Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Dinner Tonight: Teriyaki steak & pot stickers

I have mentioned before that hubby is kind of carb-happy.  That's why it really came as no surprise when he came into the kitchen when I said dinner was ready and said "is there bread?"  We were clearly having an Asian-inspired dinner and he still wanted to know if there was bread.  Have you ever had bread at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant?  I know I haven't. 
However, due to our starch-loving habits I did attempt to make another side dish, though after my crab rangoon failure I was a little apprehensive.  I made pot stickers  from the great maven of Chinese cuisine, Martha Stewart.  Really I had just had a craving for pot stickers for a while and saw this recipe in Martha's magazine and decided to give it a try, especially because I still had leftover wontons from the crab rangoon.  I used ground turkey instead of pork, green onions instead of chives ($.33/bunch versus over $2), and added some garlic powder because everything needs garlic.  I also had to substitute for the sherry since I couldn't justify buying a whole bottle in order to use 1.5 teaspoons.  I used some dry white wine instead.
The flavor of the meat was really yummy and exactly what I wanted, but I had some trouble with the wrappers.  I think that wonton wrappers are much thinner than the dough Chinese places actually use to make dumplings, and several of my pot stickers fell apart.  The ones that held together worked out okay though, hubby wasn't crazy about the texture but I think it grew on him.  I actually made these on Sunday and froze them since I wasn't 100% sure if I would make this meal on schedule.  So when I made them tonight I just thawed them and re-fried them really quickly.
The dipping sauce Martha recommends was not that flavorful and way too sour, so I had to try to doctor it to make it taste like the yummy sauce they serve at restaurants.  I added quite a bit more sugar and then some honey to try to thicken it a bit, plus red pepper flakes and more scallions.  The end result still wasn't quite right, but it was decent.
As for the technical "star" of this meal, the teriyaki steak, I basically just made it up as I went a long.  I cut sirloin into thin strips and seasoned with garlic powder, red pepper flakes and a sprinkle of sesame oil, then stir-fried in a bit of vegetable oil.  I added soy sauce and light teriyaki sauce once it was almost done cooking.  It was pretty tasty though nothing earth-shattering.  I didn't want to go to crazy with the sauce since hubby isn't a huge fan.  I served with some plain white Minute Rice (I'm scared of my rice maker and can never get the sticky kind to turn out right).


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Estimated cost of meal

Wontons: $.85
Turkey: $.40
Scallions: $.10
Ginger: $.50
Seasoning: $.30
Dipping Sauce: $.50
Steak: $2.50
Rice: $.50
Seasoning: $.10

Total: $5.75

Former life total: Dinner @ BD's: $37

Leaner Life Savings: $31.25 or 84%!!!


1 comment:

Kristi said...

This looks pretty good! I have an asian beef recipe i will send to you. It's so easy you just broil for 5 min. Tom loves it!

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