Pork Cabbage Mushroom Dumplings/Potsickers

Lately, I've been in a rut in terms of coming up with something delicious to eat and that means I get real lazy when it comes time to cook dinner. Every now and then, I just can't eat chicken or beef anymore. And usually that means busting out the dumplings (or junk food when dad's not home.heh). So here's what I used to make mushroom dumplings:

1 lb ground pork
2 1/4 cups cabbage, shredded in the food processor to cole slaw small
1 1/2 tbs minced ginger
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs sesame oil
1/4 tofu or 4.5oz (I used silken tofu, 18oz)
8 shitake dried mushrooms, rehydrated then chopped


Just place everything in a bowl and mix well with your hands. I'm guessing food processor would work fine as well. Below picture has everything mixed except for the tofu and mushrooms. I decided to add those afterwards.

With round gyoza wrappers:

With square dumpling wrappers:

It's always fun making mandalas out of the dumplings :) It's foodie artwork!

So once you've got a plate full of dumplings, you want to place them in the freezer for about 10-20 minutes until they've somewhat harden. Then place them in a plastic baggie and leave it in the freezer til you're ready to eat them up.

My family LOVES whenever I make potstickers. Unfortunately for the hubster, during the week when he's on keto, he can't eat them. These were just perfect with soy sauce and vinegar. I love it!

The way I make these potstickers is by heating up a nonstick pan on medium high heat. Add about 2-3 tbs of oil and swirl it around the pan. Then place the dumplings down but try not to let them touch otherwise they'll stick together. Then add about 1/4 cup of water. Be careful, with the oil in the pot, it'll start to splatter. Cover and let steam cook for 7-8 minutes. Remove lid and let the reminder of the water dry up. You should see brown spot in the pan. Time to get a spatula and start flipping the dumpling. And just fry up the other sides. Add more oil if needed.

Lemon Pepper Basa Fillets

Basically, I just lightly covered the basa fillets in lemon pepper salt and then pan-fried. We haven't had white fish in a while so it was another great meal.

Lemon Pepper Short Ribs n Cabbage

Short ribs generously covered in lemon pepper salt.

Short ribs after baking in the oven. Looks scrumptious!

Cabbage a-cooking in the pork ribs' juice. Tasty!

Dinner time!

Pork ribs n Stuff

Dinner for 2/14/2013:

Pork ribs topped with bacon, broccoli, pineapple, and rice for me and my pops.

Keto-friendly: pork ribs topped with chipotle sauce and frank's hot sauce, a dollop of sour cream, broccoli with melted cheese and a couple of bacon slices for the hubby.

Dinner for 2/15/2013:

Rice, cabbage and tofu cooked in the pork rib juice we drained and kept, pork ribs and pineapple for me and my pops.

Keto friendly: Pork ribs covered in chipotle sauce, couple slices of pork belly with a bit of chili paste, and tofu n cabbage and a dollop of sour cream for the hubby.

Another yummy meal, another full and satisfied tummy.

Lemon pepper short ribs

For dinner we had lemon pepper short ribs with a bit of kimchi and cabbage cooked in bulgogi sauce. It was pretty delish!

Eggs n Kimchi

Keto-friendly: Scrambled eggs made with eggs, shredded mozzarella cheese and a bit of heavy whipping cream and kosher salt. Kimchi stirfried with a wee little bit of mushrooms.

Not keto-friendly: Rice topped with furikaki, cabbage with a scallop sauce (XO stuff), tofu and kimchi stirfy, and some scrambled eggs

The eggs were great tasting but everything else was kinda bleh. Not one of our best meals...

Lotta Good Stuff

Sorry, couldn't think of a name that included oysters, brown rice, roasted tomatoes, homemade red beans and shortplate n cabbage. But that's what we ate today and everything was just super tasty!

I have to say, these oysters are big in size compared to eating them at restaurants (with the exception of Geoffry's). We also bought them for 89 cents per. Super cheap compared to ordering a dozen for $30. We could buy 12 for under $12! But we only bought three...

And for dinner: 

Homemade red bean and onions: 1. Boil a bag of red beans with water. I think the ratio is 1:3 for cups of dry bean and water, respectively. Bring to a boil for about 2-3 minutes and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let beans sit for 1 hour.   2. In the meantime, chop up a medium sized onion. Pour in a can of chicken broth into a slow cooker. Add a bay leaf and season with salt, ground cumin, garlic, etc, pretty much anything you like. 3. After the hour is over, drain the beans and add to the slow cooker. Add more water, making sure it's about an inch over the beans. Slow cook away until beans are easily mushed. 

Shortplate (beef slices) with cabbage and mushrooms. Seasoned with salt and pepper.

Tomatoes roasted lightly in olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

Mmmmmmmmmmm!

KBBQ

Korean BBQ right in our own home! 

All you need is a portable gas burner, a pot and food! It also helps to have a splatter guard. 

There's sliced cabbage and long stemmed mushrooms on the top left corner with leftover Szechwan Shrimp on its right. The pot with the splatter guard on top is in the middle. We had sliced short plate and rib-eye for meats along with thick slices of pork belly to the far right. We also used galbi marinade (red capped bottle) to cook our food with for yummy flavor. On our plates, I premade rice noodles with a spicy sauce. There's also more daikon. The other side sauces in the three small metal bowls were: sesame oil with kosher salt, chili sauce and this lime soy sauce thing that we bought just to try. Twas delicious! Everything was just so scrumptious and even more so since we enjoyed this in the comfort of our own home :D

Asian BBQ

Apple martini mixed with clear rum and a maraschino cherry. Yum!

 

(Left picture) Pork belly on top with sliced pork on the left and sliced beef on the right.
(Right picture) Diced cabbage with long stemmed mushrooms, tofu, and fish balls.

So GOOD!!! Was really missing asian food. :) 

Asian BBQ

Not quite Korean BBQ because we don't have any of them Korean side dishes :(

But the meats are delicious!

Pork brisket and pork belly and sliced mushrooms.

So good and so delicious in my tummy! :)

Napa cabbage for veggies.

Cabbage and Ground Pork

Cabbage, sliced onions, minced garlic, and bay leaves 

Cook the ground pork first and season a little with salt n pepper. Set aside.

 Cook everything in the first picture until the greens and onions are soft. Add the ground pork. Season more with salt and pepper.

 Saute shrimp with rice wine and a bit of lawry's.

This is what got plated for dinner! It was yummy. (We finally got a meal that's more veggies than meat... to uhh, make up for the past days of non-veggie meals).