Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (Mandu)


I have to say there's something meditative about making dumplings.  Rolling and cutting dough until you think of nothing else, filling and sealing and shaping just so.  It is sculpture for food.


So I spent yesterday afternoon from roughly five to seven rolling and cutting and filling 49 pork dumplings.  I had spent the morning chopping and mincing cabbage and bean sprouts and scallions and pork until I thought my fingers would fall off.  But at the end of the day, my fingers did not fall off, and I had 30 dumplings in the freezer.

These are time-consuming but awesome.  The filling is bright and fresh with lots of veggies and a kick of ginger and sesame oil.

2 comments:

Ruth Lee said...

I <3 mandu!!! I'm getting nostalgic because I only eat them at home. I used to help my mom scoop out the filling and pinch the top closed:) Sigh..memories.

Deborah said...

How fun! I'm curious how the taste compares. I used regular cabbage instead of kimchi so they might be a little bland.