We are Asian food fanatics!

 

Yes, we've been on a kick lately.  It happens.  Japanese- everything from the hibachi joints to sushi. Thai- making it ourselves and stocking up various curry pastes from our favorite Asian market.  Chinese- digging dumplings, which we prefer our own homemade versions!

Viv is a dumpling devotee.  But it's only been this week that she wanted me to show/teach her to make them from scratch.  She's really been getting into cooking recently, which makes me so happy, of course.  We found round Hong Kong style dumpling wrappers at our favorite market, Asian Market on Dutch Square Blvd. I just gave Viv the basic run-down verbally, and while I was out working, she whipped up the filling herself.

We got the butcher at Publix to grind some pork for us. Then, Vivian used that, some chopped serrano pepper, finely chopped carrot, green onion, ginger, garlic, an egg, and some soy sauce to create the dumpling filling.  We wrapped them up, and off to the races.  If you've never made your own, it's quite simple.  The most challenging part is learning the various methods to folding and crimping the dumpling. But, simply folding and sealing is ok; no need to be fancy. 

You heat a very thin layer of oil in a skillet. Place dumplings bottom (flattened) side down to fry and get golden crispy. Then, you (carefully) add about a 1/3 cup water and smack a lid on that baby. Crisping up the bottoms before adding water keeps them from sticking; skip this step, and you have a stuck on mess (thus the name potstickers.) Turn the heat down to med-low and let them steam about 3-4 minutes. Then, remove lid, turn heat up a bit to cook out any remaining liquid and to make sure dumpling bottoms stay crisp. Now, get your chopsticks and get ready to have (IMHO) better than restaurant dumplings.

I like mixing up a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, thin slices of ginger and sliced green onion.  

Tonight, we wrapped them all up, cooked a few, served with some sauteed baby bok choy and put the rest of the dumplings in the freezer for another day!

Alley Street Eats in Rosewood

Everyone in the neighborhood has eagerly awaited the opening of Alley Street Eats. I read an article about these folks and their concept.  Asian street food, of different styles.  The decor is cool and modern. The menu is extensive without being overbearing and features the variety we so desperately need in our area.

Viv and I shared shrimp and zucchini tempura to start.  Their tempura is light and crispy, just as it should be.  Next, we had an order of the Sichuan wontons. 

These are delicious.  Pork wontons with soy, scallion, cilantro and garlic. I was expecting them to be spicy, given "Sichuan" but they were actually pretty mild, but very flavorful.  I bet next time I can just ask for them to be spicy and they would oblige. 

Next, we had the Yaki Udon Noodle with shrimp.  This was also quite delicious. Soft, pillowy Udon noodles in a soy based sauce with red bell pepper, scallion and mushroom.  The shrimp were nicely cooked, which as we all know, can be a 50-50 shot in some restaurants.

Viv and I are excited about this place.  We've often lamented the fact that almost every Chinese place we know of has a zillion dishes on their menu, yet they all taste the same.  We love, love, love Mai Thai but sometimes the trip to W.C. just isn't in the cards. And, our Korean and Japanese choices are limited.  Now that we have Alley Street Eats right here in the neighborhood, we can get our Asian food fix much more readily!  Here's the link to their MENU. Support our locals!

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!

Potstickers!

Asian cuisine, of all descriptions, is one of my all-time favorites. So much so that my first foray into Chinese cooking came when I was in high school. I discovered that my mom had a Chinese cookbook that I'd never even seen before.  I just happened upon it on the bookshelf. I began reading it and quickly realized that it was a pretty complicated and authentic cookbook.  But, despite the pretty intense techniques described on those pages, I was enthralled and undaunted. Thinking back, it was my early high school years when cooking really became interesting to me. A complicated recipe didn't intimidate me because I had no experience, therefore, no fear of failure.  Just follow the instructions.  I remember tackling fried rice from this book I found. I think I really surprised my family.  

Next, came my French club's "cafe" at school.  Traditionally, the "cafe" was really just a bake sale.  Well, as French club prez, this simply would not do for me.  I hit the books, experimented at home, and the day of our sale, we trucked in a microwave to the courtyard at Irmo High School and served up a lunch plate of chicken crepes, green beans amandine and a croissant, in addition to the usual French baked goods.  It was a resounding success.  

NOT a photo of my 1985 crepes, but you get the idea

We may have served more than the cafeteria that day.  Well, ok, not really, but I know our diners were much more pleased that those who had the obligatory rectangular pizza, iceberg salad with ranch & fake bacon bits and bowls of french fries.  (I mean, really? Who decided to serve fries in a BOWL?)

So, back to Asia...I credit my friend Susannah for teaching me to make what I simply call dumplings but most of you know as "potstickers."  First, do you know why they are called that?  You must brown the bottoms well before adding water to steam them.  If you don't, they'll stick to that pot like they have super glue on them.  Many a cook has lost a pan to a bad case of true pot-stickers. While she was in law school, Susannah had a bunch of us over for a casual get-together.  I wandered into the kitchen for a beer to find her finishing up her dumplings and heating up a pan.  She had my attention.  And, I've been making my own ever since.

After Viv's school Halloween carnival, we came home to make dumplings.  Btw: she's a "glampire."  Ya know, a glamorous vampire.

 I make them differently depending on what I've got.  Suze always used ground pork, which back in the glorious early 90's wasn't easy to find.  In fact, I'd usually go to the Fresh Market and buy good looking pork then have them grind it up.  Then, I started using ground turkey, which works just as well, but needs a little extra seasoning because, you know, it's turkey.  I've added soy sauce, ginger, water chestnuts, cabbage, green onion, bamboo shoots, garlic...whatever I have available.  Twist up those little babies and they're cooked and ready to eat in minutes.

Tonight, I had the great pleasure to teach Viv how to make them.  Gotta hand it to her...I showed her how to do it twice and then left her to it as I tended to our veggie/chicken rice.  The kid picked right up on it and made the majority of them all by herself.  Then, feeling confident, she invited Neil into the kitchen for her to "teach" him how to make them.  As is so often the case with kids, having made them herself, she loved them and devoured them.  And, just to see the confidence exuding from her as she took charge of the project was delightful.  And, under her tutelage, Neil twisted up some fine dumplings himself!

She got the hang of it pretty quick!

Now she's schoolin' daddy

Add your filling, then fold 'em up!

Ready to go into the pan

Plate 'em up while they're hot!

Wanna make some?  Buy some wonton wrappers and assemble any combination of ingredients you like.  Adding some soy sauce, ginger, garlic, etc. to the meat mixture is important, I think.  Tonight we used ground pork, fresh ginger, minced water chestnuts & green onion.  Scoop about a 1.5 tsp of filling in the middle of the wrapper.  Dip your finger in water and wet all four edges of the wonton.  Fold two corners up to meet, then bring the other corners in and pinch it all together to make a little "purse" shape.  Heat a pan with a thin layer of oil in it.  When hot (medium-high heat) place the dumplings in the pan.  Cook until the bottoms brown and the dumplings release on their own.  (Shake the pan and see if they will move around on their own.)  When this happens, add a quarter cup of so of water and cover to let them steam.  **Tip** Hold the lid in front of you, angled over the pan as you add water so you don't get spattered**  Steam them until the wonton wrapper becomes translucent.  I always take one out and cut into it to make sure the meat is cooked through. Serve with a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some fresh ginger & sliced green onion.

These are so simple yet so flippin' good!  And quick, once you get them all assembled.  And, they also freeze well.  Try it out and let me know what you think! 

The Best Chinese? Make it Yourself!

I've always found Chinese cooking fascinating. Really and truly I guess this applies to most forms of Asian cookery.  I am a die-hard fan of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean.  But it's not just the plain deliciousness of these cuisines, it's the brilliance of them. 

What I'm referring to is the resourcefulness of this type of cooking.  Think about it.  Let's use the Chinese as the example.  And, I'm not talking about the Americanized Chinese take-out, 24 hour buffet, or mall food court Chinese.  If you've ever read a Chinese cookbook, one thing that stands out is the small amount of each ingredient.  Take fried rice...obviously, you use as much rice as you need to feed the number of people in the family. But, the protein (chicken, shrimp, beef, pork, fish, etc.) is relatively small.  But that's ok, there are then small amounts of various vegetables added next.  This technique likely began and evolved from times when ingredients, money and resources were scarse.  The Chinese figured out that you can make a satisfying, hearty and nutritious main course with a little bit of meat, a little bit of egg, a little bit of cabbage, a little bit of carrot, a little bit of onion, and on and on and on.  The end result is, in this example, a wok full of fried rice packed with veggies, protein and 6 people with full tummies.  Just brilliant.

Today I found myself considering the growing amount of leftovers in my fridge.  I have half a of a pork roast, ham, broccoli, about 1/2 pound of shrimp.  Just those ingredients alone scream some sort of Asian inspired dishes.  So, I popped into Publix for a few staples (a green cabbage, egg roll wrappers, wonton wrappers) so I can use up these fridge inhabitants before they go South on me.  Tonight, it was beef with broccoli (1/2 lb of skirt steak, broccoli, ginger) and shrimp potstickers (my leftover shrimp, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, 5 spice powder and green onion). 

Cute little dumplings waiting to be cooked

 Tomorrow, I'm going to repurpose that pork roast into eggrolls with cabbage, ginger, bamboo shoots & water chestnuts.  The beauty of that plan in that I will have plenty of egg rolls to stash away in the freezer for later!


As a side note, my husband continues to improve from his tonsillectomy from a week ago, so I also used some of the broccoli for a cream of broccoli soup for him.  Not only was he able to eat (and actually taste it!) he went further and ventured into the beef with broccoli and downed some of that too.  Yea!  He's finally able to tolerate eating and getting some fuel into that body.  Good news indeed!