I had a second cooking lesson from Mrs. Shin (Hilda) and her son Jarhoon. They taught me how to make Korean dumplings. It was a great privilege, as they usually only make them at special occasions, because they take a long time to make.
The first step is to make the filling for the dumplings (what you will put inside the dough). Today, this was :
ground pork with green onion, salt and pepper, and pre-cooked
tofu--this is a hard tofu that must be boiled for a while to soften it, then put in linen to squeeze out the excess water.
green sprouts--like bean sprouts that are eaten just after the seeds have sprouted--that are boiled and then have the water removed like the tofu
chopped cabbage, lightly fryed (until soft) with salt and pepper
leeks--diced (these are not the leeks of the US that are similar to onions, they are more like green onions--or grass)
clear Korean noodles (made from potato starch)--cook like regular noodles, then chop-up
dough--just flour and water--for the dumplings
All of the above was already prepared when I arrived (so I don't know how long it took them)
The next step is to mix all of the above ingredients, mixing with sesame oil, salt to taste, and a few eggs to add consistency and bind the ingredients together. After mixing the ingredients in a large bowl, you are ready to make the dumplings.
-Tear off small meatball sized pieces of dough and rolling them out into larger, thin, circles
-Take some of the filling and place in the center of the circle
-Fold the dough over and press together, enclosing the filling with the dough (like a small taco)
- Then you twist the two ends together to make a round, finished, dumpling (see picture)
This process of making the filling and the dumplings is usually done by the whole family on special occasions, making the work go quicker. Because it is so labor intensive, a lot of dumplings are made, to divide among the group, or to freeze for use later.
Once the dumplings are made, there are three ways to cook them:
1. boiling: usually done as part of a soup meal. Today, they had made beef broth by boiling a beef bone in water for a while to get a broth. Then they add salt to taste, chopped garlic, chopped green onions, pepper, and eggs (beaten, and dropped into the water, like won-ton soup). As this is cooking, they then drop in the dumplings. The dumplings are fully cooked and ready to eat when they float easily and the skin becomes clear.
They are served with the soup. You can add salt or soy-sauce. They told me that most of the time they add more hot spices to the dumplings for flavoring.
2. Steaming: using a steam-pot, put in a clean linen to cover the bottom so that the dumplings don't stick (they break easily, as the dough is thin). Just steam them for a few minutes until done.
They are eaten with soy-sauce.
3. Deep fry: deep fry the dumplings TWICE. First, fry the dumpling until about 90% done, and remove. Drain the oil off the dumpling. Once dried for a few minutes, fry again. This makes the dumpling crispy, and actually makes it less oily.
After making our dumplings, we sat together and ate. Then it was my turn! I showed them a family favorite that is readily available on island: cherry jello salad.
cherry jello (four boxes)
one can crushed pineapple
one can cherry pie filling
1. boil four cups water (one for each box of jello)
2. put cherry jello into a large pan that can be put in the fridge
3. pour the boiling water into the jello
4. this is where the change comes--usually when making jello, you would now put in four cups of cold water (each box of jello takes one cup of boiling water and one cup cold water). However, instead of putting cold water into the pan, you put a can of crushed pineapple (equal to two cups of water), and a can of cherry pie filling (equal to two cups of water).
5. once all this is mixed together, simply put it in the fridge overnight to set-up
Very easy, and very, very, good.
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