Dumpling Soup

One of the food items I don't bother to make are dumplings, pot stickers, gyoza, wonton, etc because they are readily available at the grocery stores with a large variety of fillings. The ones I regularly buy are the Korean vegetable gyoza that have soy protein (TVP) included with the veggies. I love them because they can be steamed, fried or added to chicken broth for soup. I added some shredded baby bokchoy for color and more vegetables.

I also got these very tiny, about ½ inch Chinese pearl rice balls that look like the Filipino bilo-bilo (sweet rice balls) but are filled with ground black sesame seeds and sugar, very similar to our mache or buchi (mochi?). They are also boiled in water like the palitaw, you know they are done when they start floating on the surface. They are so good.

We Need To Eat Healthy

I decided to eat healthier and will try to serve my family vegetarian meals 3 times a week . I used to 5 years ago but got lazy (vegetarian food requires a lot of work, you have to consider variety and taste) and did not serve vegemeals regularly. For starters last night I prepared Chinese: Ma-Po's Bean Curd AND shumai with baby bokchoy and peanut filling. For the Ma-Po I used shredded chicken flavored gluten (seitan) and cubed firm tofu, both are available at Korean supermarkets. I didn't have hot bean paste so I substituted Thai shiracha and yellow bean sauce. It came out tastier because the Thai sauce is spicier and has garlic in it. The baby bokchoy is truly baby, about 2 inches long and very tender.

Both are really good although I should have bought the supermarket wonton wrapper. I used gyoza wrappers which are thicker, the shumais came out a little bit makunat (chewy) but still so yummy. The filling is similar to the kuapao we used to have in Manila. Kuapao is a relative of siopao, rectangular or oval in shape and usually filled with green vegetableses, never meat. Hmm, maybe I will make kuapao next.