pot-stickers

Last week, at the fruit and veggie co-op, we picked up two giant heads of cabbage. None of us like cabbage that much, but we were determined to use them this time (the last time we got cabbage it ended up going straight to compost after sitting in our fridge for a month). A few nights ago Emily made a lentil and cabbage soup with lots of cumin. Last night we made cabbage pot-stickers.

I called my mom for the recipe, but the conversation went like this:

Mom: "mix some flour with some water and an egg."

Me: "how much flour and water?"

Mom: "some."

Me: "how much is some?"

Mom: "until it feels right!"

My mom can tell when things feels right, but I haven't practiced enough to know when that is. I grew up eating pot-stickers, but I've never made pot-stickers without adult supervision before, and by adult supervision I mean the adults made it and I sat in a corner playing with a lump of dough. Thankfully Becca was there to help. The blind leading the blind.

In the end I think we ended up with three cups of flour and approximately a cup and a half of water and one egg for the dough. The hard part was rolling the wrappers.

Then there was the problem of the cabbage: If it's just cabbage and mushroom and seasoning (as in, no pork), there's not much to hold the filling together in a neat lump inside the wrapper. Instead the filling was loose, which caused our pot-stickers to lose some shape. In the end, though, they were delicious if not entirely attractive.