Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet.
Our trip to Hawaii in the summer has left me with a few pounds I have not been able to shake off. So to that end, I have agreed to follow Deanna's Weight Watchers plan. Before saying a tearful goodbye to my old ways, I had to go out with a bang. I decided it was going to be dim sum, a festival of fried goodness like no other.
Earlier in the week I did up some char siu pork steaks, and saved one for this purpose. I picked up some leup cheung (pronounced "lop chong"), green onion, and shrimp. Out came the big cleaver, and I minced all the stuff up into a nice filling, liberally adding in hoisin sauce, Chinese 5 spice, and a bit of sesame oil.. Some nice round gyoza wrappers and square wonton wrappers completed the ingredients list.
The square wrappers were used to make some nice fried wontons, generously stuffed, unlike the skimpy wontons which are often found in Anchorage. The round wrappers I used to make potstickers, which are certainly available locally in good quantity and quality, but I just like making them myself.
The potstickers, I cooked in a large pan by putting in a dab of sesame oil, frying 'em on both sides, then adding in chicken broth and putting on the lid for 10 minutes. The potstickers got that classic "crunchy but wet" texture, quite nice, if not a bit soggy. Next time I need to watch the pan closer.
The wontons came out fine, receiving a 5-minute bath in the deep fryer with the oil at 340 f.
Although I don't have a photo for 'em, I also fried up some banana, which I did by cutting up two not-quite-ripe bananas, and tossing them in a mix of instant pancake flour, Splenda, and cinnamon. Those also got the 5-minute deep fry.
I lost track of how many plates I had of this dim sum feast. I ate and ate, and ate. Oh, it was so good. So good. Now I have until Sunday before I resign myself to carefully measured portions of pseudo-food. I feel good going out with a bang, though. For sure.
