International Incident Party - Dumplings

It's not a stretch to say that penny aka jeroxie is somewhat of a legend in the Melbourne food blogging community, and I was lucky enough to meet her recently. I am very excited to pack my little pink beauty case and jet off to her latest International Incident Party, where we will be being wanton with dumplings.

I do love how Penny encourages crazy variation on a theme. If you didn't know, I do have three dumplings of my own, and they are wont to split at the seams at the most inappropriate moments. This puts some constraints on my cooking flights of fancy, but at the same time, my three kids inspire me to weave interesting, healthy, multicultural things into our nightly meals. Wontons are a favourite of theirs, as they can help make them and they taste absolutely divine.

First, you will need to make the broth. Anh of A Food Lover's Journey recently told me that in Vietnam, the "first test" of a wife is whether she can make a good broth, followed by the quality of her nuoc mam cham (dipping sauce).

Chicken Broth (Canh)

Note this makes a huge quantity! It's so delicious, though, and great to freeze.

Chicken carcasses (12 frames or around 2.5 kg meaty bones)
Large knob of ginger, roughly chopped
About 5 cloves of garlic, bashed with a cleaver
Bunch of spring onions, white parts only
Salt
White sugar
Fish sauce
Light soy sauce

Place chicken, ginger, garlic and spring onions in a large pot and fill with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer on very low heat, uncovered, for at least 3 hours. Strain through a colander into a very large bowl and leave on the bench to cool overnight.

Before and after removing fat

Early next morning, place into the fridge. After about 8 hours, the fat will have congealed into a solid white "raft" that you can easily lift off and discard. Don't stress if you don't get it all.  Line a colander with a piece of muslin or an old teatowel and pour the broth through it into a clean pot.  Bring to the boil, and season very well. I use a ratio of probably 40:30:20:10 salt:sugar:fish sauce:light soy sauce. Mmm, chicken broth... so nourishing to body and soul.

Wontons


2 x 150g packets wonton wrappers (from the fridge of any Asian grocer)
300g pork mince
10 prawns
3 spring onions, chopped
2 Tb finely chopped ginger
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 Tb light soy sauce
1 Tb fish sauce
1 Tb Shao Hsing cooking wine
1 Tb oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cornflour


Remove wonton wrappers from fridge. Place all ingredients (except wonton wrappers and cornflour) in a food processor and process to a semi-coarse paste.

Now, dissolve cornflour in about 1 Tb water in a small dish. Set up a tray dusted with cornflour and have a damp teatowel ready to cover the dumplings as you make them.

1. Place a teaspoonful of filling in the centre of the wrapper.
2. Using your finger, paint a small amount of cornflour mixture around the top edge and halfway down each side.
3. Fold the bottom part of the wrapper up over the filling and press to seal, making a rectangle.
4. Next, fold the top margin of the rectangle over, using both index fingers (one of mine had to hold the camera!)
5. Now, the tricky bit - sticking the bottom corners together. Here's a video of how it's done:

6. Make sure you use just a little dab of cornflour to stick the corners together, and fold them to one side so they sit flat. Place wontons on the cornflour-dusted tray and cover with a damp teatowel so they don't dry out.

Tricky? You will get better with time. Really, though, it does not matter what shape you do the wontons, as long as the filling is safely enclosed. The kids love to help me (although do be prepared for cornflour EVERYWHERE!)

Setting out wrappers for Mum to fill; "painting" cornflour around edges (with a clean paintbrush)

Next, cook whatever accompaniments you would like, in the simmering broth (such as green vegetables, noodles etc - make sure you cook the noodles really al dente as they will continue to cook when you add the broth at the end).  Remove each ingredient as it is done and place in individual bowls.  Cook the wontons last for about 5-6 minutes (you can always remove one and chop in half to check they are done).  Add to the bowls, ladle over hot broth, and garnish with chilli, chopped spring onion (green part), and fried shallots.

The translation of wonton is "swallowing clouds", and this soup really puts me on Cloud Nine.  Thank you Penny for hosting, and I look forward to seeing everyone else's heavenly creations!

Shelf Gleaning - Tamarind

 

Many great sauces and stews are built on the triumvirate of sweet, salty and sour flavours.  Think caponata, the Sicilian eggplant stew seasoned with sugar, salt and vinegar, or a Thai curry with palm sugar and fish sauce, anointed with a squeeze of lime at the end to round out the flavours.  Tamarind is another sour or acid ingredient, most commonly associated with Asian cuisine.  It is a truly global fruit, however, having originated in Africa, and since become popular everywhere from Mexico to Madagascar.  Its flavour is both sweet, tart and tangy, and it is used in savoury sauces and soups, as well as rolled in sugar and enjoyed as a sweet snack.  While living in the US, I became very partial to tamarindo candy - perhaps the precursor to the "sour lollies" that are so popular today!

You can buy ready-made tamarind paste in Asian grocers, but if you want the best flavour, you need to make your own.  It's really easy and once you taste it, you will never buy the ready-made stuff again!

Buy a block of "wet tamarind" (usually around 375g) and put it in a bowl. 

 

Pour over 600 ml boiling water and break up.  Leave to sit for a couple of hours.  (Note: I have read that if you are in a hurry, you can just leave the tamarind in the water for a few minutes before straining, but the longer you leave it to soak, the better the flavour.)

 

After a few hours, tip into a sieve atop a bowl.  Using the back of a spoon, mash the solids against the mesh, extracting as much pulp as possible.  When you have strained as much as you can, place the solids back in a bowl with another 200 ml boiling water, leave for 20 minutes then strain and mash again.

 

You will now have a sieve full of seeds and fibres, and a bowl of smooth, luscious tamarind paste!

 

Store in ice cube trays in the freezer.  Each cube equals roughly a tablespoon.

Stay tuned for some tamarind recipes!