Wontonlicious! – Pork Mince Wontons

You may have noticed I have a love for dumplings. They are just so versatile!
As promised I am going to share my pork mince wonton recipe with you. Luke doesn’t like pork, even though he is more than happy to eat ham and bacon, so I just didn’t tell him what was in it until after he ate them. He said they were fantastic!

I make enough to make 6 wontons each. You can serve this with the broth that I have shared in previous recipes.

Ingredients
50g pork mince
50g sausage mince ( you can buy this EVERYWHERE, usually near the mince )
2-3 Drops fish sauce
1tbps soy sauce
½ Tsp sesame oil
½ Tsp garlic
12 wonton wrappers (I used round ones here but any will do)

Mix all ingredients together
On a clean sheet of baking paper lay out all wrappers.
Have a glass of water handy.
Put a dollop of mixture into the center or each wrapper. Roughly the size of a 10c piece.
Wet edges of wrapper using the water and your finger. This will body the wrappers together.
Fold in half and gently push down around the meat to get all air out.
If you like, you can now pleat the edges of the wrapper. If this sounds all too hard don’t bother.
Bring water to boil in a saucepan.
Put all wontons into the boiling water. Once they float, cook for a further 2-3 mins. As they are meat you need to make sure they are cooked unlike my veggies dumplings where all ingredients are already cooked you are just cooking the wrapper.

Serve with noodle soup.

Enjoy!

Tuesday – Worlds Easiest Chicken and Corn Soup

There are a few reasons why I wanted to share this easy soup recipe. The first being that it is winter and a good soup always warms you to the core. The second being that in winter everyone gets sick and this week it is my turn the get the dreaded cold. The third has a bit of a story.

Luke used to live in a tiny apartment on the corner of Glebe Pt Rd and Parramatta Rd. While this location had downsides (you could never open the windows due to noise and pollution) it had the upside of being very close to many tasty eateries. One of these (and a particular favorite of ours) was Haiphong Harbour. It is a cozy Vietnamese joint that has possibly the best chicken and corn soup I had ever tasted.

So when wanting to make myself feel better it was to that soup that I looked for inspiration.

Trust me, after a hot bowl of this delicious soup you will never turn to a can of chicken and corn soup again!

1 tip when making this, as there are so few ingredients used, it is worth buying good quality brands ie Campbell’s chicken stock and Edgel Creamed Corn. Powdered stock probably wouldn’t work.

Ingredients
300g Chicken breast cut into fine small pieces
1L Campbell’s Chicken Stock
420g Creamed corn
2 tsp soy sauce
1 Good sized tsp ginger (being sick and lazy I used a jar variety)
2 eggs whisked

In a large saucepan bring stock, corn and ginger to the boil.
Add in chicken and reduce to a simmer.
When chicken is cooked stir the soup quickly and slowly pour the egg into the centre of the mix.
GENTLY stir egg in. You don’t want to mix too fast or you will end up with scrambled eggs.

If making this ahead of time, don’t do the egg step until right before serving.

Serve with some spring onions or if even a couple fine slices of fresh chili if you are after a kick!

Last Saturday -Wonton Noodle Soup

Have you ever tried a Wonton Noodle Soup? If not, you must! They are hot with little bursts of delicious flavour. A favourite of mine is from a place called Happy Chef in Newtown. The broth is really gingery with just a few veggies and chicken. The wontons are also the best I have ever tried! Not the neatest dish to each as you slurp up the delicious soft rice noodles (a plus for Happy Chef as most other places offer them with egg noodles) and negotiate the piping hot wontons from the bowl to your mouth, but well worth it. I also love the way that you are given a little bowl of soy and chilli sauce so you can add to you liking.
I have a made a couple batches of my own wontons which I fill with a 50/50 mix of beef mince and sausage mince ( I have not yet tried with prawns as Luke is not a fan, besides Dad says mine are delicious! Shux Dad ).

The other day while having a look around 101cookbooks I stumbled across a recipe for Pea Dumplings and I thought these would be a perfect wonton for my soup!
So on Saturday night after a visit to Thomas Dux (who knew they sold wonton wrappers?) I was off to the kitchen and whizzing away and to my delight it worked! Luke enjoyed them so much he asked that I make them again this week! (Not so common for Luke to be that excited about one of my meals, spoilt boy really!)

Ingredients:

See 101cookbooks.com for ingredients for wontons. I made ¼ of the batch to feed 2 people.

2 Eggs whisked

Broth ( enough for 4 ):
2 Litres of good quality chicken stock ( for this one I use something like a pre-packaged Campbell’s and add a little powder for extra flavour )
2 carrots cut into chunky pieces
2 bunches of baby Bok Choy chopped into chunky slices ( use the whole vegatble not just the leaves! )
3 good sized tsp of ginger ( I used a jar today as I had non fresh )
1 good sized tsp garlic
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ finly sliced spring onions
couple of drops of fish sauce
pinch of salt
If you like chilli add some in too!

1 handful of softened rice noodles



Add all broth ingredients into a stock pot and bring to the boil. Now reduce it to a simmer and put the lid on while you make the wontons.

To make wontons follow the instructions on 101cookbooks.com. Below are my tips.
1. I put all ingredients in the mixer at once. Just means fewer things to clean.
2. Use a piece of baking paper underneath your wrappers when filling. Again allows for ease of cleaning.
3. I learnt how to fold my wrappers differently, the steps are below.
4. I boil mine rather than steam. This can be done in the stock pot so less cleaning up!

With the whisked egg spread a little on the edges of the wrapper. (This acts as a glue to help the edges stick together)
To ‘wrap them‘; fold wrappers in half to form a triangle.
Press edges down to ensure no air pockets are left (if air is trapped they will float so will not give you a clear indication of when they are cooked)
Now get two corners and over lay them. See picture for more detail.

Shortly before serving place wontons into broth.
You will know when they are ready when they float to the top.

If you like, with the leftover egg you can make an egg pancake by frying it up in a frypan.
Cut it into thin trips and when serving place a few in the bowl.

To serve put the softened rice noodles in the bottom of a bowl and ladle some broth and veggies on top.
Finally, place 4- 6 (depending on how hungry you are!) wontons on the very top.

Enjoy!

Monday -Thai style pumpkin and sweet potato soup

You will soon realise that I am not huge on exact measurements. I make most meals for two sometimes with the intention of having enough leftover for one for lunch.

Tonight I decided to make my pumpkin soup which I had made twice before. The original recipe came from 101cookbooks.com which is a favourite of mine. Heidi Swanson is an American based all round clever person who creates mouth watering vegetarian and vegan recipes. I first made it for my Mum and Dad and enjoyed it so much thought it was time to take home. Second time round I didn't have enough pumpkin to make a whole soup so used some sweet potato. The mistake I made that time was that I used too much chilli powder when roasting the veggies. It resulted is a tasty but far too hot soup.

So, tonight I decided to try again, this time sans chilli powder. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:
3 handfuls of sweet potato cubes
3 handfuls of pumpkin cubes ( I used butternut tonight but each time have used whatever was in the fridge )
1 can light coconut milk or cream
olive oil
rock salt
pepper
sweet chilli sauce to taste ( I used about 2 tsp tonight and it had a good amount of heat )

Pre heat oven to 210 degrees Celsius

Spread sweet potato and pumpkin cubes on an over tray with baking paper.
Coat veggies in generous amounts of oil, sat and pepper.
Bake in hot over for approx 1 hour. The veggies will be ready when they are almost to the point of falling apart and lovely and sticky.
In a blender put roasted veggies and coconut milk and puree. Add sweet chilli sauce to taste.

This makes a lovely bright orange soup that is very thick ,creamy with tiny pieces of pepper and caramelised veggies.

Enjoy