Day Two - At The Kitchen Table with Julie Gale

This is Day Two of my Practicum

To read the Introduction to my Practicum click here.
To read Day One click here.



    We began the next day by looking at more Chinese, and Asian flavors, making Pork Potstickers with a Chinese five spice, Shrimp Showmi with bean sprouts and Spring Rolls with jicama, carrot and cucumber. 
 

    Pork Postickers get their name because of their unusual cooking method, that if not done correctly will end up sticking to the bottom of the pan, hence their name.  First the filling is made with ground pork, leeks, Chinese five spice and assorted vegetables.  The Chinese five spice consists of cinnamon, anise seed, cloves, ginger and fennel seeds.  Then the filling is placed into a dough like wrap, which is then folded in half enclosing the filling inside.  The Postickers are then put into a pan with oil where their bottoms are fried.  This is where things get interesting, water is added to the pan, almost submerrging the Potstickers.  The lid is put on and they steam.  After a few minutes they are uncovered, and the water is allowed to evaporate, and the bottoms  fry again.  It is during this second frying that they like to stick to the pan so specific timing is important.

 
    The Shrimp Showmi, is made with the same dough like wrap but this time the filling is made with shrimp and bean sprouts.  The filling is put into the center of the dough, which is pushed up around the filling to encase it, where it is tied with a chive, to hold it together.  They are then steamed in a traditional Chinese steamer.

     The Spring rolls were made with jicama, cucumber and carrot tossed in a bath of cherry vinegar.  Then this mixture is placed inside a Chinese Spring Roll Skin along with a spoon full of Chinese noodles that look like angel hair pasta.  All the ingredients are wrapped and then rolled into logs.