Roasted Corn and Cream Cheese Baked Potstickers

When Hurricane Irene first got on my personal radar, I knew it meant no grilling outside this weekend. (Seriously, that was my first thought - only later did I realize that this storm was going to be more than just a rainy day or two.) Instead, I pulled out some of the awesome indoor recipes I've been meaning to try.

There are quite a few delicious summer recipes in my stockpile that require me to be inside at the stove. But since I generally think it's a waste not to take advantage of the grill on beautiful summer evenings, most of these recipes just gather dust. In fact, most of the time I've spent at the stove this summer has been making sauce with my bounteous harvest of tomatoes (some from the backyard, the rest from the CSA). But with lingering rain and high winds all through Sunday afternoon, it was the perfect time to delve into my neglected recipe files!

These potstickers were awesome. Roasting the corn brings out a delicious, super-concentrated flavor that melded well with the tangy Parmesan. Fresh rosemary adds an aromatic element and the smooth cream cheese binds it all together. What a delicious combo! And to make it better, since we had just finished making a pork tenderloin on the stove, we brushed the potstickers with rendered pork fat rather than olive oil, to add an extra level of flavor (and to recycle!). I have to warn you, though, that despite being baked, these are not a low-calorie treat. I put this recipe into the calorie-counting website I use and the four potstickers that I ate (a quarter of the recipe) came out over 500 calories. Yikes! But a month of record rainfall plus a destructive hurricane should count as a special occasion, right?


Roasted Corn and Cream Cheese Baked Potstickers
Slightly adapted from Naturally Ella. 

12-16 wonton wrappers (we got 16 out of them)

1/2 tbsp olive oil

2 ears corn, sliced off the cob

1/2 c green onions, diced

2 oz cream cheese (1/4 package)

1/2 tbsp rosemary, chopped (to release the oils)

1/2 c Parmesan

salt and pepper

water for sealing

olive oil for brushing (or whatever fat or drippings you might have on hand!)

Preheat oven to 400° F. Toss the olive oil, corn and green onions together in a bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the corn mixture in a single layer on it, then roast for 15-20 minutes (corn kernels are small - be careful not to let them burn!). Let cool slightly. Turn the oven down to 350° F.

In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, rosemary, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Pulse until combined. Once the corn mixture has cooled a bit, add that and pulse a few times to mix. (I made the mistake of tossing everything in at once, so my corn is a bit more chopped up than it ought to be.)

Get your wonton wrappers and sealing-water ready. Spoon about 1 tbsp filling into a wrapper. With the tip of your finger, wet the edges of the wrapper, then fold to seal. My method was to bring two sides together to a peak, then fold the remaining two sides in to fill the gaps. (I had never worked with wonton wrappers before, and I didn't know how to seal them properly. And still don't, really. After a few missteps, I came up with this method which worked pretty well. A few had filling oozing out in the oven, but it wasn't a big deal. If I was planning to deep fry them, though, I think I'd have to seal them more effectively.) Repeat with the rest of the wrappers until the filling is gone.

Line up the potstickers on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush with olive oil (or pork drippings! You don't have to have as heavy a hand as Jeff did here, but they were delicious!).

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown (15 was enough to get mine looking like the picture below). Enjoy!