In which I try to be like Ben

I have a brother-in-law. (I know. Shocker.) But what's REALLY cool is that my brother-in-law can COOK. And when I say cook, I mean createthemostdeliciousthingseverconcoctedbythefoodgods. Plus he's a doctor. (Sorry, ladies, he's married.)

Over Christmas, Ben made us homemade potstickers. They were so deliciously yummy that they have haunted by daydreams ever since.

We don't have Chinese food here. Or Costco, which is almost as good.

So yesterday I decided to re-create Ben's Chinese miracle.

The ingredients: (do you love how I'm trying to be like the Pioneer Woman? As Emily of LM Montgomery would say, I am a humble alcolyte bowing before the altar of my priestess. But I tried.)

Olive oil, fresh ginger, garlic, soy sauce, pepper, salt, and cabbage. Also pork, but I had already cut it up before I thought to take a picture.

First things first. Chop the cabbage - I did half a head - and set aside in a bowl. Sprinkle with about two tablespoons of salt and let sit for half an hour. The salt will draw out the water in the cabbage. (It's MAGIC.)

Squeeze out the water and put back in the bowl. Add a package of pork, cut into pieces. (Even better would be ground pork, but I don't have that luxury.)

Now for the flavor! You can vary these according to taste (this is just me):

2 cloves of garlic
A whole stick of grated ginger (I loooooooove ginger)
1 tsp. of pepper
About 2 tablespoons of olive oil and soy sauce, each

I bet green onions would be good too, but I didn't have any on hand.

Inhaling the ginger is a must:


Mix them together and it should look something like this:

Now for the fun part! Place a large spoonful of the mixture on a wonton wrapper and wet the edges with water. Then fold over and seal. Try to press all of the air out! Did I say fun? I mean time-consuming ...

(For those familiar with this beloved pais o' mine, these aren't real wonton wrappers. It's pastel dough - the closest I can get to the real thing. And I chose big wrappers so I wouldn't have to fold potstickers for hours on end.)

Ben fried his potstickers before boiling them, but in the interest of feeling better about myself, I skipped the frying.

And it turned into a sticky soup of wonton guts:

Fry them for a few minutes on each side - WHO TOLD YOU TO DO OTHERWISE?!

After nicely browned, plop them in a pot of boiling water. They're ready when the dough turns translucent - about ten minutes.

I tried to duplicate Ben's magical potsticker sauce by combining grated ginger, garlic, and soy sauce. CLOSE ENOUGH.

You don't get any pretty finished product picture, because we ate them.

Make a meal of it with fried rice, a salad with mandarin oranges, and egg drop soup.

Soup recipe:

Boil a piece of ginger in a few cups of chicken broth and 1 clove of minced garlic. The longer you boil, the stronger the ginger flavor. Right before serving, take out the ginger and crack an egg over the soup, slightly stirring it to get that "stringy" effect.

Not only is this the most delicious meal EVER, but it impresses. Now go Asian!