Cilantro seeds have a very hard shell, so it's sometimes said that they should be soaked overnight before being planted. My mother has tried sowing fresh seeds, as well as soaking them for one or two days first, but the harvest would always be very small. Because there were so few plants, my mother left them alone. One year, there were so many cilantro plants that they were everywhere. Friends would pick them by the basketfull.
Because there were so much cilantro, my mother thought up ways to use it up. She figured that it would go well with the filling mentioned in the previous recipe. Unexpectedly, the dumplings were very aromatic. (We actually saw pork and cilantro wontons on sale at Costco recently, and the samples tasted much like our dumplings.)
My mother also noticed that celery leaves smelled just as good. Since most of the celery's nutrients are in the leaves, she realized that throwing them away was a waste. The resulting dumplings become very, very good when mixed with chopped cilantro.
The ingredients and directions are the same, except with the addition of 1/2 to 1 c. cilantro or celery leaves at the end.
Tips
The filling can also be used in pot stickers.
In other news...
My mother recently started a blog of her own, which you can view here. It features many of her articles and works of art, but it also contains a fair share of recipes. After all, cooking is an art. :-) Her blog is in Chinese, though.
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