Posted on 06/18/2015 3:41:44 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
This week, Potstickers!
(My favorite Korean dish is Mandu Guk, a fabulous soup made with dumplings similar to these. I look for it on the menu of every Korean restaurant, but I’ve never made it myself. I’ll post it when I finally do; in the meantime, check out the many videos and recipes for it on the Web.)
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-JT
Thanks for that - we love potstickers! Between mr. a and myself, we could probably eat all 100.
I happened to look up Joyce Chen last week, and Wikipedia said she’s credited with coining the name “Peking Ravioli” for potstickers/dumplings.
Shrimp potstickers....yum.
Well, that makes sense in that they’re both little packets of stuffed dough; but they’re very different critters...
I’ve never made ravioli, but when we married my Italian husband brought, among the rest of his ‘dowry’, a pasta machine. We should try ravioli sometime!
-JT
There are lots of ways to make these; you can use all kinds of meats and ingredients. The Koreans sometimes use Kimchi instead of the plain cabbage :-)
-JT
My husband loves Kimchi. :)
I’m near one of those huge H-Markets owned by Koreans. I’m amazed at what I’m seeing - although I don’t know Mandu Guk. I just bought some kinchi but I think it’s an acquired taste!
I don’t think Mandu Guk is something you can buy in a can - at least I hope they never go there! It’s home-made, or in a restaurant. (I worked one summer at Gallaudet University - though I think it was a College back then - and it’s right near the Florida Ave. market, in D.C. It was a rough time in my life - the most important person in my life had died, and I was ‘neither here nor there’. I found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant at the Market, run by a little old Korean lady who made the most wonderful Mandu Guk - probably the best I’ve ever had. It was absolutely soul-warming :-)
Try the kimchi with some plain white rice, first. (Good fermented kimchi is one of those healthy probiotic foods, like sauerkraut.)
My first Korean meal was home-made bulgogi, chap chae, kimchi and rice. My friends had to tell me to slow down on the kimchi, or I might get sick; but that has Never happened!
(When you go to a good Korean restaurant, they put lots of little bowls of different kinds of salads, including several types of Kimchi, on the table - these side-dishes are all called ‘Banchan’. It’s wonderfulness!)
-JT
The kimchi they sell at H-Mart comes in these huge containers - it looks pretty gross, actually, no matter how good is tastes. I think it’s all that red pepper paste that makes it look like worms soaked in blood! I happen to live in a very diverse part of the northeast. Since I’m crazy for Indian food, I use all of our huge cash ‘n carry Indian markets for my inexpensive spices, rice and British chocolate and cookies. I’ve just found out we have a Japanese and Chinese market near by.
What temp do you fry at to make sure innerds are cooked through since it looks like pork is put in wrapper raw?
Our fryer is an electric one, and goes up to 350. We run it full-tilt for the potstickers. We’ve also made this with ground turkey, or a mixture, and have never had a problem.
You need to do one or two, and cut them open and test, to get the timing down. Don’t do too many at a time, and let the oil come back up to heat before doing more. As noted in the original post, my friend does them in a cast-iron wok on the stove, a few at a time. You can probably get the temp up a lot higher that way.
-JT, not a scientist :-)
You have to find a good kimchi. Some of them are too fishy for me - I look at the ingredients before I buy, and preferably buy the ones with little or no fishy ingredients.
(The turn this thread has taken is sort of breaking my heart: over last weekend, my husband and I discovered that our favorite Korean-run Asian grocery had gone out of business since our last visit. So, I have to find another kimchi seller. Occasionally we find kimchi in supermarkets, and those are usually milder, less fishy.)
-JT
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What a shame! I'm sorry to hear that.
I don’t eat kimchi, so I can’t tell you if it’s any good. But I have seen it sold in the produce area in small glass jars at Whole Foods.
Frying is very intimidating to me because of the whole temp thing. My mom visited with us a few months ago and we fried some shrimp on a propane burner outside in my cast iron dutch oven. It took FOREVER to get to correct temp, cook a batch, get it back to correct temp, etc. etc. They were delicious, but what a pain.
Yes, most of the time when it’s sold in mainstream places, it’s sold in smaller jars. That’s the best way for beginners to try it.
-JT
Well, maybe it’s just time for me to make my own!
I did it once, years ago, and it turned out pretty good. But I don’t have much experience with fermented stuff.
My Korean girlfriend also taught me how to make what she called in English ‘fresh kimchi’. It was just regular cabbage, with all the other kimchi ingredients; very fresh-tasting and refreshing, but not all of the depth of flavor and health benefits of the fermented stuff.
Another Korean friend told me once that in Korea, the equivalent of the iconic Currier and Ives winter paintings that we so often see on Christmas cards, is a picture of the urns of kinchi sitting in the snow, in the backyard of a traditional Korean home. That image has always stuck with me.
I recommend using a thermometer, even if you have an electric fryer. You never really know the temperature of your oil unless you can test the temp.
After a while, you get a sense of how things sizzle, how long different things take, etc. Smell and color tell you things, as well. All senses are involved in cooking; that’s what makes it such an interesting, visceral art.
(One thing I’ve never made is pan-fried chicken - the picnic-favorite kind. But I guess it’s the same as everything - trial and testing and experience makes perfect.)
-JT
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