Yes, this is a bit of a weird recipe. Have you ever seen cashews in Chinese dumplings? Me neither. But I have seen tofu, and I don’t like tofu. And I have seen tofu replaced by nuts in other recipes (mostly raw). So I went for it. Try it before you judge me. It’s no less bland than tofu…and maybe that’s not a selling point for you, but it sure is for me.
This is a picture of the dinner party spread for which I made the dumplings. You’ll also see the best “raw” sushi I’ve ever had on the left (thanks to slightly sweet, crunchy granola-like nut clusters and jicama). My friend made it. It was delicious. Food your good friends make should always be more delicious than your own, I think.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked for 8 hours
A package of dried shiitake or other dried mushrooms (you can use less if you want. It’s not a big deal). Wood ear mushrooms work great and shredded ones mean you don’t need to chop them when they’re soaked and squishy.
1/4 cup pine nuts (not soaked)
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1″ piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly hacked
2-3 cloves garlic, in big chunks
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp sugar (or a little squirt of agave, or a diced date or two)
1 tsp cornstarch (plus 1/4 cup or so extra for dusting)
1 tbsp orange zest
sprinkle of white pepper if you have it
1 package wonton or dumpling or gyoza wrappers. Square or circular. It doesn’t really matter. You can also make your own but this is a pain in the neck and the extra bought ones freeze so well…A package has about 28, but just thaw however many there are and re-freeze what you don’t use. I probably made about 50 dumplings.
A small bowl of water
Directions:
Soak the cashews overnight or for 8 hours before making the recipe.
Soak the shiitakes in about three times as much hot water for 30 minutes. Or do whatever it says to do on the package to soften them. It might not take that long if they’re smaller. Remove the stems if they’re tough.
Drain the cashews and mushrooms and combine them with the pine nuts, and all the cilantro, ginger and garlic in a food processor or blender. Process until small pieces form. Add the soy sauce, sugar, 1 tsp. cornstarch, orange zest, and salt (and white pepper) and process again. You may need to roughly chop the mushrooms first to get them to blend well. They can be smooth in texture or chunky. I like chunky because you don’t end up eating way too many dumplings since it doesn’t require chewing. You can also taste things individually. You could also add carrots, cabbage (especially sauerkraut leftover from making cabbage rolls), ground pork (which traditionally goes with pickled cabbage in dumplings anyway), chicken, lamb, or beef if you so desire. Much like cabbage rolls, these can be stuffed with just about anything that doesn’t require a lot of boiling to cook, OR can be eaten raw or crunchy.
Now the time consuming part where you want to have some good music a friend or two. I’m not implying that at no other point in life do you need good music or a friend or two…just that this is definitely a time to have these things handy.
Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornstarch. Arrange several dumpling wrappers on it. Place 1 tbsp of the filling mixture in the center of each. Pick them up one by one, dip your index finger in the small bowl of water and wipe it around the outside of edge of the dumpling wrapper. Bring the opposite edges together to form a half-moon. Press to seal. You can also bring all the edges together in the middle or pinch the edges to kind of pleat them. There are all sorts of fancy wrappings, but just folding the opposite edges together leaves the most room inside for fillings.
As you seal each dumpling, place it on the cornstarch-ed baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic or a kitchen towel while assembling the rest. Make sure they’re coated in cornstarch if you run out of baking sheet space. You don’t want them to stick together. At this point you can cover them tightly with plastic and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. They also freeze beautifully. If you make meat or mushroom dumplings the marinating phase can help tenderize them, but if you’re boiling them anyway, most of that hard work will be undone. Preferably steam them or pan-fry them to maintain the moisture.
To cook: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil or set up a bamboo steamer or metal steamer lined with lettuce or cabbage leaves. When boiling drop in just enough dumplings so that they have room to boil (about 15 per batch?). Let cook about 5 minutes and then remove one and see if the wrapper is softened and the filling is hot. If there’s meat in the dumpling see if it’s cooked through. 
If you didn’t a do a good job sealing the dumplings the cashew filling will explode and go everywhere in the liquid. That’s fine, really, as long as you have a slotted spoon or a sieve to fish them out, and you don’t mind eating mostly wrappers with filling on the side, thus negating all your hard stuffing work.
To pan-fry, heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick skillet (it will take a lot of batches). Drop the pot stickers into the pan so they’re close but not touching, and cook until the bottoms are browned, about 3 minutes. Hold the lid over most of pan, and carefully pour inabout 1/4 cup of water or vegetable broth (preferably dashi or mushroom-soaking liquid). The pan should sizzle and steam. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Cook about 8 minutes, checking pan and shaking occasionally to loosen pot stickers. If they get dry, add a little water. Remove pot stickers with spatula, and serve hot with soy sauce, black vinegar, and hot sauce so diners can add as much of each condiment to a small dish and mix their own sauce.
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