Category: Chinese Dough

Szechuan Wontons in Chili Oil红油抄手

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The classic Szechuan snack is my favorite wontons. It is perfect for a breakfast, lunch or dinner. These slippery suckers are lip smacking. Wear a bib or take your white shirt off for these while you are shoveling these into your mouth.

There are perhaps a dozen of ways to wrap the fillings – but I care for the “Lucky Yuan Bao” 元宝 fold (like Tortellini.). The Italians perhaps got the fold from the Chinese. Now we are borrowing back their stuffed-noodle fold.

Yields 45 wontons,

Wrappers

I think you can buy the wonton wrappers from any Asia markets in the US. In Singapore, they are available at NYUC or Cold Storage. One package comes with either 50 or 100 wrappers.

Make fillings

  • 250g           ground pork
  • 125g           minced shrimp (shrimp needs to be peeled)
  • 1/2 teaspoon    salt
  • 1 teaspoon      corn flour 生粉
  • 1 tablespoon    light soy sauce 生抽

Make the sauce

Method

  1. Peel and minced the shrimp.
  2. In a large bowl, combine ground pork, minced shrimp, salt, corn flour and light soy sauce and mix well.
  3. Now let’s wrap – the Italians may get the tortellini fold from the Chinese. Now we’re borrowing back their stuffed-noodle fold. So just take out one wrapper, add a half tablespoon of fillings. Fold it into half size from the middle, press the two sides of the wrapper together to seal.
  4. Dab a little water on the two corners, then fold one side toward the center. Fold the other side to the center.
  5. Press the two ends together to seal. The filled center will plump up like a belly with the edges framing it like a golden ingot (lucky Yuan Bao,元宝).
  6. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in 6-8 wontons and cook for 5 minutes till they float on the water.
  7. In the meantime, prepare a serving bowl, combine a tablespoon of chili oil, 1/2 teaspoons of minced spring onion, garlic and roasted peanuts with a tablespoon of boiled water from the pot. Mix well.
  8. Drain the wonton and add them in the bowl. Gently toss till the wontons are well-coated.

Tips:

  1. If you are serving these to guests with different levels of heat tolerance, pass the chili oil at the table instead. That way, everyone can get the dose they want.

Cute Pumpkin Pastry 玲珑南瓜

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pumpkin cooked

Trust me. It is easy to make. With a little bit patience, you will actually find the process quite therapeutic.

Yields 10 cute pumpkins,

  • 200g pumpkin purée (you will need 300g fresh pumpkin available at any grocery store)
  • 140g                  glutinous rice flour糯米
  • 1 tablespoon    caster sugar
  • 4 tablespoon    sweetened condensed milk 炼乳

For ‘pumpkin stems’, you will need,

  • 20g glutinous rice flour
  • 1 teaspoon green tea powder (or any color of ingredient of your preference and convenience)
  • 18g water

Method

  1. To make pumpkin purée, remove the skin and seeds, thinly slice it then cover the bowl with cling wrap and put in microwave in high heat for 4 minutes.
  2. Remove the bowl from the microwave. Add into glutinous rice flour, sugar and condensed milk and mix well.
  3. Cover the dough with a plastic bag and rest the dough for 20 minutes.
  4. Now let’s work on the ‘pumpkin stem’, you will need 20g glutinous rice flour, 1 teaspoon green tea powder(or any color of ingredient of your preference and convenience) and 18g water. Combine them and mix well.

The fun part now begins!

  1. Cut the dough into 10 pieces, roll each piece into a small ball, gently press down each ball a little bit then use the back of a knife carving the side. Top up with a little green stem.
  2. Bring water in the steamer pot to boil.
  3. Place 10 pieces of pastries on a parchment paper.
  4. Steam for 7 minutes in high heat.
  5. Let the cooked pumpkins cool off for 20 minutes.
  6. Enjoy!