laundry

Laundry list? French laundry? Money laundry?? No, just laundry. I promised myself I would do no blogging til I had done ALL of the laundry today. And I do mean ALL...clothing, diapers, towels, bed sheets, socks (the only thing I bleach). So it's 7pm, and while the diapers are still in the dryer and have yet to be folded, everything else is indeed done and PUT AWAY.

I had intended to share my gyoza recipe over the weekend, but a plethora of kids' birthday parties, Star Wars characters at Build-A-Bear, and an excess of hiking on sunday kind of quashed that plan too.

So here it is, monday again. But a RAINY monday, thank goodness. We need the rain here desperately. However it does nothing good for food photography. Meh.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: mini gel cups; checkered apples; Pichu sandwich of Tofurky, lettuce, mustard & Veganaise; baby carrots; meatless meatballs; gherkin pickles.

Now, on to the problem of the not-so-spiffy napa cabbage left under the lettuce in the produce bin. Bleh.

Napa cabbage is my
favourite. Not that
cabbage is in general
my favourite, it's not.
But I like the light &
mild flavour napa
cabbage has. It's great
cooked or raw. But I
had inadvertently left
a lovely little head of cabbage in the bottom of the bin too long, which makes me angry, because I hate wasting food. I mean, we compost all produce scraps, but we only get a couple of heads of napa cabbage from the farm each year, and I hate to pitch it all in the compost pile.

So I began removing the
outer layers. The frilly
leafy part was pretty
gnarly, but most of the
inner rib was perfect.
So I salvaged that, about
a cup's worth, and set it
aside for a few hours
while I took out some
frozen dumpling wrappers to thaw on the counter. The ones I had are Assi Brand imported from Korea. I buy them at the local asian market in the refrigerated section. They are one of the few I've found that are free of eggs.

Sunshine Gyoza

1 cup chopped cabbage rib
(or bok choy stems)
1 small leek, sliced thinly
(or scallion)
1 tsp. grated ginger
1/4-1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Barbecue Sunshine Burger, thawed & crumbled
24 gyoza skins
oil for frying (optional)
shoyu for dipping (optional)

Dice cabbage. Slice leeks. Grate ginger. Chop garlic.
Mix first 6 ingredients together.
Thaw or nuke the Sunshine
Burger for 30 seconds.
Crumble and mix into cabbage.
Spoon 1-2 tablespoons onto
each gyoza wrapper. Fold in
half and pinch the edges
closed, then press the edges
with a wet fork to secure.


Heat peanut oil in a non-
stick saute pan and fry
for about 1 minute on each
side, or until lightly browned.
Alternately, you can steam
these (in single layers so they
don't stick) for a few minutes.

Drain on a paper towel
on a large plate. Serve
at any temperature.

All four kids absolutely
loved these, as did my
husband. Yippee for such
a yummy cabbage
delivery system!My lunch hike bento: blanched spinach w/shoyu on the side; soba noodles; Sunshine gyoza; mini tofu broccoli quiche.

beloved kimchee

I love kimchee. I love to eat
it with rice. But I also like to
think of ways to eat it almost
on its own, just so no one
thinks I'm too crazy. Gyoza, or
dumplings, are a perfect
kimchee delivery device.

As I'm all about convenience and
simplicity (and what parent isn't), I head to the Korean market and pick up some jumbo gyoza skins. They're about 3 inches in diameter, with simple ingredients: wheat flour, tapioca starch, salt. If you're vegan too, you may have to check a few packages to find some without eggs, because probably three-quarters of the gyoza skins I've seen contain egg white...Or you could make your own pretty easily. As for the kimchee, I buy mine at Whole Foods or a regular supermarket...saves me from combing through non-vegan bonito-laden kimchee at the asian markets that look delicious but alas contain one or more vegetarian un-friendly ingredients.

I usually thaw a package of frozen gyoza wrappers for an hour on the counter, then refrigerate overnight until I'm ready to use them. I often use half the package, then pop the rest back in the freezer. The re-freezing hasn't affected their quality in my opinion provided I use them with the month.

When making vegetable gyoza/dumplings, I prefer the health benefits of steaming or microwaving. But when dealing with my kimchee obsession, I recommend frying in peanut oil all the way!

Kimchee Dumplings

1/2 package jumbo gyoza skins
water for sealing
1/4 cup kimchee
peanut oil
soy sauce (optional)

First, lay out your thawed
gyoza circles on your work
surface. Next, place a small amount of drained kimchee in the lower half of each circle. Dip a finger in a small bowl of water and dab around half the edge (sort of like painting a smiley face wth watercolors). Fold down the top half of the gyoza skin. Then pick it up a crimp a few times--I usually start with one crimp in the middle, then do two more on each side.

Next, pour enough peanut
oil in to cover the bottom of
a non-stick skillet or wok.
Heat the oil over med-high.
Gently add your dumplings,
arranging them so they do
not touch (it usually takes me
two batches). Cook about 45
seconds, then turn over with
a pair of tongs (I use tempura tongs). Cook for another minute or so. Drain on a paper towel or tempura paper.

Serve with soy sauce for dipping (optional). The crunchy, spicy, vinegary taste of the kimchee combined with the crispy, savory fried gyoza skins is soooo tasty...and a quick dip in salty soy sauce is delish.
I love these with some cold soba noodles and sliced green onion...for breakfast. LOL.
And my pickiest son AJ will gladly eat them with me! Imagine!!

Of course he'd prefer to
follow that with his favourite
lunch of tofu-spinach stuffed
pasta shells!