mushroom broth powder (like the Harvest 2000 brand) , and white pepper. Add chopped green onions would be great too. I usually look at Bryanna's Chinese cookbook and use the sauce combination of other recipes and add it to this filling.
To bind it and to make the filling to stick together, I suggest to use crumbled tofu and cellophane noodles (you know, those clear and sticky noodles). You don't need to boil the noodles or they will fall apart but I suggest that you cut them up first with a scissor about 2 inches long. Soak them in hot water and drain them quickly after they became soft. Mix these sticky noodles with the ground filling and crumbled tofu and some cornstarch.
True, pot stickers skin or wrappers have eggs in it, most of them. Most of them have egg whites in it. I have to search and search in Asian markets for ones that don't have eggs. To make it yourself is too much work. You can also search for eggroll wrappers that don't have eggs in it and cut it up but I prefer searching for wonton/pot stickers wrappers with no eggs first before I go to that route.
My pagoda pockets filling will crumble apart in the pot stickers. They are designed to be steamed inside sweet rice in the bamboo leaves. So it won't work.
Yes, I agree, Lightlife pork sausage will not work right due the the spices and seasonings, I think.
For fat, I use sesame oil in the filling.
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
Last Edited on 8-Mar-2007 10:35 AM
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Debbie
1334 posts
Mar 08, 2007
11:37 AM
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Trader Joe's pot stickers (the vegetarian one) are vegan, I believe. I don't know if there is a Trader Joe's near you. That is if you want to buy frozen. They are not as good as homemade, though!
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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Val
192 posts
Mar 08, 2007
12:35 PM
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Yes, Debbie is right, the Trader Joe's pot stickers are vegan, and they are good, but not as good as homemade. I usually use spring roll wrappers to make the pot stickers, or egg-free eggroll wrappers. I do that when I'm in a hurry and can't make the wrappers. On rare occasions when I have the time to make the wrappers, I go crazy and make "eggrolls" and won-tons (shaped the "traditional chinese way") and also pot stickers and then we have too much food for the rest of the week!
Good luck!
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Val
Last Edited on 8-Mar-2007 12:41 PM
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
2040 posts
Mar 08, 2007
1:39 PM
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Actually, I think all the round "gyoza" warppers should be vegan-- at least, they are in my area.
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cv
171 posts
Mar 08, 2007
3:36 PM
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Has anyone ever tried making potstickers with spring roll wrappers that are made only from rice flour (no wheat)? Do you think that would work? I think the kind I have in my cupboard is Vietnamese. Thanks! Catherine
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
2041 posts
Mar 08, 2007
5:18 PM
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You could probably do something similar, actually. I should try that. You can get quite small ones, or you could cut them when they are wet and pliable.
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