Dumplings

picture via marthastewart.com

I got this recipe years and years ago from a neighbor friend. She is from Hawaii, her parents are from Okinawa, her husband is American and she always cooked an interesting mix of American/Japanese/Hawaiian cuisine. I remember trying seaweed crackers for the first time at their house. I was not impressed. These, however are super yummy. They are a little labor intensive, but fun to make as a family and worth it for a special occasion, like Roxcy's birthday.

More recently I invited a Russian friend of mine to give a demonstration at church on how to make Pelmeni. Her recipe was identical to my dumplings, with a few minor differences. No soy sauce and she boiled hers while the Asian ones are steamed, and she served hers with sour cream, but the Asian ones are dipped in soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. It's so interesting how every culture has their own version of a dumpling, from ravioli to pelmeni to potstickers.

While we're talking about dumplings, I have to tell you about my favorite place to get dumplings: Rickshaw Dumplings on 23rd. You can order your dumplings steamed, fried or in broth. The flavors they pair are amazing and each dumpling comes with a partner dipping sauce ("chicken with lemongrass, glass noodles & carrot, served with spicy peanut dipping sauce"). It's such a good, cheap, hot, yummy meal.

Filling.
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion
1/4 wedge cabbage, pureed in blender or food processor
3/4 t. salt
1 t. soy sauce
1/8 t. pepper

Wrap.
2 eggs
1 1/4 c. flour

Brown ground beef, add onion and cabbage and rest of ingredients. Cook until onion is tender. Mix flour and eggs together to make a wrap, knead a few times (should look like pasta dough). Cut into circles. Fill with about 1 t. filling, fold over and seal. Fry in small amount of oil until brown on one side, then turn and add water, put lid on and steam. Serve by dipping in 1 part rice wine vinegar, 1 part soy sauce.