Super Bowl Snacks

Pork dumplings, from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 100 (3.5 inch square) wonton wrappers
• 1 3/4 pounds ground pork
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 5 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage

Sauce Ingredients

• 2 T rice vinegar
• 1 T sesame oil
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1 T fish sauce
• 1 scallion, sliced very thinly

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the pork, ginger, garlic, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg and cabbage. Stir until well mixed.
2. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of pork filling onto each wonton skin. Moisten edges with water and fold edges over to form a triangle shape. Roll edges slightly to seal in filling. Set dumplings aside on a lightly floured surface until ready to cook.
3. To Cook: Steam dumplings in a covered bamboo or metal steamer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately. 

To freeze: place on cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Then place in plastic bags. To cook from frozen, boil for 10 minutes. 

The only ground pork I could find at Safeway was $5.49/pound.  Yeah right.  There was bone-in shoulder for only $2.39/pound so I bought that instead and just ground it up myself.  So now I have another 2.5 pounds of fatty ground pork in my fridge, just waiting for some sausage seasonings.  I think it'll turn into breakfast sausage patties for the freezer.  Mmmm.

Filling these is a time consuming process.  Next time we'll make a double batch and fill them in front of the tv while watching a movie. Or invite a bunch of people over and do it around a table so we can chat at the same time.

It didn't occur to me until later that I could have just used my metal veggie steamer...oh well. I like this one.

We used two sauces, the one listed above and also some of the spicy-sweet brine from my candied jalapenos. It was even better (read: freaking amazing) when we eventually just mixed the sauces together. This is our last bottle of jalapenos...Dave was pretty distressed about it...he's now counting down the days to summer when our garden will be bursting with peppers so we can make more.

Steamed and ready to eat.

 Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons peanut oil
• 4 shallots, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
• 2 small red chile peppers, seeded and minced
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 3/4 cups coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
• 12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 1 hour

Directions

1. Toss chicken, garlic, ginger, and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in a bowl until the chicken is coated in the marinade. Cover, and marinate for 1 hour.
2. While the chicken is marinating, heat the peanut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in shallots, garlic, ginger, and chile peppers. Cook and stir until the shallot begins to turn golden brown, about 7 minutes. Reduce heat to low, and stir in peanut butter, coconut milk, soy sauce, brown sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce, and lime juice until blended. Simmer very gently for 10 minutes, then remove from heat and keep warm.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil grate. Thread chicken onto skewers.
4. Grill chicken skewers on preheated grill until no longer pink in the center, about 3 minutes per side. Serve with warm peanut sauce.

Keke pua’a dough recipe from Panipopos.blogspot.com (my own pictures, though)


I used only a half recipe and did half whole wheat and filled them with beef stew.


Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons dry yeast
• ¼ cup (60ml) warm water
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• ½ cup (120ml) warm milk
• ¼ cup melted butter
• ¼ cup (50g) sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 3½ cups (437.5g) all purpose flour

Mix the yeast, water and first measure of sugar in a large bowl. Let it stand for 5 minutes until it’s frothy.

In the meantime, combine the milk, butter, second lot of sugar, salt and eggs. Add this to the yeast mixture and mix until combined.

Add 3 cups of the flour and gradually mix it together until it forms a dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it’s smooth, about 10 minutes, working in the remaining ½ cup of flour.

Grease the bowl, place the dough back in there, cover and let rise until it’s doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, cut out 16 4” (10cm) square pieces of waxed paper. Set up your steamer. Get your keke filling to room temperature. Anything else? Yeah, while you’re at it, do the dishes.

When your dough has doubled, punch it down then divide into 16 even pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then roll or press into a 4 inch (10cm) circle, dusting with flour if necessary.

Spoon a generous amount of filling into the centre of each circle, being careful not to get liquid on the edges. (Wet edges are hard to seal.)

Pleat the edges together over the filling and close the top by pinching and twisting the dough together.

Place each bun on a piece of waxed paper, pleated side up if you’re proud of your pleats, or pleated side down if you screwed it up prefer a smooth top surface. Put your buns at least 2 inches (5 cm) apart from each other to rise. Let them rise until doubled in size (about 45 minutes) and then steam them on full steam for 15 minutes.

Filled and ready to rise.

Risen and ready to steam.

Nice and cozy in the steamer.

Cute, aren't they?

 I had planned on making some rainbow fruit skewers with a yogurt dipping sauce...but...I ate all the yogurt the night before and then Eddie ate most of the fruit while I was cooking.  He now asks for "green fruit" (kiwi) for breakfast.  Heehee.

So we didn't really watch the game, only half time, but did enjoy having a dinner full of tasty snacks.