Jjinmandu: Korean Steamed Dumplings (and I'm Baaaaack!)

To everyone who is still following this blog after a long two year hiatus, thanks for sticking by me (or not cleaning out your blog reader of choice)! Anyway, I've decided to make 2013 the year of getting back to the things I love, and cooking is one of them.

While I was away, I had a beautiful baby girl named Norah. She kept me very busy over the last year, but that's a take for another blog. If you're interested please visit, Playing Peekaboo for updates.


Anyway, I figured I'd kick off the new year with a challenge of sorts, and one of my favorite places on the internet, reddit, had just the thing for me. A group of people there are doing a 52 week challenge where they cook according to a theme each week. If you'd like to join in on the fun, here is a link to the official 2013 list.

All the veggies ready to be mixed.

Since I found this a little late, my challenge will only be for 50 weeks, starting off with a Korean dish. I'm not a huge fan of kimchi, so I knew this would be tough. I do love dumplings, though, and it turns out the Koreans have their own version called Jjinmandu.


Here is a link to the original recipe. As I mentioned above, since I don't like kimchi, so I substituted napa cabbage (something I've never had before).

Beef, veggies and spices mixed.

Ingredients
4 packs 1 pack wonton skins (rounds) square
1 lb ground beef
1 cup kimchi napa cabbage
1 bunch bu chu (Korean chives)
½ onion, finely chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
3 tbsp cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt 
2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp juice of ginger 
1 egg, beaten (to seal wonton skin)

Directions
Combine all except egg and wonton skins. Mix well with hands. Brush the ends of each wonton skin with beaten egg and add about a half tablespoon of beef mixture on top. Fold wonton over and press ends to seal. Submerge in boiling water for about 2-3 minutes. 

Wonton Jacuzzi!

Notes
Just a few notes on this one:

1. Don't add too many wontons to the pot at once or they will start sticking to one another and break.
2. When setting them out to dry, lay them flat and do not pile them on top of one another. As they dry, they get very sticky and end up forming one giant mass of wonton. (Yes, this happened to me.)
3. Side note: The won ton wraps were made by a company called "melissa's" so I just had to get them!

Has anyone else made wontons? How did you get them not to stick? If not, are you participating in any challenges? Link them up in the comments. I'd love to see what you're cooking!