Tag asian food

Celebrate Chinese New Year with Pork and Shrimp Dumplings

Pork and Shrimp DumplingsChinese New Year falls on January 31 this year. As we enter into year of the horse, we thought we’d share a savory dumpling recipe to help you celebrate. Though it’s not the traditional jau gok (aka pot sticker) you might find at most family gatherings, knowing how to make your own delicious dumplings sounds like a great lucky way to start your year!

If you’d like to learn how to make similar recipes while making foodie friends and learning from professional chefs, check out our upcoming cooking classes for couples!

Wishing you a happy new year with much prosperity (and red packets!),
The Parties That Cook Team

Pork and Shrimp Dumplings with Sesame Chili Oil Dipping Sauce Recipe
This recipe can be found in our Appetizer Recipe Library!

Ingredients
Dumplings:
1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp, finely chopped
6 ounces ground pork
1/2 pound mushrooms, any kind, finely chopped
1/4 cup water chestnuts, finely chopped
1/2 small shallot, finely minced
2 Tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped + more for garnish if desired
2 Tablespoons green onion, finely chopped + more for garnish if desired
1 Tablespoon roasted peanuts, finely chopped
1 egg yolk
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

60 square won ton wrappers
Cornstarch to dust sheet pan
1/4-1/2 cup canola to pan fry

Sesame Chili Oil Dipping Sauce:
2 Tablespoons chili paste (like sambal)
1/2 cup light soy sauce
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons water

Methods/Steps
Prepare the Filling: Finely chop the shrimp and place into a medium bowl. Add the pork. Chop all of the vegetables as directed, and add to the shrimp and pork. (Alternatively, you can pulse ingredients in a food processor. Do not puree.) Stir in the egg yolk, fish sauce, sesame oil and seeds, salt and pepper.

Pro Tip: Test for Seasoning. To do a taste test without consuming raw meat, make a few small balls of prepped filling. Heat a small sauté pan over medium heat and add a little oil. When shimmering, add a few little meatballs. When cooked, taste for flavoring and adjust with salt, pepper, or any ingredient that seems to be lacking.

Assemble Dumplings: Put 6 won ton wrappers on a dry surface. Pro Tip: Leave remaining wrappers in package. Cover with a damp towel to prevent drying and cracking. Spray lightly with water using a spray bottle, focusing on edges, or brush all edges with a wet pastry brush. Mound about 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. Gather the four corners of each wrapper and seal into a point. Make sure all seams are securely sealed. Place on a tray dusted with cornstarch. (If you have someone helping you make these, feel free to move to the next step as soon as you have about 6 dumplings assembled.)

Fry/Steam Dumplings: Working in batches, in a large sauté pan with a lid (nonstick pans work well), heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil over moderately high heat until hot, but not smoking. Fry dumplings flat-side down until the underside is golden brown, about 1 minute. Add ¼ cup of water per batch, pouring gently down the side of sauté pan. Be careful as it may splash! Cover pan and steam dumplings over moderately low heat until cooked through, about 2 minutes. Remove lid and cook dumplings until water is evaporated. Replenish oil after each batch.

Make Sauce: In a small bowl, whisk the chili paste, soy, sesame oil and water. Set aside.

Serve: Pour dipping sauce into a bowl. Place dumplings on a platter, and garnish with chopped cilantro &/or scallions, if desired. Serve warm.

Serves/Makes
Makes 60 Dumplings — an even number for good luck!

Recipe created by Parties That Cook® | www.PartiesThatCook.com

Parties That Cook Hits the New World for October’s Cookbook Club: Norman’s New World Cuisine

October brought with it some rather undesirable weather. The obvious solution for the Parties That Cook office team was to seek refuge in the Caribbean! This was Christina’s month to host Cookbook Club, and we were all too excited after receiving the following invitation:

Join Us for a Trip to the Islands!
We’ll be cooking from Norman Van Aken’s New World Cuisine — creating bright and vibrant dishes to make us feel like we’re on a tropical holiday.
PTC Employees, please state the name of the receipe you will be sharing when you RSVP.
For guests of Parties That Cook, your presence is all we need.
Dress Attaire: Straw hats and sandals!

Norman’s New World Cuisine is full of Caribbean-, Latin-, Asian-, and American-inspired recipes. The flavors found in the book and on our table are said to celebrate America’s dynamic ethnic mix.


Norman’s Hot ‘n’ Nasty Nuts and “Hot Lolita” Cocktails – Rosie brought in both of these hot ‘n’ tasty treats. She lowered the heat on her Hot Lolitas to balance out the potential heat of the nuts and other dishes. In the end, Lolita turned out to be more like Margarita – in the best possible way.

Cava Fondue – Gina chose an amazing dish to present this month. Despite a little confusion over garlic powder and POWER, her cheese blend was not overwhelmed by garlic. Though it may be a little harder to keep than the other dishes, this is an excellent choice for same-day events!

Spring Rolls with Paw Paw Slaw and Ponzu dipping sauce – Kelle and Rebecca tag teamed this recipe, with Kelle covering the Spring Rolls and Rebecca coming in with the Paw Paw Slaw (Note: no paw paw was actually used in the making of this dish. The star in this dish is the Green Papaya). Of course, the delicious dishes came together well, but Rebecca thought she would try the slightly spicy slaw without the liquid-y green papaya next time. We can’t move on to the next recipe until we tell you that intern, Roxanne, was the third musketeer of this team, helping with day-of prep as well as making the off-roaded Ponzu dipping sauce!

Caramelized Plantains Mash en Relleno and the Redlands Tropical Fruit Chutney – Melissa took on two dishes this week. Let me just say: YUM. You can’t go wrong with caramelized plantains, but finishing them in chile skins adds a great twist!

Garlicky Mashed Sweet Potatoes – Michelene scored a touchdown with this dish! The garlic POWER, with its less intense flavor than powder, did not interfere with the precious flavor of the sweet potatoes. Many of us thought this dish could easily fight its way onto the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Sherried Black Beans – Reminiscent of Crissy’s drunken beans, this dish did not disappoint! Though they had quite the kick to them (unless you ask a certain spicy daredevil), everyone agreed they were too good not to eat!

Cuban Pork Asado with Sour Orange Mojo and Saffron Rice — Bibby outdid herself, if you can imagine that. The pork asado was so good we had to fight over what little leftovers there were the next day! The saffron rice made a great partner for most of the other dishes in the meal. We even had a couple of saffron rice converts!

My Mama’s Spanish Cream — Erin was back to dessert again, and chose this dish for her renaissance. The flavor was delicious, but the delicate and somewhat separated texture was not what Erin had in mind. Our cooking whiz guest then imparted some knowledge on us and advised on how one might avoid these results in the future (copper bowl, anyone?)

Spanish Olive Oil Cake with Citrus Fruit and Toasted Almonds — Christina also opted for a dessert this month, and it was scrumptious. The cake was so moist, without being oily, and the flavors went well with the FOUR OTHER DESSERTS we had on the table that day.

Sweet Potato Cake with Marshmallow Cream — Bibby claims she’s not much of a baker, yet she took it upon herself to create this delicious beast of a cake from scratch over the weekend. It wasn’t even from the book! And you wondered why I said she outdid herself… Bibby thought ahead and left a portion pecan-free for Michelene – so nice!

Sugar and Spice Cookies – Our wonderful and extremely knowledgeable new Lead Chef, Heather McCarthy, was our guest this month. Despite the invitation for an effortless lunch, Heather couldn’t help but whip something up. These organic, gluten-free, gmo-free, soy-free, vegan cookies from her new line of treats for people with special food needs could have fooled anyone! Heather’s company, Lou Lou, is taking orders via email, should you decide to try her Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Espresso Chocolate Chip, Butter Pecan with Salted Caramel or ALL FOUR. Had we known we would need a second plate for all our desserts, we would have done a better job portioning!

As you can see, this was an incredibly successful cookbook club. As you may have guessed, it lead to an incredibly (un)productive afternoon.
Have you tried this book before? Let us know! Also, suggestions for future cookbooks to try are always welcome!