Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

Be a Wok Star!

Eleanor Hoh

Hong Kong Market

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Store inside 2 market buildings in Kowloon City, my mom’s favorite place to shop. We’ve been coming here since I was young. My mom has a one-on-one relationship with these vendors! There’s a ‘wet’ market for seafood, meat and one with ‘dry’ market for seasonings, sauces, dried goods, eggs, etc.

Talk about fresh seafood. Asians like to see them swimming!

Look at the choice of just shrimp alone.
You’re overwhelmed with choices of seasonings and sauces!
Preserved mustard greens, great to make soup with pork or duck, yum.
Wide choice of leafy veggies. So fresh, you can SMELL them.
Daily fresh noodles, made from rice or with egg.
Dried shrimp, squid, octopus, clams to put in soups, stews.

Dried nuts and beans.

I miss all the variety and choice available in Hong Kong markets, why can’t we have it here in Miami?! It would make our dinners so much more interesting, no? This is only a tiny portion of the HUGE market but just wanted to give you an idea.

I can’t complain, at least we have a few Asian markets that do carry quite a lot of goodies including Asian veggies.

Crispy Potstickers (Updated)

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Crispy Potstickers, Fig Field Greens and Kimchi

Crispy potstickers are easy to love!
“Potstickers” are a type of Chinese dumpling. They have a slightly chewy, crispy skin with a filling of ground pork, shrimp or a combination of both and chopped veggies. They’re eaten with dips to give them extra oompf!
Potstickers have thicker wrappers than wontons but guess what? I prefer using wontons for ‘potstickers’. They’re crispier. I have used both. Wontons are so versatile, I always have a few packs of different flavors in my freezer. They can be broiled for an appetizer (which I call potstickers) or put into soup as a one-dish meal.
I recommend “Wei Chuan” brand. My favorite is Pork with Leeks or Green Onions. They’re a great standby and always a big hit. Cook the whole bag, any leftovers can be steamed, broiled or wok fried to warm up.
I don’t have time to make potstickers from scratch, so I concocted this wonderful shortcut which I think you’ll LOVE and VERY SIMPLE TO DO! And at $4.95 for a frozen bag of about 25 vs buying wrappers, ground meat, washing, chopping veggies, wrapping them, it’s a no brainer.

Here is HOW EASY IT IS!

Boil the whole bag of potstickers or dumplings. This cooks/warms the inside filling. As soon as they float to the surface, drain them.
While they are boiling…
Switch on broiler, NOT oven.
Oil a foil lined tray that can fit all 25 dumplings! Instead of frying batches of potstickers in a pan, I broil all of them in ONE GO.
Make the dipping sauce in small bowls with just tamari, rice wine vinegar and chili garlic sauce or any chili sauce you have.
Here’s my Easy Kimchi which goes perfectly with potstickers.
I made a fig, edamame, field green, tomato salad in a big bowl so you can toss. You can substitute with any seasonal fruits like peach, pear, apple, pineapple, mango. Plate salad so you just have to add potstickers and you’re ready for dinner.
This wonderful colander with a handle transfers dumplings immediately to the tray. Make sure you don’t transfer any water to the tray. Spread them out so they don’t overlap.

Broil till golden brown.

In another post, I’ll show you my experiment with Wok Fried Dumplings.

My good friend and top Asian food blogger, Bee at Rasa Malaysia has many dumpling recipes! She just added Pan Fried Dumplings.
Superstar food blogger, Jaden Hair’s Steamy Kitchen cookbook features a delicious Pork and Mango potsticker recipe and a pork and shrimp one on her blog.
If you’re a dumpling fan, here’s Andrea Nguyen’s Asian Dumplings cookbook, published last year.
Every country has their signature “dumpling”, here’s an interesting read.
What’s your favorite dumpling?

Easy Kimchi (Updated)

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2 main seasonings: Fish Sauce and Red pepper powder.
Optional: toasted sesame oil
Garlic, ginger, scallions and carrots are ingredients I always have in the house.

Excited to share my Easy Kimchi and in Korea, they call it Kimchi Maki! Kimchi is the Korean way of pickling (fermenting) vegetables. I omit the rice flour and sugar. My personal preference is crispy, crunchy Kimchi before it ferments too much making it sour and soft. I start eating it the next day and go as fast as I can. I’m sure my Korean foodie friends would be horrified with this. It’s just what I like to do – turn recipes to suit my own taste and I encourage you to do the same, it’s so much fun.

However, I’ve provided a few links to other Kimchi recipes so you can choose how you want to make your kimchi or kimchee. Many recipes require you to make a ton, one starts with 10 pounds of cabbage!!!! To me, that makes cooking a chore and stresses me out thinking about the quantity. It takes TIME (always goes back to this), then finding/buying/cleaning jars to store it. No, no, we are not making this to resell, just as a little side dish to go with our dinner!

Try my Easy Kimchi and feel free to make your own variations, that’s what being a Wok Star is all about. Do share an unusual kimchi you’ve made. Hey, I didn’t even use a wok in this one!

Easy Kimchi
Use some or all of the following veggies:
1 whole medium size napa cabbage (wash & cut into bite size pieces)

All these are optionals, cut into julienne strips…
chayote, 1/2, peeled, deseeded
jicama, 1/2 small one, peeled
daikon, small handful
carrot, small handful
scallion 4-6 stalks

Salt for brining

Adjust seasonings to suit your taste:
3 tblsp. fish sauce
1 cup red pepper powder (do not mix this up with chili flakes! see photo below)
2 thumb size ginger minced
3-4 cloves garlic minced (optional)

Directions:
1. Gather utensils: big bowls, chopsticks, disposable gloves, 4-5 clean jars
2. Combine seasonings in small bowl
3. Wash all veggies, drain, chop. Put veggies in a big bowl covered with water and add salt, mix really well to coat. Leave to brine for a couple of hours.
4. Drain veggies in colander, put back into big bowl. Add seasoning and use gloves to massage till they soften a little. Divide into jars, don’t fill right to the top, put lids on.
5. Leave out for a day before refrigerating.
6. I start eating it right away, see if you’re not astounded how good it is!

Mix all seasonings in bowl.

I didn’t realize you could ‘kimchi’ anything. I always associated kimchi with napa cabbage cause that’s what we had with Bulgogi (Korean BBQ) growing up in Hong Kong.

Add veggies to seasonings in same bowl (less washup!)

Use disposable thin gloves for mixing. You don’t want to use your hands cause the red pepper powder is pretty spicy and discolors your hands. Don’t ever put your hands anywhere near your eyes after touching chilies!

My 1st Kimchi had more napa cabbage.

Give it a taste, you want it to be a little bit salty, so add a little more fish sauce but be careful, cause a little goes a loooong way.

This experiment was with chayote, jicama, carrots, radishes and 1 tblsp toasted sesame oil.

Mix all the veggies in a BIG bowl, otherwise you cannot combine well. Same concept when you use a wok that’s too small, you can’t stir fry properly, your food doesn’t cook evenly and is frustrating because your food keeps falling out. (I had to get this tip in about size of your wok!)

I bottle in cute jars so you can give to your friends. I end up eating it so fast, never gets a chance to get out the door!Goes well with your one-dish wok meals (unless it’s a curry already)

Tip: If you have leftover seasoning, store in a container or zip loc and freeze it for another batch.

There’s even a chef who calls himself a lactofermentation and pickling instructor who started a Kimchi Festival in Boston!

This blogger has really impressed me with his food adventures, considering he started late in life.

We cannot mention kimchi without mentioning this youtube celebrity, here’s her video and her kimchi!

Here’s my Korean twitter buddie’s authentic version, scroll down for kimchi.

If you live in Miami, Little River Garden gives Kimchee workshops! Found out from Mango and Lime after she went to one.

UPDATE 5.5.11: I’m excited to see a new PBS TV show that’s not a reality cooking show or a chef competition coming this summer starring chef Jean Georges-Vongerichten’s wife, Marja. Watch a preview clip of Kimchi Chronicles