Vegetarian Pot Stickers

Do not, I repeat, do not be intimidated by the name. If my Savanah came make them, then so can you ladies. Savanah and her dad were watching, of all things, the Food Network and saw Alton Brown making won ton soup, egg rolls and pot stickers. She was intrigued. She realized that we would have to vegetize the insides to the pot stickers, but other than that all we would have to buy would be the dumpling skins.

On our next shopping spree (which is not a spree, for we do it every week like clock work) won-ton, egg roll skin thingies went into our cart. Two nights later we were all woofing down pot stickers (I had 11, but who's counting) So, if you thought these were difficult to make, my 15 year old daughter can do and so can you. I will say that this is not something you can walk away from. This is a have to be there kind of dish. But oh so worth it. To get thee original recipe go to Food Network and hunt for Alton Brown's recipe, you will not regret it or go wrong.


EDIT IN: We used a small amount of chopped tofu when we sauted our veggies, maybe 1/4-1/3 cup?)
1 red onion sliced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms (we did not use)
1 cup white cabbage, shredded (we used whatever cabbage we had on hand, it changes from week to week)
1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cup chopped garlic chives or chives (we used garlic instead)
1 teaspoon white pepper (regular black pepper here)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 package round dumpling skins, also called gyoza (preferably twin dragon brand) (we used won ton wrappers)
Salt to taste
Canola oil
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In a wok or large saute pan, add a little oil and saute onions and ginger. Add the mushrooms and stir. Add the cabbage, carrots and chives. Season. When mixture is soft, place in colander to drain. Add the sesame oil and cilantro when mixture is cooled. Check for seasoning.

Using the gyoza skins, make half moon dumplings keeping the bottom flat.( we placed the won ton wrappers as if we were looking at a diamond, then placed our filling inside, the folded it so the final shape was that of a triangle) In a hot non-stick pan,(we used a regular aluminum heavy bottom skillet and it worked just as well) coat with oil and place dumplings. When bottom gets brown, add 1/4 cup of water and immediately cover. This will steam the dumplings. Carefully watch the dumplings and completely evaporate the water so that the bottom gets crispy again and sticks to the pot. We also found that it was better to run 2 skillets at a time, unless there are just 2 of you then you are good to go.

Serve with dipping sauce.
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SPICY SOY DIPPING SAUCE:

1/3 cup thin soy sauce (we sued tamari)
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup sliced scallions
1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon sambal (did not have so we did not use this one)