Spicy Chindian Potstickers

Leftovers are great (especially if it is from Thanksgiving!), you can toss it with some rice and name it a pulao, fried rice or even a paella if you will. Wrap leftover Sai Bhaji or sautéd spinach with cheese in puff pastry and make turnovers. My mother-in-law adds tomato sauce to left over Indian vegetables and then layers it with lasagna sheets, béchamel sauce and cheese to make an Indo-Italian lasagna. My all-time, quick and easy, favorite is to add some mashed boiled potatoes and breadcrumbs to the left over, to make patties or burgers. 

The list of options go on and on. This time I wanted to step out of the box and make something different with the left over chicken keema, and I wondered why I couldn't just 'dumpling-them-up'! Growing up in Bombay, we ate a lot of Chindian food, which explains where I was going with this.

So I took the left over keema, added some Shaoshing rice wine, soy sauce, Sriracha chili sauce, and spring onions, folded them in store-bought dumpling wrappers, and made yummy potstickers, drizzled with chili oil. (You know where my leftovers are going to end up now!)

Makes 15
Ingredients
Chicken Keema
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, minced (use a food processor to quicken the chopping process)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch ginger, minced
2-3 green chilies, finely chopped 
1 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 bay leaf
2 lbs ground chicken
Salt, to taste
3 medium tomatoes, minced (use a food processor to quicken the chopping process)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Potstickers
2 cups chicken keema
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 tablespoon Shaoshing rice wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
15 round dumpling or Japanese Gyoza wrappers
1/4 cup water, for sealing potstickers
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup water, or more, to steam potstickers
Chili oil, to drizzle

Method, Chicken Keema

1. In a large dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pan, heat oil. Add the minced onions and brown well, for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Follow by adding the ginger, garlic, chilies, garam masala, and bay leaf. Mix well into onions and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Add the ground chicken and salt and cook until the chicken is just about done. The water from the chicken should dry up and your mixture should be dry.
4. Add the minced tomatoes, mix well, and cook until the oil separates.
5. Garnish with cilantro.

Serving options: Serve with flat naan, some chopped onions, and lemon.
Over plain white rice boiled with green peas.
Stuff in a pita pocket with hummus, greens, pickled jalapeño and fresh cilantro.


Method, Potstickers

1. Add spring onions, rice wine, soy sauce, and Sriracha sauce to the reserved 2 cups of Chicken Keema. Mix well. 
2. Lay a dumpling wrapper flat on one palm of your hand, moisten the edge of the pot sticker by brushing it with water. 
3. Add 1 tablespoon of the Chicken Keema mixture in the center of the wrapper.
4. Fold the potsticker wrapper over like a taco. Force the air out and press the edges together. You can add a few pleats like in the photograph above if you like.
5. In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. When hot, add the potstickers (flat side down) and brown for 30–60 seconds. 
6. Add water, being careful not to splatter the oil (drain oil before if necessary) until 1/3rd the height of the potstickers. Cover and let it steam for 3–4 minutes.
7. Serve hot, with a drizzle of chili oil.

Cooks note: If you do not want to serve all the potstickers at one time, you can freeze by placing the potstickers on a baking tray for 15 minutes. Remove and place in a freezer bag, dated and marked with contents. Defrost before cooking.

Oyster Sauce Chicken with Ginger and Mushrooms

Comfort food for me are many things, Chinese food is high up on the list. My mother grew up in Singapore, so she cooked a lot of Chinese and Singaporean foods at home (in Mumbai, India). Lately, I've been loving cooking recipes from Ching-He Huang's cookbook, Ching's Everyday Easy Chinese. The reasons: Easy, Fast and Healthy. Once you have your pantry stocked with the ingredients she recommends, then you're all set to whip up a quick Chinese meal. All the ingredients she asks for are easily available in any Chinese supermarket, none of which are expensive. 


Her top 10 essential Chinese pantry ingredients are:

1. Light soy sauce
2. Dark soy sauce
3. Shaoshing rice wine
4. Toasted sesame oil
5. Five-spice powder
6. Sichuan peppercorns
7. Chinkiang black rice vinegar
8. Clear rice vinegar
9. Chili bean sauce
10. Chili sauce

This is one of Ching's own flavor combination recipe, inspired from the southern Chinese dishes from regions such as Canton and Fujian, where the combination of meat and seafood is very common. 


You may have noticed that many Chinese recipes call for vegetables to be cut on the diagonal. It is a simple Chinese cooking technique to expose more of the vegetable's surface area to heat to help it cook quicker and to absorb more of the seasonings and sauces. In this recipe the scallions are cut on the diagonal. 


Here is the revised recipe, hope you make it and enjoy it as much as we did! 


Serves 2–4 to share
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 9 minutes


Ingredients
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp peanut oil
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp Shaoshing rice wine, or dry sherry
5–7 shiitake mushrooms (I used button mushrooms)
2 large scallions, sliced on the diagonal


For the sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp chili sauce
7 tbsp cold vegetable stock


Method

1. Place the chicken in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the cornstarch and mix well to coat the chicken.
2. Pour all ingredients of the sauce in another bowl and stir together to combine.
3. Heat a wok over high heat until it starts to smoke and add the peanut oil. 
4. Add the ginger and fry for a few seconds, then add the chicken pieces and stir-fry another 4 minutes, stirring constantly. 
5. As the chicken starts to turn opaque, add the rice wine or dry sherry and cook for an additional 2 minutes, then add the sauce and bring to a boil. 
6. Add the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute, then stir in the scallions. 
7. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Kung Po (Inspired) Chicken

I absolutely love Ching-He Huang's recipes. Her recipes are easy, quick and simply delicious! And this one is quite healthy. Tonight we were craving something spicy and Asian so Kung Po Chicken felt like the obvious decision. The reason this is 'inspired' is because I didn't add the cashews and swopped the red peppers for shiitake mushrooms and bok choy. However, the sauce is exactly as she wrote in the recipe. Read below for the improvised recipe. 


Quoting Ching-He Huang from her book Ching's Everyday Easy Chinese: This is a classic dish from Sichuan. It is named after Ding Baochen (1820–86), a governor of Sichuan; "Gong Bao" or "Kung Po" means "Palatial Guardian", in reference to his official title. I love this spicy-sweet dish, but can't stand versions of it made with oyster sauce or cabbage. In my view, it should be numbingly spicy, sweet and tangy. There are many variations of the dish and this is my home-style Western version. The tang comes from the Chinkiang black rice vinegar. 


Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook in: 10 minutes
Serves: 2–4 to share


Ingredients

For the sauce

7 tbsp cold vegetable stock

1 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 tbsp of tomato ketchup

1 tbsp of Chinkiang black rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp of hoisin sauce

1 tsp of chili sauce

1 tbsp of cornstarch

For the chicken

2 skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch slices
Salt and white ground pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch or potato flour


1 tbsp of peanut oil
2 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorns
4 dried red chilies
1 tbsp of Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
4–5 baby bok choy, sliced
2 scallions, chopped into 1-inch lengths
Handful of dry-roasted cashews 


Method
Add all the ingredients of the sauce to a medium bowl and stir to combine.


Place the chicken in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. 
Add the cornstarch and mix well to coat the chicken pieces. 


Heat a wok over high heat until it starts to smoke and then add the peanut oil. 
Add the Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies and fry for a few seconds, then add the chicken pieces and stir-fry for 2 minutes. 
As the chicken begins to turn opaque, add the rice wine or dry sherry. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.


Pour in the sauce, bring to a boil.
Add the vegetables, and cook in the sauce with the chicken for another 2 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through and the sauce has thickened and become slightly sticky in consistency. 


Add the scallions and cook for 1 minute.
Toss in the cashews, then transfer to a serving plate and serve immediately.