We Love Dumplings!

 I started making wontons back in high school.  My mom had come across a recipe for "Tex-Mex Wontons" and we made them for pretty  much every party we hosted.  In essence, it was taco meat folded into a wonton skin and fried. They were awesome.


After college, my friend Susannah showed me how she makes her famous dumplings.  You may call them potstickers. Do you know the reason they call them that? If you steam a wonton skin, it becomes soft, pliable and kind of gummy.  So, they will stick to a pot in a heartbeat unless you know what you're doing. So what do you do?  You fry the bottoms of your dumplings in a thin layer of oil until they are crispy.  Then, carefully (very, very carefully) add water to the pan and cover it quickly to steam.  The fried bottom keeps the dumpling from sticking to your pot.  Skip this step and you have one stuck-to-the-pot fiasco.

So, ever since Susannah taught me this technique, I've been making my own.  They are ridiculously easy and so darn tasty.

Tonight's batch started with about a pound of ground pork.  I grated ginger and garlic over the meat, added chopped green onion and chopped water chestnuts.  Then I added just a little soy sauce for flavor and mixed it all up with my hands. 

Then, I placed about 2 teaspoons of meat into the center of my wonton wrapper, wet the edges with water and just twisted them up.  

Like I said, heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet with a good fitting lid.  Fry the bottoms of the dumplings until they are browned and easily lift from the skillet.  Next, add about 1/4 cup of water.  I shield myself with the lid as I add the water to prevent spatter and then cover it quickly.  Let steam a couple of minutes and that's all she wrote.


I like to mix up a dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some sliced green onion.  Simple and delicious.

Tonight, I served the dumplings with a vegetable fried rice, using peas, carrots, green beans, onions and scrambled egg.

This is a great way to spice up dinner at home and you can make big batches and freeze these little babies for another day. And, just like stir-fry or fried rice, you can make your dumpling filling with pretty much whatever you have available: ground pork, turkey, chicken. Ginger & garlic, green onion, carrot, bean sprouts, you name it.  Don't let this simple dish not make its way into your home.  So very easy and something interesting on the plate.  Enjoy!

Baby's First Dish

As you all know, it's always been my goal to engage my child in cooking, food and nutrition.  As soon as she was old enough, I've had her in the kitchen.  Starting at things like pushing the buttons on the food processor, to measuring ingredients, mixing stuff up and even some beginner knife work.  But, tonight was the culmination of it all...my baby COOKED!

She's ready to roll!

 That's right.  She cooked an entire dish all by herself.  Of course I was standing right there overseeing, and I did all the prep work (chopping) but she cooked all by herself!  We decided to go with a Chinese flair tonight, so I worked on beef with broccoli while Viv worked on the veggie fried rice.  

So, this is onion, carrot, broccoli and ginger (which I think is nectar of the gods!)

I was so proud of her.  One: because she actually listened to and followed all of my directions.  Two: because she was talking constantly about her observations and her technique of stir-frying the veggies.  Three:  she sloped the rice up the sides of the wok like I told her and scrambled the egg down in the center. She did it all and we ended up with a great batch of fried rice. The real joy of it all was, of course, her pride in her creation and the excitement of being allowed to work with the stove and just do it.  Like all cooks though, at the table she kept insisting that my dish was better than hers while Neil and I insisted that the rice was the best.  

The beef with broccoli did turn out well too.  I used a flatiron steak, sliced really thin. Marinated in soy sauce, a little flour, a tiny bit of sugar and sherry cooking wine.  Stir-fried broccoli then cooked the steak with its marinade, which creates the sauce. 

I can't ever give Viv the plate that was chipped by the dishwasher. Ever.

  I may have said this to you all before, but I'm going to say it again. The beauty of Chinese cuisine is quantities.  Over dinner, we talked about this.  People walk into a place like Longhorn and order a 12 oz. steak.  That's a hell of a lot of meat.  That's more meat than a person is supposed to eat at any given sitting. Our dinner tonight was made with 8 oz. of steak and it was more than enough for the three of us.  What the Chinese know and have known for thousands of years is that you can take a little bit of a lot of things and make a satisfying meal.  


Think about this for a minute.  Fried rice is loaded with vegetables and tiny cubes of pork, chicken, tofu, or shrimp, right?  But, it's plenty for you.  MooGooGaiPan is thin slices of beautiful white chicken surrounded by tons of veggies.  Sweet and sour pork uses about 8 oz. of meat and the rest is all veggie.  And for those people who always say after eating Chinese food, they are hungry an hour later...all I can say is vary your selections.  You can't eat a wheelbarrow-load of fried rice, fried wontons or egg rolls and escape the carbohydrate coma and hunger that comes quickly.  You simply must treat this cuisine like any other.  Incorporate a salad, a main dish with protein, a veggie side and yes, carbs too.  But don't lump all Chinese in with your starch/MSG stupor and subsequent hunger.  Don't do it, I say!

My happiness tonight isn't stemming from the fact that I made beef and broccoli that Neil, the Vivver and I loved, but rather from the fact that my baby got in the kitchen tonight and OWNED  it!  I've waited for this day. Having her cooking alongside me, not having to worry about her getting hurt or spilling some hot something all over herself.  It was wonderful! If you have kids, bring them into the kitchen.  It will prepare them, in many ways, for their future life but also will bring so much joy to the here and now.  For you both.

"Kitchen Sink" Fried Rice

Making fried rice at home is the most efficient, and delicious, way to use leftover meats or vegetables that need to be used up before the rot monster gets them.  Plus, it's always so much better when you make it yourself.  I tend to make what we'll call Kitchen Sink rice because I'll throw in whatever I have that sounds good to me.  Which leads me to this evening...

Our dinner tonight was fried rice with shrimp, scallion-scrambled egg, baby corn, carrots, onions, bamboo shoots and a chiffonade of spinach added at the last minute.  It's kind of like pizza (see "The World's Most Perfect Food").  All the food groups (can) be represented.  In tonight's version, we had grain, dairy protein, lean seafood protein and vegetables.  Sounds pretty perfect to me.  And, when a 4 year old says, "Mommy, it smells like Chinese food" and then later "I love it!  You're the best cooker in the world!" then you know you're on to something.

Make a pot of rice in advance (2 cups of water, 1 cup of rice, 20 minutes, you know).  If you can make it a day ahead, it's even better.  If you need to make it same day, cook it as early as possible. Fluff it up with a fork to get some air moving around and stick it in the fridge.  You want it to dry out and let the grains become separate.  Have all your ingredients cut and ready to go, then...let the games begin!

I first scrambled one egg (and some egg beaters that I needed to use up) with scallions.  Now, y'all know scallions are green onions, which are not the same as shallots!  Remove from the wok & set aside.  Next, I stir fried the onion and carrots.  As the carrots began to soften, I added minced garlic and all the other vegetables, except the spinach.  Remove from wok & set aside.

I took a handful of shrimp (how ever much you want) and cut them in half lengthwise.  I stir fried them next.  Remove and set aside.  I added a little vegetable oil here and when it was  hot, I stir fried the rice.  Again, try to get it cooked and dried out a little.  Keep an eye on it and do it until it looks right.  Then, add all your stuff back in.  Drizzle soy sauce over (as much as you like) and sprinkle with ground ginger...oh, that smells heavenly!  Lastly, I stirred in the sliced spinach and mixed in, just to wilt it.  Then, we ate the heck out of it!

The other extremely cool thing about making your own fried rice is how ridiculously easy it is.  Make a pot of rice tonight, stick it in the fridge, & whip it up tomorrow when you get home from work.  The possibilities are endless and don't forget, if you're really in a pinch, use frozen or canned peas and carrots or asparagus, or broccoli...you see where I'm going with this.  

BTW-As you know, I am a cookbook junkie. If you enjoy rice, you may want to seek this one out.  It covers Asia, India, Middle East, Italy, America...the whole planet as it relates to rice.  Risotto is not to be feared!  It's crazy easy.  Indian Biryani at home?  Absolutely!  If you can read, you can cook.