Did anyone get a new knife??? I did! It’s a beautiful Misono UX-10 Chef’s Knife. Check it out as I cut mushrooms in the following pics…
I Dj’d New Year’s Eve at Schiller’s in the city and am still finding glitter and champagne on my laptop. People had their umbrellas up, shielding themselves from bubbly, and girls were on tabletops, dancing. Obviously, we had a blast.
So hello to Twenty Ten! At home, we celebrated New Year’s Day with some homemade Pork, Mushroom, Chive & Ginger Dumplings. Making these brought me back to my days of youth when my Korean family actually got along enough to hang out. We used to have Dumpling Competitions where we’d make them and then inhale as many as humanly possible. One of my cousins always claims to have won, but we all knew she was a functioning bulimic. Cheater. This recipe yields 24-30 dumplings, so you’d have to double up to make this a competitive-eating worthy project.
These are ridick. They don’t even need a dipping sauce. Don’t be intimidated, they aren’t hard, I promise.
New Year’s Pork Mushroom Chive Dumplings
• 1 lb of ground pork
• 2 cups chopped mushrooms
• .5 cup finely chopped chives
• 2 Tablespoons (TBs) freshly grated ginger
• 2 TBs white miso paste
• 1 TB soy sauce
• .5 salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 package dumpling wrappers, 3″ round
• cooking oil, soybean/corn/olive/veggie/etc.
Roll up your sleeves, people and get dirty. Throw all the pork, mushrooms, chives, ginger, miso, soy, salt, and 1 egg into a big bowl and mix. Use your hands! Get in there. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before and after! Use about 1 tablespoon of mixture in each dumpling, placed directly in the center of the dumpling wrapper. Line the lip of half of the inside wrapper. See the pic for details. It’s like drawing a “U” in egg with your fingertip. The egg acts as glue in this recipe. It’s possible to use just water, but egg is much stronger.
Fold the wrapper closed and push to seal using egg “glue.” I usually make fancier folds to seal these suckers but that cuts down on the amount of filling so I decided to go big and make it simple. I’d recommend pan-frying these because of the easy fold. Deep-frying, steaming, or boiling are all more action packed cooking methods so more likely to break the dumplings open. It is up to you though!
If you want a dipping sauce, just mix 1:1 parts soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Easy!!! Tell me how these are! Today, I just made Shrimp, Bacon & Scallion Dumplings fried in the leftover bacon fat. Once you get the idea, experiment. I wanna hear your ideas, you talented Cooks, you.
Note: To pan-fry these, line a frying pan with enough oil to coat and brown both sides of the dumpling on high. Add enough water to halfway the side of the dumpling and cover tightly. You’re steaming at this point. After 8-10 minutes or until the water is completely evaporated, uncover and take off heat. Check one dumpling to make sure the meat is cooked through. If not, just fry for a little bit more until done.
