Chonsa dance reunion: making mandu

We all have food memories. For me, mandu (Korean dumplings) is one of those foods that that brings up a flood of strong, vivid memories:

* Sitting in the cafeteria at Minnehaha Academy for Korean Culture Camp in third grade tasting the crunchy, savory dumplings for the first time.

* Staying late after Korean school on the days when the ajummas came to the church and cooked Korean food.

* 7th grade, in a friend's kitchen trying to fold the triangle dumplings for the first time.


Korean cooking has long been a social activity for me -- I learned how to cook Korean with my friends from my dance group.

Four of us met up this weekend at my place and mandu seemed like the perfect option -- we hadn't made it together in years.

Everyone's mandu filling is a little different. I made this one after referring to a few recipes online. This was a great chance to use my stand mixer to make blend the beef with the tofu. We made a double batch, so I had to make the filling in batches.

Mandu can be steamed or fried. We steamed some of them, but they kept sticking to the parchment and falling apart, so stuck with frying them in the wok. 

Lunch! We stopped midway and munched on the mandu with big steamy bowls of tteok guk -- perfect for a chilly fall day.

In all, my friends made about 200 dumplings today! They each took home bags full, I'm bringing some to a Halloween party tonight, and a bag or so went into the freezer.

RECIPE: Mandu filling
(Makes about 100 dumplings)

1 package ground beef
1 package medium firm tofu, drained and squeezed of liquids
3-5 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 TBS garlic powder)
1 inch piece ginger, minced ((or 1 TBS ginger powder)
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp sugar
1/2 small cabbage, shredded finely
1 onion, diced finely
1 bunch scallions, diced
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c sesame oil
1/4 c rice wine

Push cabbage and onions through a food processor fitted with a shredding disc. Set aside

Combine meat and tofu until well blended. I used a stand mixer for this. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, and pepper.

Stir in shredded vegetables until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together liquids and pour over meat to season.

Drop rounded teaspoons into wonton wrappers.

Brush edges with beaten egg and press firmly to seal.

Fry on both sides until golden brown, or steam 8-10 minutes until meat is cooked through.


**Update: my house smells like fried mandu, all the way out to the front hallway. Some people might find this kind of disgusting, but it's a huge comfort to me for two reasons: a) the nostalgic reasons referenced above and b) it smells *exactly* like the Korean church used to on mandu day. This tells me my recipe and methods are relatively close to the real deal!

Let's lunch! Grilled Cheese edition

So last week I received a bit of a shock when the aforementioned Cheryl Tan tweeted me the following:

@emmacarew No problem! Love your blog. Say, wld you like to join my #letslunch group? We post lunch once a mth. Doing grilled cheese this wkless than a minute ago via webCheryl Tan
cheryltan88

I had seen her #letslunch tweets previously -- she and a group of farflung lunch enthusiasts all make the same thing for lunch then blog about it. And she invited ME to join this illustrious group.

So, here we are, Friday the 15th and I was not only thrilled to join, but couldn't be happier to start with one of my very favorite sandwiches: grilled cheese.

I don't normally like to mess with the classics, so this was a fairly straight forward take on grilled cheese.

I used 9-grain bread from Great Harvest -- left over from my trip to Des Moines. Smoked gouda and provolone cheeses, and finished with a brush of truffle oil -- a little tip I've been a fan over ever since the pilot episode of Gossip Girl.

Were I to do this again, I would have taken the time to shred the gouda. It took a long time to melt in these little slices.

I always start the bread in melted butter (both sides). Brushing with truffle oil gives it a nice nutty, dark flavor, and also some nice extra crunch.

Ok, guilty admission time:I planned a potluck at work today, so this was actually my breakfast this morning. BUT -- I maintain it was probably lunchtime *somewhere* out there.

I can't wait to see what the others post for their #letslunch. I'll update with links out to them as I find them.

**updated:
Cheryl Tan, in New York: Cheddar and blue cheese with Asian pears and rosemary honey
Linda, in St Louis: oven baked grilled cheese
Chris Perrin, I think in Kansas: 2 options, grilled cheese with black forest ham and pickles AND buffalo chicken grilled cheese
Cathy Shambley, in California: breadless grilled halloumi with bacon and apples 
Danielle, in the Bay Area: open face "mousetrap" sandwiches
Ellise Pierce, in France: grilled brie, pear and prosciutto

Chocolate cake

My friend Karyn is getting married next summer, and in addition to being a bridesmaid, I also jumped at the opportunity to supply the cake.

On a recent trip down to visit her, we took our first stab at trying to figure out what she wants. We made Ina Garten's chocolate cake, chocolate butter cream and a peanut butter mousse to fill it.

Today I put together my second attempt for a colleague's birthday in the office. I tried a simple raspberry creme for the filling and a fudgy frosting I found at Serious Eats.

The filling is so simple: make a raspberry puree, and fold it gently into some whipped cream, then chill.

The icing, I definitely won't be using again. It was so sticky and thick and hard to spread on the cake. It was especially a challenge with the raspberry filling.

Mostly, I ended up icing the top cake and letting the rest sort of swirl down the sides. Let's call it an artistic effect.

I love the raspberry creme as a filling. And I think it will be awesome to go as a cupcake filler too!

Dim Sum swap party

This weekend I hosted three friends for a dim sum swap party. Each of us brought a different dim sum recipe, we helped each other fill and steam the dumplings, then ate a bunch, and swapped.

It was a great way to spend the day cooking with friends, and we each got to take home bags filled with dumplings to be frozen.

I took a first run at using Andrea Nguyen's basic dumpling dough, and used some tips from her website. I've been hesitant to use boiling water dough in the past (it's so hot!) but Andrea gives tips for making it in the food processor, which allows some of the heat to escape before you have to handle it.

The filling I chose is a recipe adapted from a high school friend Ali. Pork and leek are fairly common dumplings, I think. I swapped in a pound of turkey to try and make them a little healthier.

The party was a huge success - we had egg tarts, the pork dumplings, veggie dumplings and shrimp siu mai. I also made a quick version of the Momofuku steamed pork buns (which I've made before using David Chang's original recipe).

Thanks to a post by Cheryl Tan, a food writer/blogger and AAJA member whom I greatly admire, about making her mother's kong bak pau I learned about the existence of frozen steam buns sold at Asian grocery stores. I found them at Shuang Her on University Av. at $2.45 for a dozen.

Next month, we're hoping to tackle tapas and small plates for our group cooking. :)

dreaming? of my happily full freezer with bags of homemade dumplings

RECIPE: Pork dumpling filling (adapted from Ali & Matt)
2-3 lbs ground pork (I substituted 1 lb ground turkey in this recipe)
1 two-inch piece of ginger, minced (about 2-3 TBS)
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (about 2-3 TBS)
2 small leeks (or 1 large one), minced
2 bunches green onions, the darkest green parts, chopped thinly
salt, pepper 1 tsp each
1 TBS sugar
3 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS sesame oil

Mix meats together with chopped ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the seasonings and liquid ingredients.

Pour seasoning over the meat and combine thoroughly. Allow to marinate at least 1 hour, then use to fill dumplings.

Steam or fry until cooked through.

Dinner party!

We hosted our friend Alex for dinner last night, and I adapted this week's Minimalist column for the main course.

Bittman's recipe intends to keep chicken moist while grilling it. I did mine in a skillet on the stove, and they weren't rolled nearly as neatly as Bittman's.

Still, they were tasty and super moist. I used more of a bulgogi (or, I suppose dak-kogi, chicken bulgogi) marinade than following Bittman's recipe. Equal parts sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, plus a little squirt of sriracha rooster sauce.

I thought the chicken was maybe a bit too salty, but obviously, the boys disagreed. 

A sign of a successful meal:

Farmer's Market dinner

Wednesday I passed a farmers' market on my way home from an interview.

The sweet corn was really calling out to me, I stopped and picked up corn, radishes, bell peppers and new potatoes. Except for the potatoes, it all went toward a nice fresh, minimalist-style dinner.

Together it made a really nice spread, paired with fresh strawberries for dessert.

I made a compound butter with tarragon and basil from my herb plants, then piled the cucumbers from Jake's dad with radish slices on little multigrain rolls. Nice veggie sandwich!

The bell peppers were HUGE and nice thick pieces. They tasted awesome with the end of my homemade hummus.

Recreating Nicola's

This has quickly become one of our favorite dinners to throw together. 

Our new place doesn't have AC so on the really hot days, we'll just put together an anti-pasto/tapas type meal and snack on that for dinner. I used the lunch special from Nicola's (my fave lunch spot at my old DC office) as inspiration on the roasted eggplant and zucchini. You can't see it, but there's also a salad off to the side. 

Aside from that, we slice up some baguette, cheeses and salami and pepperoni. Nicola's usually had lovely swiss and Brie and fresh mozzarella with Serrano ham and prosciutto, but hey -- we didn't win the lottery when we moved here!

Up front, is my homemade hummus and some baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip). Is it superfluous to eat roasted egg plant with roasted eggplant dip? Probably.... but it tastes great!

Kitchenaid has arrived!

My life is complete. I officially own a stand mixer!! I hadn't expected to be investing in something this large so soon, but I had $40 in Amazon gift cards, it was on sale AND Kitchenaid is currently running a rebate promotion. It seemed too good of a deal to pass up.

Sadly, it's been HOT in St Paul this week, so I haven't gotten to use it yet!

It finally cooled off a little tonight, and I used some tomatoes from Jake's dad to make a great marinara sauce.

I also popped a batch of cheese and herb biscuits into the oven. They weren't a stand mixer project, but they are pretty damn tasty!

Generally, I followed the Amateur Gourmet recipe I've used in the past except for a few steps:
* I found I needed closer to 3 cups of flour. 2 cups gave me more of a thick pancake like batter.
* I added 1/3 c shredded gouda to the dough just before the buttermilk.
* Sprinkled the tops with chopped thyme and oregano from Jake's dad's garden. Also about 1 tsp kosher salt
* After the initial 5 min bake, I took them out, brushed them again with a little butter and sprinkled a little more gouda.

Weekend grilling

This weekend we took out the grill for the first time. It also marked the first weekend for great Minnesota sweet corn.

There were a bunch of posts on grilled corn last week, namely America's Test Kitchen and Mark Bittman's Minimalist column.

It was also just a good excuse for me to play around in the kitchen.

For instance, I made hummus. Tons of homemade hummus, with roasted garlic.

I also made baba ghanouj (top large bowl), also with roasted garlic, then made sriracha chili butter to go with the corn.

The grilled flatbread experiment probably could have gone better, but the parts that didn't char turned out awesome.

We still ate most of this anyway.

Midway through, the handle on the grill broke off, so we put Keith in charge of being the human grill handle.

Beautiful, sweet, smoky charred grilled corn. This was absolutely amazing.

There was also a big bowl of oven roasted egg plant and zucchini (the latter from Jake's dad's garden).

Today (Sunday) we had some friends over and I put together a fantastic spring roll bar, but failed to take any photographs of it.

Needless to say, the big pot of miso soup was beautiful, the glass noodles dressed with lime chili sauce were phenomenal, and the pile of shrimp with the three homemade sauces were all delightful.

In all, a pretty good weekend. Now I'm off to bake some buttermilk biscuits to bring to the bureau tomorrow.

New baby herb garden!

One of the most exciting things about our new place is the space I have to grow herbs! It's a bit late in the season, so my options were a little limited when I went to the nursery but I managed to get my hands on a beautiful tarragon plant and two rosemary plants (I killed my last round of rosemary, so hopefully this one goes better). I also bought two "live basil" plants at the grocery store and planted them together.

So far, they look healthy and are getting lots of sun. Anyone have tips for keeping tarragon and rosemary alive? I'm hoping to bring them all inside this fall and keep them alive under lamps - which I was able to do with my chives, basil and parsley in my last college apartment.

Can't wait to start cooking with these little guys!