Sesame Beef Pot Stickers

Daylight saving. The kids are going to bed at five PM, which is its own form of psychological warfare. Ryan was on duty at Miramar. Standard week.

Caleb, 7, wants to be a firefighter still. Has not deviated. Hazel, 4, chaos incarnate. Put a peanut butter sandwich in the DVD player Wednesday. Showed zero remorse.

Meatloaf Tuesday. The classic. Glazed. Mashed potatoes underneath.

Mom called Sunday. We talked while she was putting up tomatoes from the garden. She is sixty-something and gardening like she is forty.

Ryan came home from work. Dinner was on the stove. The basics held.

Ryan came home tired Wednesday. He showered, ate, sat on the couch, was asleep by eight. Standard for a Marine who has been up since four-thirty for PT and stayed late for a brief. The schedule is the schedule. The body adapts because it has to.

Dad called. He has been gardening. He is sending zucchini updates again. The PTSD is managed. He talks more than he used to. He is becoming his own version of healed, which I did not think was possible at fourteen.

Caleb watched the firefighters at a school visit Wednesday and came home buzzing. He is going to be one. I have known this since he was four. Some kids tell you who they are early.

Hazel and I had a hard moment Tuesday at homework time. She is in a season of testing limits. We worked through it. We always do. She is mine.

I read the blog comments at the kitchen table with my coffee. A young spouse in Lejeune emailed me about deployment cooking. I wrote her back at length. I told her about the freezer. I told her about Donna. I told her she would survive. I sent her three of Donna's recipes.

The kitchen counter has a chip in it from someone before us. Some military housing thing. I have stopped asking what. The chip is fine. The whole kitchen is provisional. We are renting from Uncle Sam.

Base housing is base housing. Beige walls, beige carpet, beige expectations. The dryer venting is in a stupid place. The kitchen has no dishwasher. We make it work.

The military spouses' Facebook group had a small drama this week. Two women fighting over the playgroup schedule. I muted notifications and cooked dinner. Some weeks the group is the lifeline. Some weeks it is the source of unnecessary stress. The skill is knowing which week you're in.

The Friday before-school morning was chaos. Three kids, two backpacks, one missing shoe. We all made it to the bus. I drank cold coffee at nine AM because that's when I sat down. Standard.

I went to the commissary Saturday morning. Got the grocery haul under sixty bucks for the week, which is a small victory. The cashier knows me. We talked about her grandkids while she scanned the chicken thighs and the family-size box of pasta. Small-town energy on a Marine base in California.

The kids' soccer game was Saturday morning. The other parents brought oranges and Capri Suns. I brought a thermos of coffee for myself and a folding chair I bought at Target three years ago that has been to four duty stations now. The chair is a more loyal companion than some of my friends.

Wednesday morning meal prep — Sunday afternoon, hours of containers. The freezer is full. The future-me thanks present-me. Donna taught me this routine. Donna's freezer was always full. Donna saved her sanity with quart bags labeled in Sharpie.

I made a casserole for a neighbor whose husband is deployed. I dropped it off. She cried. I told her, eat the casserole, baby. The food is the saying. The casserole was a mostly-frozen tater-tot situation that took fifteen minutes of effort and six months of practice to perfect.

Meatloaf Tuesday held its ground this week — it always does — but I keep a second recipe in my back pocket for the nights when I want dinner to feel like a choice rather than a routine. These sesame beef pot stickers are what I made the following Thursday, after I’d restocked the freezer on Sunday and was feeling, briefly, like a person with her life together. Donna gave me the bones of this one too, scrawled on an index card that lives in a recipe box I’ve moved to four duty stations. The kids eat them without complaint, Ryan ate eight of them without speaking, and the dipping sauce takes thirty seconds to mix, which is thirty seconds less than it takes Hazel to find something else to put in the DVD player.

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6 (about 40 pot stickers)

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef (85/15)
2 tbsp sesame oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 package round dumpling wrappers (about 40 count)
2 tbsp vegetable oil, for pan-frying
1/3 cup water, for steaming
1 tsp sesame seeds, for garnish
For the dipping sauce: 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)

Instructions

Make the filling. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, 1 tbsp sesame oil, garlic, ginger, green onions, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and white pepper. Mix until just combined — do not overwork it.
Fold the pot stickers. Place a dumpling wrapper flat on your palm. Spoon about 1 tsp of filling into the center. Wet the edges of the wrapper with a fingertip dipped in water. Fold the wrapper in half over the filling and press to seal, pleating the top edge as you go. Set on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
Pan-fry. Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Arrange pot stickers flat-side down in a single layer (work in batches). Cook undisturbed for 2 to 3 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.
Steam. Carefully pour 1/3 cup water into the skillet — it will spatter, step back. Immediately cover with a tight lid and reduce heat to medium. Steam for 5 to 6 minutes until the water is absorbed and the wrappers are cooked through.
Finish and rest. Remove the lid and let the bottoms re-crisp for 1 minute. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat with remaining batches, adding a little more oil as needed.
Mix the dipping sauce. Whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and chili flakes if using. Serve alongside.
Freezer note. To freeze uncooked pot stickers, arrange in a single layer on a parchment-lined sheet and freeze solid (about 2 hours), then transfer to labeled quart bags. Cook from frozen: add 2 extra minutes to the steaming time. Future-you will say thank you.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sesame Beef Pot Stickers — When Meatloaf Tuesday Needs a Night Off