Sunday, June 20, 2010

Mandu - Korean Dumplings

My first actual "cooking" post is here! I made mandu, 만두, or mandoo, which means dumplings in korean. They're like the Japanese Gyoza dumplings. The recipe is pretty lengthy but easy to make after the first try! I used Maangchi's recipe, who has inspired me to cook my way through korean food! Here's the link to her website for the recipe http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mandu .
There's so many different recipes out there for mandu, but I've only tried this one. I'd like to use ground chicken next time because sometimes the ground pork smell is a little too strong when I steam them. The best part about these is that you can make a whole bunch easily if you buy the mandu skins, because they can be stored in the freezer in a ziplock or container and just steamed/boiled/fried whenever!

I made the mandu shape which can be used in soups (the circle ones), and also the ones that you usually fry up (ones with the pleats going across).


Army of Mandu!! These are the ones for soup, but I usually just steam them all.

I dip them in a soy sauce/rice vinegar mixture and they're sooo delicious. If you've ever had the pre-made ones from the store or restaurant, well... there's no comparison. Once you make these, you'll never buy the store kind again!! :D

This is what the mandu look like after being steamed. I used rice powder mandu skins which taste delicious because it makes them a tad bit chewier rather than the plain flour noodle skin. You can see the asian chives in the mandu below... mmmm!







Books List

I like to keep track of what I've read throughout my life, but never seem to keep up with it. So I'm going to try again at making the "book list" and see how much I remember! Authors are not added, I'll get around to that later. In no particular order, here they are (or some of them, at least):

  1. A Fine Balance
  2. Night
  3. Where the Heart Is
  4. David Copperfield
  5. White Oleander
  6. Heart of Darkness
  7. Harry Potter books 1-4 (lost interest after waiting like 2 years for the 5th book!)
  8. Swimming Lessons
  9. The Awakening
  10. The Great Gatsby
  11. Of Mice and Men
  12. The Bell Jar
  13. The Catcher in the Rye
  14. The Grapes of Wrath
  15. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  16. Slaughterhouse-5
  17. Things Fall Apart
  18. A Passage to India
  19. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
  20. Lord of the Flies
  21. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I still don't get this book)
  22. All Quiet on the Western Front
  23. Walden
  24. Death of a Salesman
  25. Where the Red Fern Grows
  26. To the Lighthouse
  27. Fall on your Knees
Sad I can only remember 27 :(

Books I want to read!!!
  1. Siddhartha (my philosophy teacher told me to 3 years ago, haven't picked it up yet)
  2. Twilight series
  3. rest of the HP books

Trying out my Casio PX-130

So here I am trying out the new Casio px-130. I wanted to get back in touch with the piano but wanted to stay in my budget. This led me to being torn between the px-130 and the Yahama p85. I had read that Yamaha was trying to upgrade its weighted keys on the p85 so I was like "oh, cool... this is definitely going to be better than the Casio!"

Well, after hitting the keys on the p85, I couldn't help but feel that Yamaha tried too hard on improving the hammer action or ...I don't know, it just felt fake. Plus, everytime I plunked on a key, I could hear the hammer action and it was pretty loud! So yeah, I got the Casio and I'm so happy with it.

Here's a test I did on my new Casio. Yeah I know there's mistakes, but it was my first run through and ..a long time since I've played on a full 88 keys. :)

Hello, New World!

This blog was originally intended to be a "cooking blog" but I can't help it -- I want to blog about all different things! I tried to make a new account but Google was acting up so I'll have to stick with this one for now.

Expect more posts from me about all my different hobbies and interests!