DUMPLING MAKING

We made dumplings! 

My friend Ray hosted a dumpling making party the other day. The original plan was to have each of us make a slightly different kind of dumpling - a Korean style, Japanese style, and Chinese style.  At the last moment the Japanese style representative had to drop out due to a family sickness, but we made a whole lot of Korean and Chinese style dumplings together. I was in charge of the Chinese-style, and while I had never made them before, I was excited to try. Granted, all these versions have overlapping elements and there is an endless amount of variations that you can put into dumplings, regardless of nationality, but the first time I tried my mother-in-law's pork and cabbage dumplings, I was surprised by how different they were compared to the Korean ones I was used to. They are also delicious, which is why I was excited to try my hand at it. My mom-in-law gave me the list of ingredients she uses, along with some instructions, and I also found this recipe to help me with specific measurements. We used pre-made dumpling skins (maybe next time we try making our own!) and made a ton of dumplings - plenty of which we consumed that day and others that we froze for later consumption. We also tried different ways of cooking - steam, pan-fried and even deep-fried some! Ken rightly pointed out that the pork and cabbage ones should be boiled to get the right effect, and he boiled dumplings and made the perfect sauce to go with them. It was great fun and I can't wait to try it again. Here are some photos of the making process; I didn't get any photos of the cooked dumplings because we were all too busy gobbling them up!