Potstickers with Edmame and Chili-Soy Dressing dipped in S and Tuung

The first time my father-in-law ate Edmame he shoved the whole thing in his mouth and wondered why J-Fur and I were "wasting" the cases. After chewing for what seemed an hour it finally dawned on him. A co-worker recently asked the same thing. I tried to compare it to peas, how you wouldn't eat the shell of a pea, but it still didn't seem to make sense. I could've brought oranges or bananas into the fold but I just let it go.

I've tried this dish with shelled soybeans and Edmame in the pod. There are two reasons why I like it with the Edmame in the pod. First, the shell seems to hold flavor better than just the bean itself. Second, there seems to be more leftovers with the Edmame in a pod. I think this is because shelling all of the beans takes time and tricks your stomach into thinking you have eaten more than you really have. Or maybe it is just my love of wasting things...

Potstickers with Edmame and Chili-Soy Dressing
(printable version)

For the potstickers:
-1/4 of a cabbage, shredded
-1/3 cup of carrots, shredded
-5 scallions, minced
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-pinch of cayenne pepper
-1 Tbs. of soy sauce
-1 Tbs. of sesame oil
-24 wonton wrappers
-2 Tbs. of vegetable oil
-1/4 cup of water

For the Chili-Soy Dressing:
-3 Tbs. rice vinegar
-1 Tbs. soy sauce
-1 Tbs. sesame oil
-1 tsp. of black bean sauce
-1 clove of garlic, minced
-1 tsp. of chili oil
-16 oz package of Edmame in the pod

1. Using a food processor, grate carrots and cabbage. Place in a large metal bowl along with scallions, garlic, cayenne, soy sauce and sesame oil.

2. Put a spoonful of the cabbage mixture on a won-ton wrapper. Fold corner to corn (connecting all four corners in the middle to seal). If wonton wrappers don't stick, moisten slightly and re-try. Repeat until cabbage mixture (or won-tons) run out.

3. Heat 1 Tbs. of vegetable oil in a non stick skillet until hot. Place half of the wontons into oil and fried until bottoms are golden brown (3-4 minutes). Pour 1/8 cup of water into the pan and cover. Steam the wontons for two minutes. Remove from skillet. Dump out the oil and repeat with the second batch of wontons.

4. For the Chili-Soy dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.

5. Stir-fry the edmame until warmed through, about five minutes. Toss Edmame with potstickers and chili-soy dressing. Serve immediately.

As I put this dish together I moved around the kitchen to the sounds of S (who is really Jenn Ghetto co-leader of the now defunct indie outfit Carissa's Wierd). S just put out an album, I'm not as good at it as you, which deals a lot with relationships and whether to keep them going or allow them to die. Her song "Save You" comes from that album.

S- Save You

My gut is made up of a large amount of serotonin. Tuung's song "Don't Look Down or Back" mentions my favorite monoamine nuerotransmitter. That's what drew me in, the sound is what kept me.