2.182

6 (Wed) July 2011

Money Bags

2.5

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and DJ

This (cutely named) dumpling showed promise, particularly with respect to form. The filling was fully encased in a wonton skin and twisted at the top to emulate a drawstring pouch (i.e., a “money bag”).  I tried 4 versions: 1 with a large skin (about 10 cm in diameter, containing about 2 teaspoons of filling) and the top fanned out, 1 with a large skin and the top pinched shut, 1 with a small skin (6 cm, 1 teaspoon of filling), and 1 with a small wrapper and pinched top.  I preferred the last one (as shown in photo foreground), which was the easiest to construct and provided a manageable single-bite portion without any sharp edges that would result in Cap’n Crunch mouth.  Even hours later, leftovers had retained a bit of crisp and remained quite good.  I can imagine making these in advance as hors d’oeuvres that would hold up well through the course of a long dinner party.

The idea for the form, as well as the recipe for the filling, came from the cookbook Dim Sum, which had inspired a different dumpling dish featured in a post last week (see 2.177 Cook & Sell Dumplings).  In fact, the two dumpling fillings were similar in their basic pork-shrimp-shiitake mix, though tonight’s dish also contained bamboo shoots to add an extra dimension of taste and texture.  I haven’t been especially dazzled by either recipe in terms of flavor, but I am quite happy with how both turned out in appearance.

(See also FOODS.)

(See also PLACES.)

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