Preparation time
60-75 mins salting + 2–3 days fermenting
Cooking time
Serves
Serves 12 or makes 3 cups
Riesling is fantastic with spicy Asian food, but as we discovered in our “Red wine with Asian food tasting”, so is Shiraz! Crafted by Oatley Wines from premium Barossa fruit, the 2013 Signature Series is a great choice. It’s dense, fleshy and dark with lovely layers of sweet black fruit, soft, fine tannins and savoury oak.
INGREDIENTS
½ head Korean or Chinese cabbage (wombok), unwashed, cut into
5cm by 6cm slices
1/3 cup sea salt, medium to fine ground
1½ cups (375ml) water
3 red chillies, seeds removed, or to taste
6 cloves garlic
1 cm piece ginger
2 tbsp (40ml) fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chilli powder, or to taste
3–4 green onions (shallots), sliced diagonally into 1.5cm
Kimchi mandu (dumplings)
Makes 30 approx
Prep 15 mins. Cook time 5 mins
70g sautéed, finely chopped mushrooms (120g raw mushrooms) or 70g pork mince
120g firm tofu, crumbled and squeezed dry
1 cup kim chee, squeezed dry, finely chopped
1/3 cup mung bean or other sprouts
4 green onions (shallots), finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp finely minced ginger
2 tsp sesame oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 packet mandu pee, gyoza or gow gee wrappers
Peanut or vegetable oil for frying
Dipping sauce
2 tbsp (40ml) soy sauce
1 tbsp (20ml) mirin
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
METHOD
1. Sprinkle salt over cabbage in a large bowl, pour water and gently mix. Let cabbage salt for 1–1 ½ hours or until the cabbage is wilted (turn cabbage over a few times in the salt water). Wash cabbage three times and drain well and set aside.
2. Blend chillies, garlic and ginger with a stick blender, then add fish sauce, sugar and chilli powder and combine.
3. Mix chilli mixture with the cabbage and green onions in a large bowl using your hands in plastic gloves.
4. Pack kimchi into a clean good quality plastic container or a glass jar and let it ferment for 2-3 days at room temperature. Ensure there is some space for the juice which forms during fermentation but pack kimchi no more than 3cm from the top to minimize oxidation. Place kimchi in the fridge when it’s fermented to your liking.
Kimchi mandu (dumplings)
1. Combine mushrooms or pork, tofu, kimchi, sprouts, green onions, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. It is essential the mixture is dry, so if necessary squeeze out in muslin.
2. Lay dumpling wrappers out on the bench and paint around the edges with water. Place a heaped teaspoon of filling mixture in the middle of each one, then fold over and squeeze edges together with your fingers until well sealed.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan and place 6 dumplings in it. Splash with ¼ cup or so of water, cover and cook for up to 5 minutes or until golden on one side and cooked on the other. Serve immediately with sauce. Repeat with remaining dumplings.
4. For sauce: combine all ingredients