Ginger Pork Pot Stickers & Homemade Wonton Wrappers

Last week, I posted about the fortuitous plane ride to Disney World with the Food n’ Flix movie (which I couldn’t get locally) playing on-board!

After watching that movie, there was still ample time on the flight, so I started paging through the rest of the movies and saw Crazy Rich Asians.  I wasn’t 100% sure, but I thought that Crazy Rich Asians might have been a future Food n’ Flix movie.  Since my phone was in airplane mode, I couldn’t verify it, but I decided to take a chance.

Imagine my surprise later on when I realized that, not only was Crazy Rich Asians the Food n’ Flix movie for February (here's the invite), but also the Cook the Books Club pick for this month!

What luck!

After watching the movie on the plane and having an amazing, magical week in Disney World, I got a copy of the book, Crazy Rich Asians and got reading!

While I enjoyed the movie, in a train-wrecky kind of way, as this librarian typically says – the book was better!

Both the book and movie follow Nick and Rachel, as couple started dating in New York, but are traveling to Singapore to meet his family and attend his best friend’s wedding.  What Nick failed to mention to Rachel was that his family is ridiculously rich, complete with possessive parents, nutso ex-girlfriends, and judgement galore.

The movie tells the story pretty well, but combines several characters and pivotal scenes.  The book gives a lot more time to Astrid’s (Nick’s cousin) story and draw parallels to Nick and Rachel’s situation.   There’s a lot less heartwarming family connections (on Nick’s side), more to Rachel’s past, and Rachel while is a strong person in in the book, but doesn’t quite go to the mattresses like her movie counterpart.

While the movie was like being unable to pry my eye away from a train wreck, the book (with all its explanatory footnotes) made me pause and say, “Wait.  Is this for real?”

According to a brief google search, yes, the story of Singapore high society (book and movie) is fairly accurate…yikes…

Anyhow, book and movie are both recommended, in my opinion.  There are a lot of characters to keep track of, so I liked having watched the movie prior to reading the book in this case.

My recipe inspiration originally comes from a scene in the movie, where Nick and Rachel make dumplings with Nick’s mom and grandma and are relentlessly judged on the dumpling folding (I’m glad I wasn’t there, my Germanic ancestry folded my dumplings much more like pierogi.  Ah Mah (grandmother) would’ve been greatly disappointed!) 

This rather heartwarming (and equally cruel) scene did not appear in the book, but dumplings did make an appearance in the book when Nick and Rachel first arrive in Singapore and enjoy Singapore’s greatest by way of the street marker, so I figured they were fair game.  Especially since I’m technically sharing two recipes: homemade wonton dough and dumplings/pot stickers!

Wonton wrappers are remarkably difficult to find where I live and when I do, they’re rather thick and unwieldly.  Plus, I decided to make these when the outside windchill was quite literally -70 (I kid you not), so, shockingly, I chose not to run all over town looking for sub-par wonton wrappers but make them myself instead.

I made the dough, pulled out my pasta roller and then cursed the thing for the next hour and a half (I don’t know if it’s my roller or my counters, but the thing never clamps down properly, causing all sorts of difficulty).  Word from the wise…

Plan at least an hour to make the wonton wrappers, just in case you have problems!  Then plan another hour to fill and fold the dumplings (unless you’ve had practice).  But hey, it gives your kids more time to finish their chores before dinner, right?

So was it worth it?

You betcha!

Hubs and the kids inhaled these!  I need to find a more efficient way of making dumplings (I’ve put a new pasta roller on my birthday list) because they liked them so much!

Ginger Pork Pot Stickers

Wonton Wrappers

Recipe from Curious Cuisiniere

2 cups all purpose flour

1 egg

¾ tsp salt

½ cup warm water

Cornstarch, for rolling

Ginger Pork Filling

Adapted from Damn Delicious and Spoon Fork Bacon

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons onion, finely diced

2 cups spinach, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 green onions, sliced

1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (sriracha)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound ground pork

To cook

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

½ cup water, divided

1 green onion, sliced

Dipping Sauce

¼ cup low sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 clove garlic, minced

½ teaspoon chili garlic sauce (sriracha)

1 green onion, sliced

½ teaspoon sesame seeds

To make the wonton wrappers, place the flour in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, salt, and water.  Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour and stir to mix. 

Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough is silky smooth and no longer tacky.

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen cloth and allow it to rest for 1 hour.

Dust the counter with cornstarch and roll the dough as thin as possible.  I divided my dough into smaller pieces and rolled it through my pasta roller, rolling to the thinnest setting.

Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut dough rounds.  Dust them liberally with cornstarch and stack until ready to use. Keep the wrappers covered to keep them from drying out.

To make the filling, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook for 3 minutes or until tender.  Stir in the garlic and spinach and cook for another minute or until the spinach is wilted and  garlic is fragrant.  Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes.

Place the spinach mixture, pork, green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, sriracha, and black pepper in a bowl.  Stir to mix.

Place 1 teaspoon of filling into the center of each wonton wrapper.  Use your fingers to brush a small amount of water along the edges of each wrapper.  Fold and press to seal.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large lidded skillet.  Place dumplings in a single layer and cook for about 2 minutes, working in batches, if needed.  Quickly, add ¼ cup water and cover.  Cook for 5-7 minutes or until water is absorbed and the bottoms of the dumplings are browned and crisp.  Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

To make dipping sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.