Tuesday 29 June 2010

Gyoza dumplings.

I had the day off work today and had a hankering for Japanese gyoza dumplings and thought it would be fun to make some ( not many people think making Gyoza dumplings on your day off is fun, especially some of my friends but to me it's a day well spent!) so I took a bus into Brighton and went to "Yum Yums" which is an amazing oriental supermarket selling everything you could possibly want to make a delicious authentic Asian meal.

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I had looked on the Internet for the basic idea of how to make the dumplings and what should be in them, most were just pork but some had pork and prawn and thas's the way I decided to go as I think the prawns add sweetness. Obviously adjust the measurements to how many dumplings you are making.

quarter of a Chinese cabbage
2 gloves garlic, minced and crushed into a paste
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 Chinese spring onion
6 ounces ground pork
1/3 pound prawns, shelled, deveined, and chopped
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 pack Gyoza wrappers

Put the chopped cabbage in a bowl and add the garlic, ginger, spring onion, pork, and prawns. Stir the ingredients so they come together. Add salt, sugar, pepper, soy sauce, and sesame oil and combine well.
Scoop up about 1 tablespoon of filling and put it in the center of a gyoza wrapper. Fold, pleat, and press to enclose the filling into a pleated crescent shape. Place the finished dumplings on a plate lined with parchment paper (to avoid the bottom sticking to the plate). Repeat the same until the filling is used up.Heat up a frying pan over medium-high heat and add 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Add the dumpling's one at a time and fry them for 1-2 minutes, until they are golden or light brown at the bottom.

Add 1/4 inch depth of water into the frying pan and cover it immediately with a lid and lower the heat to medium. Let the water bubble away until it’s dry, for about 6-8 minutes. After the water is gone, remove the lid and fry for another 1-2 minutes until the bottoms are brown and crisp. Transfer the dumplings to a serving plate and serve immediately with a dipping sauce if you remembered to make or buy one which I did not but they tasted amazing if I do say so myself.

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Saturday 26 June 2010

Cherries and Halloumi but not together!

I am very prone to having a look around the aisles at my local Aldi as you can find some great bargains there occasionally, especially in the fruit and veg section and yesterday was particularly wonderful as they were selling big punits of gorgeous ripe cherries for 69p and considering how expensive cherries are usually I thought this was a great bargain and have been eating cherries in Greek yogurt for my breakfast for the last few days. I am off to buy more today to make some kind of summery pudding with them and will hopefully be putting the results on here!

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I don't know about the rest of you but I love love love halloumi, what's not to love about crispy on the outside soft on the inside salty tangy fried cheese served with roasted vine ripened tomato, fresh salad and olive oil on a hot summers day. The only bad point is the incredible moersihness of this crispy fried treat that I ate a whole packet of at lunchtime today, whoops.

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Thursday 24 June 2010

I am actually back now I promise.

I have not been here for ages I know and I am very sorry but I had an unexpected trip to Cornwall and have just got back and to be honest I would not have had it any other way so there, anyway moving on!
Mercer and I stayed in St Agnes and it was so stunning with lovely local shops including two butchers, two fruit and veg shops, a deli/fishmongers and a bakery all selling fresh delicious local produce.

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One night we had steaks cooked on the BBQ from one of the local butchers with potato salad and we had bought these beautiful bags of salad with edible flowers in them to have with it, another night we had fresh crab and scallops with home-made garlic mayo and chips and oh God it was heaven!!! As the weather was so gorgeous we did Lot's of clifftop walking and on one of them we stopped in a bay where there was a small cafe selling an ice cream called a hedgehog which was local vanilla ice cream dipped in clotted cream and the rolled in toasted caramelised nuts and although it may be one of the most fattening things to ever pass my lips it was very much worth it!
We ate out a few times and one of my favourite places was Blue Bar in Porthowan and the views were stunning over the beach and the food was great to, I had a big bowl of mussels and chips and mercer had a chili beef pizza and everything was fresh and delicious. This is a photo of the beach that the Blue Bar looked over and Blue Bar.


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It really was so beautiful there and I wished that I didn't have to come home!