dumplings for good luck

last night i headed out to chelsea to meet up with keiko, kim, and at the last minute claire for an event thrown by blue stripe pr. we sipped on cans of sofia champagne, browsed racks upon racks of gorgeous clothing (sadly, the momeent i was waiting for - when they tell us we can take whatever we want - never came,) and chatted it up with lots of stylish girls, mostly about food, which seems to happen every time i lead a conversation. getting dressed for these events is always a messy affair for me - i'm so indecisive, and it's so hard to dress for the weather, and somehow i almost always end up dressed in primary colors. last night was no different.






i'm trying out this new thing where i post closeup photos. i've always done the one-photo, this is it thing, and i have my reasons for doing that; but i've realized as i've been browsing more blogs lately that i really love blogs that are photo-heavy and show all the details, and that's something that my posts have always lacked. i got a new fancy camera (!!!) that allows me to do high-quality shots, so there you go. i tried taking a couple of face shots and i feel like i look like a fish in all of them, so we'll do this photo thing in baby steps.

shirt: j crew
skirt: thrifted (originally united colors of benetton)
tights: man on the street
necklaces: vintage jewelry shop in atlanta, gift from sam's mom, gift from sam
shoes: thrifted


it was a lovely time, and we left with arms full of great gifts, but i was in a rush to make it to whole foods before it closed so i could grab some ground pork and head home to the most exciting part of the night, for me - dinner. my friend ashlee, who spent a couple years in mongolia and has also traipsed much of the rest of asia, came over and showed me how to make dumplings, which we promptly scarfed down, along with a couple of white ales, in honor of chinese new year. i'm told eating dumplings is good luck for this year, which is the year of the rabbit - any excuse to stuff my face with pork in any form is good enough for me.


Gif animation creator





she is a master of sealing those dumplings.

here is the recipe we used:


ingredients:

1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 cup of chopped green onion
1/2 cup of chopped cabbage
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon rice wine
A few dashes of white pepper
5 drops of sesame oil

for the wraps:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water

sprinkle the cabbage with salt to draw out the water and let it sit until it's dry. combine the filling ingredients and set aside.

use 1/2 cup of BOILING water, pour into the flour, and knead until it springs back to the touch; let it rest for a bit, then you can do what we did, aka cheat, and feed it bit by bit into a pasta machine to get it nice and thin, and then use a 3" cutter to cut it into circles; fill each with about a tablespoon of filling, and seal it however you can.

put a bit of vegetable or sesame oil in a pan, heat until water spits when you splash it on; brown the bottoms of the dumplings, then add a cup or two of water and cover them tightly with a lid. let them steam until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.

we made a sauce of ponzu, sesame oil, soy sauce and a bit of srirachi sauce. dip and enjoy!


happy chinese new year, everyone, and have a great weekend!

xo audrey