A Jammin Life

People often assume I started cooking because of my mom. It’s technically true, but not in the way they think.

I started cooking since middle school because my mom loathes cooking. I grew up eating fast food, and was envious of my friends who would bring homemade food for lunch. I had to learn to cook to survive 😭

But for someone who hates cooking, my mom made killer dumplings. It is truly a mystery where she got her dumpling skills, but those dumplings were somehow so good that she had a waitlist of orders from people around us. Normally she would never, but when we were at rock bottom financially, she rolled up her sleeves and got cooking. Our freezer was filled top to bottom with bags of dumplings for her to fulfill her orders.

But after that period of financial crisis was over, those dumplings were never to be seen again. They became a legend from stories of olden times. After years of eating dumplings from the frozen aisle of the supermarket or those full of msg from restaurants, I asked my mom to make her dumplings again last year.

I had a feeling this would be the last time my mom would make them, so lucky for you and me, I made sure to take photos and write everything down.

These dumplings are the way to any Korean’s heart for those of you yearning to earn the love of a crush (or even your significant other’s Korean mom)

So here is my gift to you:

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• Dumpling Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 heads of green cabbage
  • 2 pounds of mung bean sprouts
  • 3 bunches of green onion
  • 1 onion
  • 3 pounds of firm tofu
  • 1 pound of ground pork
  • 1 pound of ground beef
  • 8 Tablespoons of minced garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 packs of dumpling/gyoza wrappers
• Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
  • 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon of vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Korean red pepper powder (gochugaru)

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• Recipe Steps:
  • steam the cabbage until thoroughly soft (about 15 minutes)
  • roughly chop the cabbage into medium-sized pieces
  • cook the bean sprouts in boiling water (about 3 minutes)
  • roughly chop the sprouts into medium-sized pieces
  • chop up the green onions and finely dice the onion
  • mix all the chopped vegetables together
  • squeeze out as much water from the vegetables as possible with a cheesecloth
  • rinse and mash the tofu
  • squeeze excess moisture out of the tofu with a cheesecloth – about 2 handfuls each time
  • put all the meat into a bowl and squeeze out as much blood as you can with kitchen towels
  • add the garlic and season the meat heavily with salt and pepper
  • mix the meat with tofu
  • mix together the squeezed vegetables, meat and tofu mixture, and sesame oil
  • wet the edge of the dumpling wrapper, put in 1 Tablespoon of filling, and seal the edges
  • steam for 10 minutes
  • mix together the sauce ingredients to dip and eat!!

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with pictures this time!

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I hope you enjoy the best dumplings you’ve ever had 😊

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Korean food, Korean recipe, dumpling recipe, healthy recipe, asian recipe, weeknight recipe, Korean dinner, dinner recipe, what to make with ground beef, what to make with ground pork