Vegan Crispy Skirt Potstickers
Some dishes are already super delicious, but there is actually a way to make them even better. You can never go wrong with brownies, for example, but they are simply even better as brookies. With pasta and meatballs, you can get almost anyone, but baked as a pie, unbeatable! We would never say no to a potato salad, but if the potatoes were still in the oven beforehand, we would fall over joyfully. I'm telling you – some tricks just make the best recipes even better.
And that's how we end up with our dumplings with a crispy skirt. Not only are they fried and steamed, but there is also a crispy lace around them that holds all the dumplings together. This crispy base consists of a mixture of flour, cornflour and water and is poured into the pan before the dumplings are steamed. After steaming, when the lid is removed, the water evaporates. The flour and cornflour are left behind as a crispy batter, which gives your dumplings a pretty coating.
In our recipe, we filled and folded 36 dumplings, which we then divided into four portions of nine dumplings each. If you end up with more or fewer dumplings, you can simply put as many dumplings in the pan as you need to get there in the end. We recommend 8–10 dumplings per portion. However, if you are using a particularly small or large pan, you can, of course, vary the number. Our pan has a diameter of 20 centimeters / 7.8 inches. In any case, make sure you use a pan that also has a lid. This is important so that you can steam your dumplings after frying.
We have used a colorful mix of vegetables in our filling, but you can, of course, change it according to taste and season. Make sure that you cut the vegetables very finely, as the coarser your vegetables are cut, the more difficult it will be to fill the dumplings at the end. We used a food chopper so that we ended up with very finely chopped vegetables – perfect!
And now, roll out the crunchy floor carpet for these vegetable dumplings!
Vegan Crispy Skirt Potstickers
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 300 g (10.5 oz / approx. 36) gyoza dough sheets
For the filling:
- 1 onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 30 g (1 oz) fresh ginger
- 30 g (1 oz) dried shiitake mushrooms
- 50 g (1.75 oz) carrot
- 125 g (4.5 oz) white cabbage
- 125 g (4.5 oz) broccoli
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Sriracha
For the crispy bottom:
- 4 tsp wheat flour (type 405)
- 4 tsp cornflour
- 500 ml (2 cups) water
For serving:
- soy sauce
- sriracha
- white & black sesame seeds
- spring onions
Instructions
- If necessary, defrost the gyoza dough sheets. Pour hot water over the dried shiitake mushrooms and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Drain the mushrooms afterward.
Tip: If you can't find ready-made dough, you can also make the dough yourself. To do this, mix 300 grams / 10.5 oz of wheat flour (type 405), 0.5 teaspoon of salt and 150 milliliters / 0.66 cup of warm water and knead well. Roll out and cut out circles.
Peel and finely dice onion, garlic and ginger. If necessary, peel the carrot, white cabbage, broccoli and shiitake mushrooms and cut into very fine cubes. The finer the pieces, the easier it will be to fill the dumplings at the end. A chopper takes a lot of the work out of this and makes the vegetables extra fine.
Heat a large pan with sesame oil and sauté onion, garlic and ginger until the onions are translucent. Add the vegetables and fry for 5 minutes. Deglaze with soy sauce and sriracha.
Place one teaspoon of vegetable filling in the middle of the gyoza dough, moisten the edges with a bit of water, and fold the dumplings closed. We folded them like this.
Mix one teaspoon of flour, one teaspoon of cornstarch and 125 milliliters / 0.5 cup of water in a bowl. Heat a pan (⌀ 18-20 centimeters / 7-8 inches) with sesame oil and place 8–10 dumplings in a circle in the pan. Fry the dumplings for 2–3 minutes until they have a crispy base.
Now carefully pour the mixture into the pan (be careful, the fat will splatter!) and immediately place a lid on the pan. Steam the dumplings for 6–7 minutes without removing the lid from the pan. After about 7 minutes, remove the lid and wait another 4–5 minutes until the liquid evaporates and the crispy base separates easily from the pan.
Place a large board or plate on the pan, turn the pan over and repeat all the steps 2–3 more times until you have 3–4 portions and all the dumplings have been used up.
Serve the dumplings with soy sauce, sriracha, sesame seeds, and spring onions.
