February 16, 2010
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虎年行大運!
龍精虎猛!
有虎萬事足!!
再祝各位情場事業兩得意!!
HAPPY 2010 !!!! The Year of the Tiger is finally upon us! The dinner before the first day of the Chinese New Year is a very special one. This is where everyone in the immediate family gathers around and have a sumptious meal. While growing up in Hong Kong, we prepared at least nine different dishes, which included every two/four legged farm animal we could consume in a legal manner. The dinner table is filled with traditional dishes such as steamed fish, soy sauce chicken, barbeque pork with honey sauce, stewed pork with chestnuts, roasted squab, pan fried vegetables with meaty mushrooms, roasted pig with crispy skin, etc. Well, this was then. Here in Los Angeles, to celebrate the New Year’s arrival, we decided to prepare a hot pot dinner, together with special dumplings. Let’s call these “W’s Dumplings”. Because of my inability to tolerate the usual spicy additive – kimchi, W had to redo the ingredients and take out the kimchi. As you will all see, the final ingredients utillized are all very ‘inert’ and fit for every palate. Hot sauce is optional.
These are the basic contents to making the dumplings – tofu, glass noodles, bean sprouts, top grade ground pork, cabbage…..
First up, wash the cabbage and then cut into small pieces…..
For the bean sprouts, take out the ‘root’, that’s where the ‘rusty’ colored part is…..
Then boil cabbage pieces and bean sprouts…..
Cut up tofu and put a few into cheese cloth, then wrap them up and squeeze out any excess water / Then, into a large mixing bowl…..
Now, boil one bundle of glass noodles, then drain out all the water…..
Chop up the noodles, cabbages, bean sprouts, and then mix with the tofu and ground pork into the large mixing bowl…..
Add hints of garlic, egg, salt and pepper; and then mix them up…..
The batch of ingredients all happily mixed up together…..
A spoonful of mix onto wonton wrap, then seal the edges with egg white…..
Voilà! We made a handful of W’s Dumplings…..
Hot Pot dinner…..
Plateful of mushrooms, tofu, glass noodles, cabbages, dumplings, Kobe beef, ‘Blue shrimp’, squid and fish balls…..
The dumplings turned out quite meaty afterall…..DELICIOUS!
Comments (35)
I love the heart! So cute! Those are really tasty looking dumplings. Why, out of curiosity, cut off the root of the sprouts?
This is the first time I’ve seen dumpling made with tofu
I have the same question as Chris.
Why? So tedious
@christao408 -
@Wangium -
The sprout roots are rusty and many have unsightly hairy extensions. After cutting, they appeared to be much cleaner and neater. Imagine the time wasted sitting around, trimming off a pound of bean sprouts roots. That’s what my grandma had been doing while preparing a typical dinner for the family!
Gary – your stove is spotless. How the heck do you guys keep it so clean?
I’ll have to try this – it looks very tasty. My grandmother used to trim the roots off the bean sprouts too. My mom used to make spring rolls and would trim them when she had time.
Happy New Year to both of you.
Nice dinner! Enjoy many culinary adventures in the Year of the Tiger!
@christao408 -
Haha~Chris, W made that ‘heart’ impression to make the mixing bowl more interesting.
@ElusiveWords -
Happy New Year, Matt! Thank you for the stove compliment. Some windex and elbow grease will keep it shiny. Actually, there are numerous grease spots, but the focus was off while I took the photos! Yumm…spring rolls! Sounds good to me! Did you get to make them too?
@TheLatinObserver -
Happy Year of the Tiger! May you have many more enjoyable trips to come!
Hi there, I like the idea of the dumplings and the mix looks so easy to make, but I have a couple of questions. 1/ What is tofu and what does it taste like ? 2/ I don’t eat meat, what could I replace it with that would go with the other ingredients ? 3/ What are Wonton Wraps and how are they made ? There’s a gap between the filling all mixed together and putting it onto the wraps, is there some instructions missing ?
I’m having a lot difficulty with page loading here. It takes ages and never seems to fully load. Some pics don’t appear fully and I wonder if some are not appearing at all.
Would have liked to have had a go at those dumplings though as they don’t take many ingredients and I would probably be able to get them easily enough. I am worried though that I may not like the tofu.
@Wangium -
?! We always take off the root?!?!?!
BTW I’ve never made dumpling stuffing with tofu either. I do that with 獅子頭 though.
I just made that last week but didn’t take any photos haha.
That and I usually use leek and not cabbage but that’s more of a personal preference.
I’m surprised that Chris and Jason haven’t seen the bean sprouts without the root, also called 銀菜…
@yang1815 -
Perhaps the tofu part was the Korean style? And leek is a good idea too, maybe I should give it a try! Most likely, they mostly eat their sprouts at the restaurants and never made it at home? Andy, I guess the snowy weather calls for a perfect reason for hot pot! It really warms up the body, and the house too!
@CurryPuffy -
O yeah it sure did! I just love hot pot in the winter. We would eat it in the summer though “just because” like the people who eat ice cream in the winter?!
I am planning on making some dumplings this weekend and if I do, I will blog about it.
The root of the bean sprouts really tastes “dirty.” Even when I cook at home, I would take it out and make it 銀菜.
@christao408 -
The roots looks and tastes a bit “dirty.” I’m not sure if that makes any sense.
And also, in Taiwanese cuisine, bean sprouts with or without the roots have different names.
@Chatamanda -
I suspect it’s the slow internet download speed, you may need to check if someone else is downloading a large amount of data at the same time on your line? As for the wonton wraps, they are available at a local Chinese/Asian grocery store. I guess the missing part you mentioned is when all the ingredients/vegetables were chopped up, then added into the mixing bowl one ingrediant at a time, that’s all to this mixing part.
Regarding tofu, I’m think it should be readily available in U.K., the texture is similar to a soft boiled egg (egg white part), with more softness to the bite. The basic ingredient consists primarily of soy milk. You may want to check out this link (copy and paste the link) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu
I hope my descriptions did not confuse you more!
@christao408 -
@yang1815 -
Yes, Andy is right about the ‘dirty’ taste. When a whole dishful of bean sprouts are wok fried and served, we like to see a clean white sheen/pile of crispy sprouts without any hairy and rusty tips. Make sense? Haha~
@yang1815 - Oh, really? I guess you are right…I have never seen bean sprouts with the root until I moved to the US…
They usually are sold without roots in Taiwan
@CurryPuffy - @yang1815 - I thought that the tips were where all the minerals are, thus the rust color!
@CurryPuffy -
@Wangium -
@christao408 -
Probably is where all the minerals are, but kind of like white rice vs. brown rice?
Or potato without the skin.
So when are you getting your show on the Food Network? I’d watch!
Hi again, the download problem seems to happen each time I come here regardless of time of day or evening, but was better when I used the link direct to this topic from my home page.
Anyway, | checked out that link and found this: ‘There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu that has been processed in some way’ – so which one do I choose for this recipe ? As for the ‘wontons’ hmmm will probably find an Asian store somewhere near me, not sure about a Chinese one though. Will let you know how I get on. Thanks for the info.
@CareyGLY -
I’m just the sous chef in this episode! Hahaha~still learning how to wrap a dumpling!
@Chatamanda -
I think fresh tofu in hard form will be sufficient (do not use soft tofu). Which city in U.K. are you? Just curious?! Good luck on your cooking trial!
Thanks I will see if I can get that. I’m in the NE of England, Co. Durham.
wow dumpling and hotpot!! ouchhhh…. i want them for dinner tonight!!! hohohho anyway happy chinese new year
@lcfu -
Happy Chinese New Year FuFu! Wish your Tiger Year is full of great eats and travels!
hey there!!! remember me?
Kung hei fat Choi! hope u had a great CNY
i abandoned xanga for over 6 months! and finally back! haha
how’s the year of tiger going???
haha
take care
miiasoey =]
I love both the hotpot and dumplings…….and from the meat mixtures for sure the year ahead will be a Happy one…..
@agmhkg -
Hotpot will be great for a cold cold day too! You can tell from the meat mixtures too?
@miiasoey -
Kung hei fat choy! It was nice to hear from you! Gosh, six months already? Time really flies by fast! My Tiger year is good so far, how’s yours?
Haha glad to see you added some love into the mix!!! =P.
@whoosh90 -
It took a lot of time to add too!
@CurryPuffy -
That’s pretty cool you use egg white to seal the edges, usually we just squeeze them together hehe.
@whoosh90 -
That’ll add an extra seal, just like crazy-glue! Give it a try next time, it works pretty well! Oh, do you boil or fry your dumplings?
@CurryPuffy -
I boil the wontons and fry the “wo teep”