I’ve amassed a bunch of crappy iphone pics (and crappy good camera pics) to share with internet-land. Operation photo barf commencing.

How about the above bar near Lake Burton? I’m considering opening a satellite location in College Park.

The wines I’ve tasted lately have continued to be an embarrassment of riches. Le Montrachet (right) is one of the most prized vineyards in the world, while the Leroy (left) one of the best producers. But this ’02 Leroy is simply a bourgogne (unclassified grapes, not necessarily from a particular vineyard). The Grand Cru is clearly better, but the lowly Bourgogne held its ground. And it costs 1/5th the price.

Columbia has food truck parking lot get-togethers, just like Atlanta. And just like Atlanta, it’s hot, and the lines are long and the food takes a while.

Georgia Tech football has been fun. Can’t beat a night game in Midtown.

The Quality Wine & Spirits / Inland Seafood show was a few weeks ago. This is Kevin O’Connor of LIOCO. They make good chardonnay and pinot noir that you will see around town.

The Jon-David Headrick table was where all the cool kids were hanging.

These St. George gins were amazing. Gotta find me some of these.

Two dogs waiting on their owner at Octane.

Really nice white blend. I had this in South Carolina, but the Au Bon Climat wines are recently available at Holeman & Finch bottle shop.

A few tacos from the new location of Verde. The shrimp and grits special on the left was tasty, and the schlong looking buffalo chicken was way better than it looks below. Pulled pork was surprisingly tender with a few chunks of bark. When I want “fusion tacos”, I much prefer Verde to Taqueria del Sol. I hate standing in line.

Playing around with the Tartine Bread pizza dough recipe with Rowdy. This was late night. He can make them look way prettier than this.

My former roommate got married last weekend, this was his groom’s cake.

Wine lunch at One Eared Stag. This one was one of my favorites.

And this one.

And this one too.

Bone marrow at OES.

Catfish at OES was extra dirty tasting (it IS a bottom feeder), but the creamed cabbage it was served on…beat still my arteries!!

Pork sandwich.

Salt and pepper shrimp. Best thing I’ve had in a while.

Crab cakes a friend sent from G&M as a wedding present. MASSIVE lumps of crab, very little batter. I made a yuzu kosho mayo to go with them. If you don’t have yuzu kosho, buy some, it’s citrusy and spicy and powerful.

Two winners from Tim Gaddis’ (Star Provisions) cheese week. The goat cheese feta from Carrolton made me never wanna turn back to the mass produced stuff at the grocery store.

I’ve been cooking bomba (Spanish) rice in the paella style, then scraping up the rice from the pan once the socarrat (the crispy layer on the bottom) has formed. Then I eat it with normal fried rice accompaniments, or just a splash of soy sauce and sriracha. It’s uber crunchy and the short rice is so resilient with good chew and absorbs flavors like no other. I don’t want normal long grain fried rice anymore.

This month I cooked the Pickled Shrimp out of December’s Bon Appetit. I’m two issues behind, but I have done a BA post once a month since November of 2008. That’s dedication, homes.

I had pickled GA white shrimp at Abattoir, and it was rockin’, so when I saw this recipe, and my roommate brought back some shrimp from Savannah, I was on my way. It’s a relatively easy process, but it was slightly time consuming. Peeling shrimp sucks.

After peeling the freezing cold shrimp, they were cooked in the boiling mixture. I didn’t have celery seed or whole mustard seed so I cut that out. Personally I think having 6+ spices in a boiling mixture is a farce. There’s no way that after cooking the shrimp, then pickling them, that you’re gonna say “oh, is that a hint of cardamom?”.

The recipe says to boil for 2 minutes, but I think the shrimp were ready after just one minute. Like a goon I let them go another minute though. Why am a slave to instructions???

While the shrimp were chilling out (get it?) I put together the pickling liquid.

…and added the shrimp.

I refrigerated for about 4 hours, which is longer than the 3 specified, but shorter than the 6 hour max window. I’m guessing they get a bit stringy or mushy from the vinegar after 6 hours.

They were tasty, nice flavor, and I enjoyed it with the paired prosecco, but they were missing some of the “snap” of the pickled shrimp I had at Abattoir. I think less cook time and possibly less pickle time could help with that. As these shrimp were previously frozen, that could have something to do with it too. Also, this recipe took a bunch of time, so not sure I’m eager to do it again. I think pickling is more gratifying when the labor is rewarded by the fact that you have tons of picked stuff you can use for a long time, but in this case, you have a 3-6 hour window.

BONUS POST!!!

I made French Onion soup because I was reading about it and craved it afterwards. My soup was loosely based on the Thomas Keller recipe. Here we have a bunch of onions cooking for forty minutes.

Then deglazed with white wine.

Then I used the rest of my Ad Hoc beef stock and added the garni.

Then broiled it with cheese and crouton. Good snack.

There is an abundance of “Mexican” food around Atlanta, but to me the genre gets broken up into three categories: theme park Mexican, Tex-Mex, and authentic Mexican.

Theme Park Mexican is the majority of what I see in Atlanta. Last night I went to La Parilla on Howell Mill and this restaurant would qualify for this category. Huge drinks, sombreros, and quirky names are the norm. If you go to La Parilla’s menu online and click on the section for “Traditional Mexican Dishes” you may notice that they display a photo of a hamburger. Our waitress called us “amigos” with a painted-on smile at least a dozen times, and somehow it came across in a way as if she thought her manager was listening somewhere nearby.

My definition of Tex-Mex is anywhere that successfully specializes in the dishes of Mexican origin, popularized in America. These dishes may utilize Mexican ingredients and flavors, but the dish as we know it here, may not actually be eaten in Mexico. A sizzling plate of fajitas comes to mind. Nuevo Laredo is Tex-Mex to me, even though they foray into mole, barbacoa, and simple carnes asadas. But calling them Tex-Mex isn’t a dirty word to me, Tex-Mex can be done brilliantly, as anyone who has been to San Antonio can attest.

Authentic Mexican be found in the carnicerias on Buford Highway. The primary offering being small, inexpensive tacos with your choice of cabeza, lengua, al pastor, chorizo, barbacoa, or some other meat offering, and a tiny amount of onion and cilantro. You may get a molcajete set on your table filled with a variety of thin red/green salsas or pico de gallo. Chips and salsa are generally not provided for free, if offered at all. 40 oz magaritas are nowhere in sight.

Sorry for the essay on this, but when I went to Bone Garden Cantina on the Westside for the first time, I noticed that on their list of “rules” ala Vortex (same owner) they state, “We do not serve ‘Americanized’ Mexican food, so if that’s what you’re looking for you are in the wrong place.”

With that, I set off to decide on which category I’d place them based on my two meals.

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Thin and hot chips were delivered quickly on both occasions, served with a fairly good salsa, which is a bit thicker and flavorful than most water like salsa served at the theme parks. It reminded me of a cilantro-light version of the Nuevo salsa.

There’s lots of interesting paintings around the room, which was absolutely packed when I went there on a Friday afternoon. On my other visit it was still fairly busy, especially considering the industrial location on Ellsworth.

I thought the way the light shone on the devil’s head in this photo was kind of interesting.

On my first visit I got a pork tamale, as well as chicken and beef tongue tacos on corn tortillas.  These tacos were awful. The meat was flavorless, but the sauces were even worse. The filling was too plentiful, making it difficult to eat, and the whole thing turned into a soggy and bland mess. The tamale was formed appropriately, but the meat also lacked any discernable flavor. Despite the menu’s indication that you should order the tamales before they run out, based on this experience, I don’t really think you’re going to have a problem finding one.

Katie got a veggie taco and empanada. I didn’t taste her food, but she wasn’t a fan either.

You can see how soggy the tortillas became after just a few minutes.

That first visit was probably two months ago, and I held back on the post because I felt I really needed a second visit before I posted so negatively. Also, I had received a tip that the flour tortillas were the way to go.

On the next visit I got a chicharrones taco on flour tortilla with rice and beans. This taco isn’t listed under the regular taco section on the menu and is easily missed. This time the filling size was much more appropriate, the meat was less soggy, and the amount of salsa had thankfully been significantly cut back and actually had a sharp green salsa flavor. The fried pork skin wasn’t stellar, but a few pieces were appropriately crunchy and flavorful. I also liked the charred tortilla and it held up just fine.

I also got the chorizo enchilada in guajillo chili sauce, which tastes exactly like a red chile sauce I recently made which I’d recommend. The sauce was delicious and the chorizo was as greasy and satisfying as it should be. This was my favorite dish.

My dining companion on this occasion had a shredded chicken taco, and while I don’t remember his thoughts on this, I wanted to put the picture on display to show how much more in balance the ingredients are compared to the first visit.

He also had the shrimp enchilada, which he seemed to like well enough, though he did comment on the sauce being a little thick and gloppy.

My second visit was significantly better than my first, decent enough to the point where I’d go back, especially considering how close it is to my place. I’m not going to confirm the “authentic Mexican” claim on their rules, though I wouldn’t relegate them to the theme park status either.

That leaves them in my Tex-Mex category, which as I’ve mentioned, isn’t a bad place to be. But to be candid, I’m only going to go to Bone Garden when Nuevo is packed, because Nuevo does this genre better.

I’ve been on a major Tex-Mex kick in the kitchen the last two weeks, my bounty including enchiladas rojas, black beans with chorizo, grilled/stuffed poblanos, various forms of taquitos, and shrimp enchiladas verdes.

The red chile sauce for the enchiladas rojas is fantastically easy, and the resulting sauce is wonderfully fragrant and spicy. The recipe is enough for one large batch of enchiladas, but I recommend doubling it so you have some leftover. I used a mix of mozzarella and cheddar for the enchilada filling, then topped them with a generous amount of cotija prior to baking.

The grilled/stuffed poblanos are much more enjoyable to me than their fried counterpart, but they are much hotter so be careful if you are sensitive to that. I may look into buying gloves for next time I handle so many chiles, because my hands were burning for 12 hours. Yesterday I was told that wiping your hands with a small amount of rubbing alcohol will remove the oils from the skin, but I have not confirmed this. If you have leftover filling for the poblanos (which I did both times I made them), use the filling for taquitos. Heat some oil, steam corn tortillas, fill and wrap them, then fry them in moderately hot oil for 2-3 minutes each side, or until very crunchy.

The enchiladas verdes were delicious, the verde sauce had the tangy flavor of the tomatillos, but the addition of peppers into the salsa added some welcome complexity and heat. We had the black bean side dish with the shrimp enchiladas – you can’t really go wrong with Mexican chorizo, and the dollop of chipotle crema on top was exquisite. Ok, maybe more than a dollop. And yes, that is a glass of rosé in the background.

Which leads me to the title of this post – both the enchilada and the black bean recipe made use of crema, which I had not purchased until I did so as an impulse buy at Buford Highway Farmer’s Market recently.

Mexican crema is often considered synonymous with French crème fraîche, both being a soured cream, but thinner than the American version of sour cream. Both Mexican crema and crème fraîche can be difficult to find at your run of the mill grocery store, but they are readily available at many stores in the Buford Highway area and other specialty grocers.

If you can’t find it, or are feeling adventurous, it’s quite easy to make at home. A variety of recipes are available online, but they will all make use of cream and a sour acid, which could be buttermilk (which is high in lactic acid), or in many cases, lime juice. This website goes into more detail on crema and includes both recipes, or you can conform and view a recipe here on Epicurious.

The crema is delicious on it’s own as a condiment, but as can be seen in the beans/chorizo dish, it’s fun to play around with the flavor, and the consistency is easily workable. I recommend keeping a pint of it around, it will be quite easy to find a variety of uses.

accolades: the meal photographed for this post was made with my Mom, who deserves credit for most of the cooking of this dish.

Father’s Day is today, and I appreciate the time a handful of people took to leave comments nominating their dads for one of these MUG BBQ packs. There were definitely some good comments – you can view them all here. We had 6 nominations, but only 5 packs to give away. I randomly picked the 5 winners (audited by KPMG) and will email the winners directly.

Thanks for participating, and I hope your enjoying what has been a nice sunny Father’s Day in Atlanta.

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I did make the MUG Southern Specialty Brew-B-Q Sauce and used it to make lunch today.

There was quite a bit of ketchup in this recipe. For some reason, mass amounts of ketchup kinda grosses me out. No idea why.

All of the ingredients were poured directly into my sauce pan and brought to a boil, followed by 20 minutes of simmering, until the sauce was reduced to around 1.5 cups.

The sauce is pretty good, slightly sweet, definitely tangy, though I would like a bit more kick. It’s a nice canvas to work with, a versatile sauce I think.

I decided to make a shrimp dish with it. I wasn’t really sure what. Sometimes it is fun to just start cooking and see where you end up.

I marinated the shrimp in garlic, cilantro, olive oil, and the MUG BBQ sauce.

I got some rice going, then roasted some poblanos. Once the poblanos were done, I peeled, seeded, and sliced them. Then they were sautéed with chopped onions and black beans.

When the rice was almost done the shrimp went on the grill for just a couple of minutes each side.

I steamed a tortilla, then threw it directly on my grill.

After I flipped it I threw some thin slices of Monterrey jack cheese on the tortilla, closed the grill top for one minute, then removed it from the grill.

Then I plated the tortilla, drizzled some BBQ sauce, threw on the rice, put the bean/onion/poblano mixture on top of the rice, then the shrimp on top of everything.

For the final touch I spooned a small amount of some more BBQ sauce on top and enjoyed my lunch. It was definitely a winner, a satisfying Mexican inspired dish with a touch of Southern BBQ sweetness that I think worked out very well. The whole thing didn’t feel too heavy, and had great bursts of flavor. I decided that grilling the tortilla was money.

But sometimes nothing beats heading out and allowing yourself to be generously fed by the hands of seasoned barbeque professionals. I’ve been craving Fox Brothers something fierce lately (look at Bliss’ pictures of the Lopez!), but I’ve seen some other BBQ news recently that I’ve filed away for myself and would like to share.

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It’s not the most recent news, Dusty’s Barbeque closed this past April. I really enjoyed this place, above average pulled pork, great hush puppies, and I always loved the piece of cracklin’ that came with a plate. You can still call in to their 215 Laredo Drive location for lunch to-go, and they still offer catering.

Todd Richards of One Flew South announced on his website that his restaurant group, Lush Life Group, will be taking over Rolling Bones on Edgewood. I’ve never been to Rolling Bones, but Chef Richards’ new menu has definitely caught my eye. There are some great new additions like soy & citrus marinated duck and a smoked trout sandwich with tomato corn relish on brioche. Chef Richard told me the new menu should roll out on June 15th. 

I saw today on Daily Candy that DBA Barbeque is now open on Highland Avenue. There isn’t a full menu online, but they do mention that they will have all the usual suspects (pork, chicken, 15 sides), as well as a few not so common offerings like oysters and shrimp & grits.

Phew. I’m going to need hit the gym extra hard this summer.

It was nice enough to sit outside, so I’ll take that while I can get it in Atlanta.

The lunch menu features a 3 martini lunch for $15, offering an impressive looking list of soups, small appetizers, and desserts. Both of us went for the 3 martini lunch, and ordered the oysters gratin to start.

The oysters were impressively presented in a large boat over rock salt, peppercorns, and star anise. The oysters themselves looked badass too. In general, I only like raw oysters. I think the whole point is that a fresh, firm, salty oyster tastes more like the ocean than anything else you can eat, but I do make exceptions when there is bacon, butter, or cheese involved.

These oysters were fairly large, cooked with loads of butter, plenty of spinach, and just a bit of bacon. You can see from the color they were cooked perfectly – not dry, not soggy, and I thought they were delicious. I wish they had given us six oysters instead of five so I didn’t have to arm-wrestle Buddha for the last one.

Shortly after, our “martini” lunch arrived. They were in sans-stem martini glasses, served on the same style of plate as the oysters. The problem is, that plate is too large for the place mat, so before the server could set anything down we had to perform a slight reconfiguration. In fact, the place mats didn’t really fit the table either. But, I don’t get too hung up on stuff like that as long as the food is good.

On that note, the firecracker shrimp had just a slight hint of the mustard that was said to be in the dish, but too faint in my opinion. The shrimp tasted like fried shrimp do, they were fried the proper amount, but they were served lukewarm and were cold by the time I finished them. They were served on top of chopped lettuce to help fill up the volume of the glass. This was no problem for me, but when FB was trying to eat his tuna tartare the tuna got all mixed up in the chopped lettuce and I could tell it was annoying him as it made it difficult to eat.

The pea soup, for which I was most excited, just didn’t do it for me. It tasted fresh, the mint and nuts were a nice touch, but it tasted a bit flat and needed more seasoning. Maybe some people would appreciate the simplicity of the unseasoned approach?

The duck croquette was a bright spot in the meal – you could taste the savory duck, it was crispy and delicious, and I liked the small amount of sweet potato puree. But doesn’t it look ridiculous in that glass?

Like I said, I usually don’t get hung up on the presentation thing, but this time it was a real hassle. The place mats are too small for the table, the boat plate is too small for the place mat, and the martini glasses are too large for the dishes. Also, while in theory I like the pick 3 approach, and $15 isn’t bad for a restaurant of this caliber (service was excellent by the way), I left hungry and slightly unimpressed with the oversight on these small details.

However, I do plan on going back. The oysters rocked. Overall everything else wasn’t bad, just not “gee I’m happy I spent $30 on lunch” good. I’ve heard great things about dinner and I’m really interested in trying the rabbit. But if you go for lunch, I’d just stick to the regular portion of the lunch menu.

I’ve been sitting on this tzatziki post for a while, but looking back, I’m pleased with the effort and patience involved in making this dish. It’s not hard per se, but there are some small touches that made it particularly enjoyable and satisfying.

I’ve noticed in the last few years that there are a wider array of thick Greek yogurts available at your everyday supermarkets, particularly the Fage brand, and I think more Americans are starting to enjoy their lush, creamy texture and depth of flavor over the Yoplait of old. These dense yogurts are much closer to the consistency of a tzaziki sauce, which gets it richness from the straining of excess water found in regular yogurt. As such, you can create a fine tzaziki from these new yogurts without the extra straining steps, but using these thick Greek yogurts as the starting off point, with a little effort you can create an even more fantastic tzaziki that is less condiment and more of a meal unto itself.

Prior to 2003, I had only had tzaziki on a gyro, but I had my eyes opened when I had an appetizer of fresh pita and tzaziki at an alley way restaurant in Paris, and I couldn’t stop eating the stuff. If you’ve only had the mayonnaise-like pedestrian tzaziki served at fast food Greek joints, you really need to try this.

Anyways, you can see that I’ve started with the Trader Joe’s Greek Style yogurt, which I had not tried yet, but it was a great price and Trader Joe private label products are usually reliable. The rest of the dish is made with the traditional ingredients of garlic, cucumber, and dill. You can leave out the dill, but I love the flavor it adds to the tzaziki.

First I halved a large cucumber lengthwise and scooped out the guts with a small spoon by running it down the length of each halve.

Next I put out some cheese cloth (available here) in two colanders. In one I placed the cucumbers, which I cubed and salted generously, and in the other I scooped out the yogurt. The salt on the cucumber helps draw out the excess water.

Once you have your yogurt and cucumber in the cheese cloth, you are going to want to leave it there for three to four hours. That seems like an excessive amount of time, but your patience will pay off. The yogurt will be just fine.

This picture is at almost four hours. You can see the difference in this photo and the previous one. Pools of water are collected on the edges, and there should be some water that has already strained through the cloth. If you are using a regular yogurt, as apposed to a Greek yogurt, you are going to see quite a bit more water than this.

At this point, you can pull up the sides on the cheese cloth, twist it at the top, then help the water strain through by gently squeezing. This may take some time as there should be a fair amount of water, but you want to be careful not to push the yogurt through the top of the cloth. Repeat this process with the cucumber. You may be surprised at how much water is removed. Just think how much richer your tzaziki will be!

Once you are satisfied, simply mix the yogurt with the cucumber, minced garlic, and minced dill to taste. You may be tempted to season this with salt, but remember what happens when you add salt?

Now we’re left with a tzaziki of unparalleled creamy goodness. I ate a ton of it with some fresh pita from H&F Bread Co.

Of course, I did have a lot leftover, and darned if it isn’t good as a condiment (despite my lambasting earlier). I marinated some shrimp with garlic, dill, and olive oil, then grilled them in a pan.

My H&F pita, grilled shrimp, tzaziki, and carrot sandwich was delightful.

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I was reading The Food in My Beard yesterday and up comes a new post featuring one of my favorites – Buffalo Wings. It’s really quite incredible. Everything that Dan (my culinary brother from another mother) posts about on TFIMB is something that I crave, love, or would make. Italian food, pizza, meat, frying things, and otherwise greasy-goodness are high on my list, so his site really hits the spot. 

Viewing this in depth wing post made me really crave the buttery spicy perfection that is anything buffalo style, but I didn’t want to run out to the store. Checking out the fridge, I did see I had all the makings for buffalo shrimp, so within minutes, we were off to the races. 

First I let the shrimp thaw (Trader Joe’s peeled, uncooked shrimp with tails – pretty decent), then I let them soak in a mix of salt, cayenne, and buttermilk for about 75 minutes. I then took them out and patted them dry (above). 

Here I’m getting the sauce ready – almost half a stick of butter, Frank’s RedHot cayenne sauce (the best I think), and a little Cholula for some variety. 

While I heated the canola oil (enough to fully submerge a shrimp), I dredged the shrimp in the flour, cayenne, and pepper. Leave the tails on, they are perfect for grabbing the shrimp when eating later. 

Frying the shrimp. I turned them over after 1-2 minutes, but they may not be necessary. They only need a 2-3 minutes total, depending on the size of your shrimp. 

Tossing them in the buffalo sauce, then ready to eat. The plated shrimp picture is at the top of the post. 

They were fantastic; extremely satisfying, a little crunchy, with perfect buffalo flavor. I would have liked a little more “batter” on the outside of them; maybe next time I won’t shake off so much of the excess flour while dredging, but that’s just a personal preference. 

My only problem was, I was still hungry as I only had 8 shrimp or so. AND, I still had some buffalo sauce and a pan full of hot oil. What to do, what to do….

…Buffalo fried quesadilla

I still had some cubed/steamed potatoes, some black beans, tortillas, and cheese, so I decided to try something new. 

First I sautéed the beans and potatoes in the remaining buffalo sauce.

Zapped the tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds to make it softer, then got my cheese ready. 

Folded it over, then dropped it right in the frying oil. It wasn’t deep enough to cover, so I had to give it a flip. It cooked for a total of 1 minute each side. 

Served, with some drizzled buffalo sauce on top. I’m not playing it cool…this was the real deal…glorious, in fact. The crunchy outside, opening into an explosion of gooey cheesy bean and potato goodness, with awesome waves of buffalo flavor attacking from both the outside and inside of the quesadilla. 

I made a special trip to the gym that evening to punish myself for the sins which I have committed. But it was worth it.

Yesterday I continued to use the dumpling wrappers I used for yesterday’s wonton post, this time for my favorite ever….pot stickers. 

I did some research on the interwebz and below is the recipe I sort of created using many sources of inspiration. I guess that makes it somewhat original.

Pot Sticker Ingredients – Makes 30-35

•  1/2 cup Napa Cabbage, chopped
• 1/4 lb ground pork
• 1/4 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped
• 1 stalk green onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
• 1 tsp soy saunce
• 1 tsp ginger, minced
• 1/4 cup canned bamboo shoots
• 3/4 tsp corn starch
• Round dumpling wrappers
• Dipping sauce – 1 tsp garlic chili sauce, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp rice wine vineger

To start, place all of the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl, and toss to coat. Ensure that your cabbage has been drained of excess water. Using a tip from one site, I put the chopped cabbage in some cheese cloth with some salt and squeezed out the water. If you do not get the water out, your dumplings will be soggy on the inside. That’s also the reason for the corn starch – it acts as a binder and sucks up excess liquid. 

Once everything is mixed well, give it a few twirls in your food processor. 

Place roughly 1/2 to 3/4 tbsp of filling in each wonton, wet the edges with finger (I set up a bowl of water to dip my finger into), and seal it up. I have a picture of my ready-to-cook pot sticker at the top of this post. There are plenty of videos online showing you how to pinch/seal a pot sticker but I didn’t make the time to watch one yet. Don’t judge me. 

Then, heat 1-2 tbsp of canola oil in a pan which has a top to it. When it’s hot, but not smoking, add your pot stickers. If you crowd them, you will have sticking problems later. Let them cook in the oil for a couple of minutes while you go fill up a glass with 3/4 cup of hot water. 

Get your pan top ready, then pour in the water and quickly seal the pan with the top. Reduce the heat to medium and let them steam for 5 minutes or so. At 5 minutes, take the top off, let them cook for a minute or so more, then do your best to remove them from the pan. 

Here is how mine came out. 

Pros: The filling was great (the small amount of shrimp added great flavor), the pot stickers were satisfying, so overall I was happy with attempt #1
Cons: A few of them stuck and the dumplings tore open. Also, I would like them a little crispier on the bottom even though I steamed them. Maybe I need to play around with the amount of water I use and also the cooking time. They kind of came out more like Gyoza. 
Other:  The dipping sauce was just average. I am going to have to play around with the recipe and do some online research.