Dumpling Sides Recipes Archives - Asian Dumpling Tips

Cold Udon Noodles (Zaru Udon)

An Asian Dumplings reader emailed last week asking what to serve with her dumplings. The first thing I thought of were noodles! Since you're becomingwell-versed in Asian doughy foods, how about making your own homemade udon noodles? They're fabulous and easy, requiring only 3 ingredients: flour, salt and water.

Boil them up, add a cool sauce and some garnishes and you have a great accompaniment to the pork and shrimp gyozas on page 41. Or, any of the other poached, fried and steamed dumpling from chapter 1 of Asian Dumplings.

Should you want to gild the lily, make Japanese pork belly buns and offer them as a prelude to the noodles.

I posted the cold udon noodle recipe on Vietworldkitchen.com.

Korean Napa Cabbage Kimchi Recipe (Mak Kimchi)

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One of my favorite vegetarian Asian dumplings is Korean kimchi mandu. I love them poached, pan-fried, steamed, and deep-fried. The punchy filling says, “I am Korean, not a knockoff of Chinese dumplings!” The key to making kimchi mandu well is to have aged, very fragrant (read: stinky) kimchi. The more mature the kimchi the better, my Korean friends say, because it gives mandu more gusto. Mandu filling tends to be fairly bland as it contains tofu and vegetables such as zucchini squash and bean sprouts. You need a little extra oomph for mandu, and good stinky kimchi is requisite.

The most challenging thing about making kimchi is getting the Korean red pepper flakes, called gochu-garu, It is a mild chile that imparts a wonderful color and earthy flavor to kimchi. I buy it in large bags at Chinese and Korean markets and keep it in the pantry indefinitely. My friend Niloufer King, the Indian food expert and author of My Bombay Kitchen, loves to use Korean red pepper flakes in her recipes. Here’s what it looks like:

I’ve offered two seasoning options for making kimchi. They are based on recipes by my friends Huynjoo Albrecht of CookingKorean.com, and Lillian Chou, a former food editor at Gourmet. They’re similar but Huynjoo’s approach offers a more delicate and complex flavor, though the color is tad dark. Lillian’s is a little faster to ferment as it has the vinegar in it. Use the largest hole on a box grater for the Asian pear and onion.

Tips for making and using kimchi:

Use fish sauce as a short cut. Traditional Korean cooks put tiny, super salty shrimp into kimchi, but modern cooks often use the shortcut of using Southeast Asian fish sauce (nuoc mam/nam pla).
Salt the cabbage till it’s tender firm. Many cooks cut the cabbage up and just put it all in the salted water. I did that for years but the method below from Huynjoo works better and makes sense. Adding extra salt in the thicker part of the napa cabbage allows the leaves to get salted at an even rate. The thinner parts of the leaf needs less salt.
Store in a glass jar. It’s easier to wash out the odor of kimchi from glass than from plastic. If your glass jar needs an extra seal, use a double of quadruple layer of plastic wrap like I do above.
Practice and come up with your own recipe. There are endless ways to season napa cabbage kimchi. This recipe offers just 2 options but you can certainly devise your own from the proportions below!
Eat new/fresh kimchi as side dish but cook with old kimchi. Kimchi is a great banchan side dish to serve alongside the likes of Korean pickled jalapeno and garlic; try both with hot rice and grilled pork or beef. Mature, stinky kimchi is perfect for Korean dumplings (see Asian Dumplings, page 44 for a recipe) , jiggae soup, and Korean pancakes (pajon).

RECIPE

Korean Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Mak Kimchi

Makes about 3 cups

3/4 cup fine sea salt
10 cups water
1 (2-pound) head napa cabbage, quartered lengthwise

Seasonings Option 1:
2 tablespoons chopped scallion, green part only
2 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1½ teaspoons minced ginger
3 1/2 tablespoons Korean red pepper powder (gochu-garu)
2 1/2 teaspoons light (regular) soy sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon toasted hulled (white) sesame seeds, lightly crushed with a mortar and pestle
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons grated Asian pear
2 tablespoons grated yellow onion

Seasonings Option 2:
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/4 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
2/3 cup chopped scallion, white and green parts
2 tablespoons toasted, hulled (white) sesame seeds, lightly crushed with a mortar and pestle
2 tablespoons Korean red pepper powder (gochu-garu)
2 tablespoons grated Asian pear

1. In a large bowl, dissolve half of the salt in the water. Sprinkle the remaining salt in between the thicker parts of the leaves (closer to where they’re still attached at the core). Add the cabbage to the water and a metal lid (or other heavy object) on top to keep the cabbage submerged. Set aside for about 4 hours , until you can fold a piece of the cabbage from tip to core with a little resistance.

2. Drain the cabbage, rinse well several times, and drain again. Trim away the core and cut the cabbage crosswise into pieces about 2 inches wide. Now, grab handfuls of the cabbage and squeeze to remove excess moisture. Place in a colander and set in the sink to drain more.

3. In a large bowl, combine all the seasoning ingredients, stirring well; expect to smell the fragrant heat of the mixture! Squeeze the cabbage again to remove any lingering moisture. Then add to the seasoning ingredients. Mix well with your hands and/or a spatula.

4. Transfer the kimchi to a lidded glass container , pushing the kimchi down as best you can to minimize air pockets. Be sure to add all the seasonings. Cover and leave at room temperature for half a day to stimulate the fermentation process; you’ll notice liquid pooling in the jar. Then refrigerate overnight.

Taste the next day and if necessary, adjust the flavor with extra sugar, pear, or fish sauce. Resist adding more sea salt or the kimchi will turn bitter. The kimchi is ready to eat but if you let it sit for another day, it will taste better. Kimchi keeps well in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 weeks, but it will deepen in flavor over time.

Let me know how you altered the seasonings, etc. Don’t hold your kimchi making secrets to yourself!

Korean Pickled Jalapeno and Garlic Recipe

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I love all the banchan sides served at the Korean table. In the realm of Korean dumplings (called mandu), banchan provide wonderful textural and flavor contrast to the soft chewy dough and savory filling. This simple pickle recipe embodies a Korean pickling method called jang-ajji in which the featured vegetable marinates in tangy sweet soy and vinegar. Traditionally, the raw vegetable steeps in the brine for weeks. I speed things up by bringing all the ingredients up to a boil and then turning the heat off. The crisp texture remains intact.

Korean cooks typically make either a chile pepper jang ajji or a garlic jang ajji. I like them both so I combined them into one. You can separate them if you’d like. The garlic mellows so it’s safe for date night!

Pickled jalapeno and garlic add spicy kick and pungent bite to any savory Korean mandu, whether the filling is kimchi or meat and tofu. The brining liquid can be used as a dipping sauce for steamed, poached, pan-fried or deep-fried mandu. If your jalapeño chiles are super hot (they tend to be when the heat is on), hollow out the center of the chiles to remove the membrane and seeds before you slice them.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups

4 large jalapeño chiles, or 2 large jalapeño chiles and 1 large head of garlic
6 tablespoons light (regular) soy sauce
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
6 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 to 3-inch strip lemon peel (use a vegetable peeler to remove from lemon), optional

1. Trim the stem from the chiles and then slice crosswise into circles a good 1/8 inch thick. Transfer them to a bowl, leaving any seeds that may have fallen off behind. (I like to use the cut stem end to scoot the chiles onto your knife and deposit them into the bowl.) If you are using the garlic, peel the cloves; do your best to keep them as intact as possible.

2. Put the soy sauce, vinegar, water, and sugar into a small saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Taste and adjust the flavor for a savory-tart-slightly-sweet flavor. Add the lemon peel.

3. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the chiles (and garlic, if using) and stir to combine. When the mixture returns to a boil, turn off the heat. Set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring the mixture occasionally to ensure even exposure. Transfer to a jar and chill overnight before eating. This pickle keeps well for a good month!

If you tweak the recipe (maybe using a different chile) please share your technique.

Watermelon Radish and Cucumber Salad Recipe

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I love radishes for their crisp texture and slight bite. Bring on Japanese daikon, Chinese luo buo, Korean moo, and one of my all-time favorites, the watermelon radish. It looks sad on the outside, mostly off white and often mottled, and resembles a turnip tinged with green at the shoulders and light pink at the root. But cut one open and the inner flesh is reddish and white, radiating toward the edge to become white and finishing as lime green. It’s a feast for your eyes. As for the flavor, watermelon radish has a marvelously sweet-bite, though it turns a bit bitter when growing conditions are hot. Watermelon radish is a Chinese heirloom variety that also goes by red meat radish, rose heart. In Mandarin, the radish is called shinrimei, which literally means “beauty in the heart.” (Note to Chinese speakers, the ‘shin’ is misspelled in English botanical terms, but it is really xin, meaning heart, as in dian xin/dim sum.)

Last week’s weather was cool so the watermelon radish that I picked up from Coke Farms at the farmer’s market were nicely sweet. Radishes are typically spring and winter crop but watermelon radishes can be cultivated year-round if the temperatures are moderate, like they are here in Santa Cruz.

Chilled Cucumber with Garlic Recipe

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My friend Katie Sullivan Morford of Afghan Cooking Unveiled is a writer and mom to three beautiful girls. She recently asked me , “So if you’re planning on making a meal of Asian dumplings, what can you serve on the side?” A whole host of goodies was my response. This little cucumber salad is one that I frequently whip up. It’s crunchy, tangy, and has a garlicky bite that’s perfect alongside the chewy richness of dumplings such as pot stickers, poached water dumplings (jiaozi) and fried spring rolls. The cucumber provides nice textural contrast. Plus, it’s served cold so there’s a cooling effect as well.

I first ordered this dish as an accompaniment to Shanghai soup dumplings. The restaurant’s preparation was kind of crude in that they left the seeds in the cucumber and there was so much garlic that suffice it to say, I was glad that my husband and I had been together for decades! This isn’t quite a dish for first dates. At home, I researched the recipe in my library and came across a similar dish called “Smacked Cucumbers” in Fuschia Dunlop’s inspiring Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. Her Hunan recipe called for whacking the cucumbers with the side of a heavy cleaver so as to open up the pores in the cucumbers and help them soak up the flavors. Interesting but not attractive is what I found out when I tried the technique. And the seeds were never removed in Dunlop’s recipe just like at the restaurant.