Eat that, Ra!!!

So yesterday Nate and I went out for sushi* for a lunch date. We had some particularly yummy gyoza that Nate thought I could probably replicate at home. Not being one to back down from a food challenge, I created our own version of gyoza, minus all of the fried-ness. Except for a minor steaming setback, I think these turned out pretty well, and they weren't really very complicated.

First, a word about equipment. I must give a shout-out to one of the workhorses of my kitchen, the Microplane. This little beauty (actually, I have two of them) gets used several times during the week for citrus zesting, ginger grating**, parmesan shaving, and the occasional nutmeg grind. I have only grated my knuckles a couple of times. Since I cook a lot of Asian-inspired food and have lately been using quite a bit of fruit at dinner (which often finds itself accompanied by grated ginger and/or some form of citrus zest), my microplanes get a lot of use. Get one. They're cheap and fabu.




*(((GASP!!! OMG I KNOW!!! First spinach, then sushi...my work here is done.*** ))))

**I keep a knob of ginger in the freezer and grate it right into whatever dish I'm making. Sometimes I'm too lazy to even peel it, and it works just fine. It keeps forever. Seriously. The 8half-life of frozen ginger is about 2 bajillion years.

***(Well, OK, not done yet, I'm still working on onions.)

Menu:
Shrimp Dumplings with Sesame Dipping Sauce
Vegetable Stir-Fry Over Rice

Shrimp Dumplings with Sesame Dipping Sauce
from Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight

This is a great cookbook. Regardless of whether you're on Weight Watchers, on any kind of diet, or just trying to cook without so much oil and fat, the recipes and methods in here are very useful.



Makes about 36 dumplings

Dipping Sauce
1/4 c reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 c seasoned rice vinegar (I used 2 T and it was plenty)
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
pinch crushed red pepper

Dumplings
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used cooked, frozen salad shrimp that came from the freezer section at Fry's)
4 scallions, coarsely chopped
2 T water chestnuts, chopped
1 T minced peeled fresh ginger
1 T dry sherry
1 T oyster sauce
1 tsp dark sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 egg white
36 (3-inch) wonton wrappers

1. Make the dipping sauce: whisk together the soy sauce through red pepper and set aside.



2. To make the filling, process the shrimp through egg white in a food processor until smooth (I seem to have an obsession with pureed seafood).




3. Arrange the wonton wrappers on a work surface.



Place 1 tsp of filling at the center of each wrapper.



Dip your finger in water and paint the edges of the wontons with it, then fold the edges over and pinch together to form the dumpling.



4. Place dumplings on a baking sheet lightly dusted with cornstarch and cover with damp paper towels until ready to cook.
5. Place 8-10 dumplings in a steamer basket and set in a sauce pan over 1 inch of boiling water. Cover tightly and steam until the dumplings are cooked through, about 7 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate and serve immediately.


Shortly before dissolving into a gooey mess.

***DISCLAIMER*** Steaming the dumplings did NOT work for me; they all glommed together and came out in a gloopy, mushy, albeit very TASTY pile of shrimpy wonton-y goodness. I don't know if I'll ever succeed in cleaning the bits of dumpling from the holes in my steamer basket...

I ended up browning the rest of the dumplings in a skillet with cooking spray, which was much easier and involved far fewer steam burns.