Never underestimate the power of a food friend. As a person completely obsessed with food, it is fun to cook and try new foods, but after a while, it gets lonely. Food is so much more fun when it is shared with friends and family, especially when they also happen to obsess about food as much as you do. If you are a food lover and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by a group of like-minded individuals you regularly interact with, bounce ideas off of and most importantly, cook and eat together with, then you are a lucky person indeed. I have a randomly assembled group of friends here in Chicago that I like to think of as my own personal culinary consortium, an assortment of chefs, food writers, self-professed food lovers and cooking novices. I call them “my bitches”. The wide range of experience levels in the group really lends to a fun eating experience, especially when we do a potluck! Our latest potluck was a four course appetizer party, and I knew I had to really had to represent and bust out impressive food for the occasion. I know nothing more time consuming to make or more delicious to eat than my Asian-inspired pan-fried pork dumplings with caramelized onion sauce. This is not something I make often because it can take a couple of years to make, but like I said, this bitch likes a good challenge. And maybe likes to show off. Just a bit. Maybe. Cough… I’ve posted a step by step photo tutorial of this recipe before, which you remember from such posts as this one. But because I’m gangsta in the kitchen, I thought it might be fun to include a video (albeit with poor audio–but it is really the visual I wanted to capture here) on how I assemble the dumplings before cooking them. Enjoy! ~LTG!
