{Recipe} Pork & Beef Dumplings

I can't believe 2014 is just a couple days away. This year seriously flew by! My 4th December goal was to make dumplings to prepare for the traditional Korean New Years Meal: Dumpling & Rice Cake Soup! This recipe was surprisingly easy, though a tad time consuming. But the labor is well worth it because in the end you have nearly 50-70 pieces of dumplings made (depending on how big/small you make it)! 

This recipe is great because it's pretty straightforward, easy on the wallet and extremely freezer friendly! All you need is a few mixing bowls, clean hands and a few hours to spare. It's totally worth the labor of love! We've been eating these dumplings here and there when we aren't feeling like making anything new. So far, Eugene LOVES them so I'll definitely be making them again soon!

Pork & Beef Dumpling Recipe

Recipe Adapted from Maangchi

Ingredients 

- 1 Cup of ground pork

- 2 Cups of ground beef

- 2 Cups of Asian Chives, chopped

- 5-6 Shiitake mushrooms

- 1/2 of an onion

- 1/2 package of tofu

- 7 cloves of garlic, minced

Ingredients to keep handy:

- Salt

- Sugar

- Sesame Oil

- Vegetable oil

- Fish sauce

- Egg

- Wonton skins (1-2 packs, containing 50-60 pieces)

Dumpling Filling Recipe

1. Place ground beef and ground pork into a large mixing bowl.

2. Add 1 tsp of salt, 1 Tbsp of sesame oil, 1/2 tsp of ground pepper and mix it together by hand.

3. Wash and dry asian chives completely. Chop/mince 2 cups of asian chives. Add Tbsp of EVOO and mix the chopped chives in a small bowl. Add chives with the meat in the large mixing bowl.

4. Soak shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of water for 1-2 hours. Squeeze water out of the mushrooms and chop into very small pieces. Dice onion into very small pieces. Put mushrooms and onion into a small bowl.  Add 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, 2 tsp of sesame oil. Mix by hand and include into large bow of meat/chives.

5. Drain 1/2 of package of tofu and squeeze as much water out as possible - either by a cotton cloth or paper towel (be careful - the paper towels rip!) Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp of sesame oil. Mix by hand and include in large bowl.

6. Mince your garlic cloves and add in large bowl. Mix all ingredients together by hand.

7. Use a spoon to scoop your filling into the wonton skins. Use your finger to wet the perimeter and fold using these techniques. 

Line on a baking sheet or cutting board covered with foil and/or cling wrap. If you need to stack it/double layer it, be sure to put a sheet of cling wrap over the first layer, in between the 1st and 2nd layer of dumplings. Freeze overnight. Place dumplings in a large zip lock bag and keep it in the freezer until ready to use!

* * * 

For a quick easy meal, make broth with 4-5 anchovies in a pot of water with half of an onion. 

Allow the broth to come to a boil and remove the onion/anchovies, discard. Drop a handful of dumplings into the boiling broth. When the dumplings begin to float to the top, you know they are just about done. Add chopped onions, garlic, mushrooms and green onions. Season with sesame oil, white pepper and soy sauce (I use gook ganjang aka soup soysauce) to taste. 

Voila~ Dumpling Soup! We're all ready for new years! :) 

{Recipe: Peppermint Oreo Truffles}

This super easy, 4-ingredient holiday treat is probably one of the best things I've made this month. 

Not only is it super delightful and a huge crowd-pleaser - it's pretty dang easy (but just a little time consuming). This helped me to accomplish 2 of my goals for December: Make something with peppermint and do something sweet for the neighbors. I purposely made a huge batch so that I could share with co-workers (both Eugene and mine) and gift to our neighbors. It's a fun little thing to do with friends or family whilst listening to Christmas music in the background and/or watching a holiday movie. :) 

The four ingredients are super easy to find just about anywhere! (I usually get mine at Ralphs or Target) - but the CandiQuik is seasonal so get them while they're hot! You only need one package of each (candiquik, oreo cookies, cream cheese) for each batch. 

** I prefer Candiquik over melting white chocolate chips because it's less likely to burn and it's not as heavy in taste/texture.

Crush your Oreo Cookies and candy canes. I put them in large ziplock bags and crushed them with the flat surface of a fry pan. (It's actually easier to just run the oreos through a food processor - just requires more clean up time!) Try to get the oreo pieces as crumbly as you can! 

Let your cream cheese come to room temperature and then soften it up in the foiled package. Squeeze the cream cheese into the oreo crumbles and mix well (by hand or by mixer). 

Roll the oreo/cream cheese mixture into small bite sized balls. Try to make the surface as smooth and even as possible. 

Place your CandyQuik in a glass bowl and melt the candies via double broiler. by placing a non-plastic bowl over a pot 1/3 full of water. Bring the pot to a boil until the water creates a steam. The steam will melt the chocolate - voila, home-made double broiler. :)

 Mix the candy/chocolate when it begins to melt. 

Use two forks/spoons to cover each ball with the melted candy/chocolate. Shake off excess coating gently and transfer to a cookie sheet (covered in parchment paper). Sprinkle peppermint pieces over truffle before the coating firms up! Place in fridge for about 1 hour or until firm.

Eat em, gift em, share em and be jolly together! :o) 

Peppermint Oreo Truffles

{Recipe Adapted from Kraft}

Makes about 30 pieces

1 package Oreo Cookies

1 8-oz package of cream cheese (not non-fat)

1 package of Vanilla CandyQuik Melts (or white chocolate chips)

5-6 Peppermint Candy Canes

1. Crush Oreos, either by a food processor or by putting the cookies into a large zip-lock bag and crushing it with the flat surface of a fry pan/meat tenderizer, etc. Crush peppermint using the latter technique - do NOT put peppermint candies in food processor

2. Leave cream cheese package out until it reaches close to room temperature. Manually soften cream cheese with your hands, keeping the cream cheese in the foil package. Mix cream cheese into the Oreo crumbs thoroughly. Make small, bite sized Oreo truffle balls by rolling the mixture with your hands. 

3. Melt chocolate or candy melts - I used the double broiler method. Be careful

Not to burn the chocolate. Stir frequently. 

4. Coat each Oreo truffle with your candy melts and shake off excess. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle with peppermint crumbs immediately. 

5. Place your tray of ready Oreo truffles into fridge for one hour or until firm. 

Serve within 2-3 days for best results. Keep in fridge up to 5 days. 

Enjoy! 

goals for December!

I know, I know -we are more than halfway through this month and I am now posting up my goals for December. I actually thought of these goals weeks ago (and have been checking them off on my own!) but wanted to share it with you!

Goals are good for me because I am a total check-list, to-do list type of girl. I thrive on agendas and there's something extra special about checking things off of a list. I plan to share more of my monthly goals on the blog in 2014 - but to close off this year, here are my goals for December!

1. Get a Christmas Tree: A simple goal - only because last year we weren't able  to put up Christmas decorations! Around this time last year - we were packing and preparing to move out to Arcadia so it wasn't practical for us to decorate. I've always wanted to go out and pick my own Christmas tree but I'm not sure if we'll be able to fit it in with Eugene's finals week and all. We'll see!

Here's pictures from our first Christmas together! :o)

2. Make Something with Peppermint: For some reason, pumpkin spice never really grew on me. I like the idea of it and the smell of it - but pumpkin spiced lattes and cookies were never my thing. Peppermint, however, is an entirely different story. I can eat peppermint things all day long!


3. Do something for the neighbors. - Two winters ago - I made these peppermint/white chocolate pretzels for our neighbors. It was a great way for me and Eugene to seize the holiday opportunity to meet our neighbors and do something "sweet" for them! I might make these again, but will also consider making something else to feature my love for all things peppermint. :)

4. Make dumplings from scratch - In the Korean culture, it's tradition to eat Rice Cake Soup (떡국 aka "dduk gook") on New Years morning. It's supposed to grant you good luck for the new year or something like that....haha. Growing up my mom always made this for us and I've continued the tradition in our Korean/Chinese home for the past 2 years. Thankfully Eugene loves Korean food and looks forward to this meal as much as I do! This year, I want to make my own dumplings! I'm actually planning on make these today, thanks to Maangchi! Stay tuned. :)

Here's an impromptu "dduk gook" we made and ate together on New Years Eve last year since I had to work on New Years Day! Keeping the tradition alive, baby!

 

5. Prepare Care Packages for the homeless community in Downey - Eugene and I have lived in Downey for almost 6 months now and something I noticed almost immediately was how large the homeless community was here. There are a few people who Isee regularly in front of the Starbucks and Target I frequent, and a few of the same people who stand near my 605 freeway entrance. One of my goals for next year is to get to know these people by name and see if there is a way I can serve them during our short time in Downey. I've been wanting to plan a community lunch for Christmas this year - but seeing that I am scheduled to work on both Christmas & Christmas eve,  a few co-workers have partnered with me in this "Bags of Hope" project! 

 

 We will be making care packages to hand out to the homeless during the holiday season! Please consider partnering with us! You can click on {this link} to donate. Thanks! :o) 

6. Bake Cinammon Rolls from SCRATCH! So this was my goal two years ago and I ended up cheating because I...

1) made mini-cinammon rolls (and not the real size ones... )

2) used Pillsbury's Crescent rolls instead of making my own dough. 

But this is a new year people! I'm motivated to really live up to my goal and bake it completely from scratch - frosting, dough and all. Here are the mini ones we managed to make before. We were obviously a little too excited about rolling the dough (they were almost paper thin!) but they were so good!

 

Less than a month left! Better get started!!

Happy December!

 

Give thanks: a day off to rest, recollect my thoughts and organize our neglected mess of an apartment, starbucks and coffeebean!, a successful week of finals week done for Eugene and only two more days to go (!!!), Spotify, the iced latte I plan to drink after this - yay! :O)

{Tried & True Tuesdays} Hainan Chicken Recipe

When we lived in Temple City, I seriously ate Hainan Chicken once a week! There is a lot of good eats in San Gabriel Valley but they are most known for their asian cuisines. There was one place in particular called Ish Kitchen that served a really yummy Hainan Chicken dish, and another place in Alhambra called Savoy Kitchen  that was actually known for their Hainan dish. Now that we live in Downey - we are surrounded with a lot of tasty kinds of food but there is no Hainan Chicken in sight (insert sad face here)... So, of course we had to learn how to make it at home!!

Hainan Chicken is essentially an asian poached chicken dish. "Asian" because it could be considered Chinese, Malaysian, "Hainanese" or Singaporean - depending on where you get it. It's served with savory rice and two different types of sauce (spicy chili sauce and a minced ginger sauce). I heard about poaching things before - but this dish calls for poaching a whole chicken. Bones, skins and all (guts are removed, thank goodness!).

The key to poaching is to bring the water/chicken to a boil, then immediately letting it come down to a simmer (low, low heat) and letting it simmer away until the chicken is fully cooked (Internal temp 170 degrees). Once it's fully cooked, you immediately soak the chicken in a bowl of ice water - essentially "shocking" the cooked chicken. It's exciting and stressful at the same time, haha. Poaching the chicken was harder than I thought, but the entire process was relatively easy!

Easy Hainan Chicken 
{Adapted from MalaysianFood & SteamyKitchen}

For the Chicken:
1 Whole Chicken (trimmed & cleaned)
1 4-inch section of fresh ginger
1 bunch of scallions/green onions
6 cloves of garlic
Salt
Water (enough to cover the chicken in the pot)

1.) Clean your chicken with cool sink water. Remove any excess fat on the skin of the chicken by rubbing several pinches of kosher salt on the skin of the chicken. Rub vigorously and then rinse. Trim off any excess fat with scissors.

2.) Season chicken with a generous amount of salt (both inside and outside)

3.) Stuff the cavity of the chicken with garlic, sliced ginger and green onions. Use a toothpick to seal closed. (Some of the stuffing may come out once the chicken is placed in the water, but that's ok!)

4.) Place chicken in a large pot and fill with water so that the chicken is completely covered.

5.) Turn heat on "HIGH" and allow for it to come to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down to "LOW" and allow it to remain at a simmer for 40-45 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked (170 degrees, internal temp)

6.) Remove chicken and immediately place in a big bowl full of ice water. "Shock" your chicken! 

** Don't forget to save the broth! Don't you dare throw it away!!

For the Rice:
1:1.5 ratio cups of jasmine (or any long grain rice) & reserved chicken poaching broth
Salt to taste
Cilantro & sliced Cucumbers for garnish

1.) Wash your long grain rice (I used Jasmine) in cool water until water is clear. 

2.) Soak rice in water for 10 minutes.

3.) Cook rice with the reserved chicken poaching broth either in a pot or a rice cooker. Use 1:1 or 1:1.5 rice to broth ratio. 

(If making rice in a pot, cook on high for 10-15 minutes on MED-HIGH heat, and then turn the heat off. Keep the lid closed to allow the rice to steam for an additional 10 minutes. Cook time may vary.)

4.) Garnish with cilantro.

For the Ginger Sauce:
1-2'' section of fresh ginger (finely chopped/minced)
1-2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped/minced)
1 tsp of sugar
1 Tbs of lime juice
3 Tbs of olive oil (I used EVOO)
salt to taste

For Chili Sauce:
2 tsp of the ginger sauce
2 Tbs of hot sauce (Sriracha or Chili sauce)

1.) Mince ginger and garlic until very fine. (or you can roughly chop and "pulse" it in a blender or food processor")
2.) Add sugar, lime juice and olive oil. Mix until desired consistency.
3.) Add salt to taste.
4.) For the chili sauce - add 2 tsp of ginger sauce to a small bowl of hot sauce.  Add more if needed!

The best part is that home-made chicken broth is a by-product of your chicken-poaching labor. I put my leftover broth in a big ziplock bag, and let it sit flat in the freezer. Freeze your broth over night and then you can stack it under your other freezer items and store for a rainy day! :)