Kitchen Visit: Vegetable Dumplings

Visiting my friend Jeana's kitchen this past Sunday was one of those days that seemed almost too perfect for real life. There was the beautiful, 80 degree weather in January; there was my first-ever trip to HK market in Koreatown; there was the sweet potato latte at Holly's Coffee; there was the fact that I had the day off; there was Jeana's beautiful, sun-filled kitchen; and, of course, there was Jeana—a stand-alone wealth of inspiration.

I know I've mentioned Jeana's art and blog in previous posts, but have you seen her videos? I love them. The whole time we were making these dumplings, I was thinking of the one titled Summer Day and that montage of shoes and sweets from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.

Here is the Bon Appetempt version:

Kitchen Visit: Vegetable Dumplings from amelia morris on Vimeo.

Another kitchen visit success!


Vegetable Dumplings

Ingredients
for dumplings:
1 bunch Asian chives (buchu), finely chopped
1 onion finely minced (We used a food processor.)
4 small carrots finely minced (Again with the food processor.)
1 10 oz. package of soft tofu, patted dry and mashed with a fork
6 oz. mushrooms, finely minced (Again, we employed the food processor. It was fun. See video.)
Korean glass noodles (japchae), about as much as you can hold in one hand (dry).
salt & pepper
2 packages of gyoza wrappers
vegetable oil

for dipping sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon minced green onions
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes or 1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) cayenne


Boil water for noodles. Mix first five ingredients in a bowl. Cook noodles for about 5-6 minutes or according to package instructions. Rinse with cold water to stop cooking, and then, while still in colander, cut into small pieces with scissors. Add minced noodles to bowl with other ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare an area for dumpling making. Grab a gyoza wrapper from the package. Spoon a healthy spoonful of the filling into the center of the dumpling. Dip your finger into a ramekin of water and wet the outer edge of half the wrapper. Fold dumpling up like a taco and then pinch the edges together, making sure to stuff back in any wayward filling and to seal edges completely. Set raw dumpling on a lightly floured surface, and repeat until the filling is gone.

Make dipping sauce by mixing all four ingredients together and set aside.

Lightly film a frying pan with vegetable oil and let it get nice and hot. Add some raw dumplings to pan and fry for a couple of minutes on each side, or until browned. Feel free to add a bit more oil or water if they are sticking and cover with a lid to ensure the dough is fully cooked through.

Serve with dipping sauce (and in our case, kimchi fried rice) and enjoy!

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant, Singapore

To be fair, Singapore does have its own share of vegetarian food and restaurants. It may not be easily available in regular food courts but there are tons of restaurants that will cater to vegetarians, especially Indian.

Whole earth is one of those out-of-the-box restaurants that serve good, flavourful vegetarian food. Their monkey head mushrooms are most popular although we didn't order it during this trip.



I've been to this restaurant near work a bunch of times but thanks to my Project 365, I had my 'good' camera handy last week when we went there for dinner.



They serve peanuts that are just rightly salted, a sweet-ish pickled fruit/vegetable which I think is pear, and vegetarian sambal with calamansi. The sambal is very strong and spicy. Awesome to munch on while you wait for the food.

They have a bunch of healthy drinks to pick from. This is Owen's orange soursop juice. Note: they don't serve soft drinks. How's that for a message?

Olive brown rice. Wonderfully flavourful and a must-have if you visit this place.




Tom Yam fried rice. I love this too. Its mildly spicy and has a lovely note of lemongrass in it.



Hong Kong fried noodles. Was okay, quite passable.



Assam Pedas or Mock fish curry. The mock fish in it looks remarkably like fish and the gravy is really unexplainable. It has a pretty strong flavour so all may not like it.



Thai Battered Oyster Mushroom - sin on a plate. Its deep fried, its super crisp and the sauce is wonderfully orange-y. I love it!



Eggplant with sataw or stinky beans. The beans are definitely 'stinky' and quite bitter so order this dish if you really like eggplant and sambal and don't mind experimenting.



Yam ring. This is another deep fried dish that's super crispy outside but the yam is very creamy and yummy. Every table in the restaurant had one order of this so a must-try, definitely.



Mushroom Rendang curry. I love rendang! It has wonderful notes of Kerala cuisine so I never pass by an opportunity to eat it. This was my favourite dish of them all. The mushroom had a texture very similar to chicken but the flavour definitely won't put off a vegetarian. An absolute must must MUST try!

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant
Website
*No added MSG

Average cost per person will be between SGD 25 to SGD 35 depending on what you order. 

FLÄCKIG Mixing bowl from Ikea

Mixing bowls are an essential part of your kitchen things if you intend to bake even once in a while. Ikea has some good, sturdy mixing bowls. I personally use their steel one but Shreya found the melamine ones quite handy too. Also shown are the measuring spoons in the same category, from Ikea. 

The info, from Shreya.

Price - US $3.99

Where you got it - IKEA, Dubai. Link to product.

Mixing bowl, perfect while baking and all general uses for a mixing bowl. Love the handle and the spout. They are also available in blue.

Also, set of measuring cups from STAM - Dhs 4.95