Monday, July 20, 2009

Wanton Wrappers With Quail Eggs, Lotus Seeds and Gingkos Sweet Soup

"Waste not, want not" ~ It's a very helpful idiom. I was left with large bundle of wanton wrappers from last cooking session. I let them dried up on a baking sheet on the kitchen top while deciding what to do with it later. Usually, when I made wantons or dim sums for my family, I will buy extra wanton wrappers. You never know if there are torn wrappers or odd shape wrappers between the layers!

Besides that, left over wanton wrappers not only made delicious dessert or sweet soup but savoury dishes like noodles and pasta as well. Believe me, it's really tasty! So, next time if you have torn wrappers (please, not the ones already been wrapped with raw ingredients) or left over wanton wrappers, don't chuck them inside your freezer or throw them away! Just let them dry on a tray, dehydrator, under the sun or in the oven (low temperature). You'll be amazed how versatile these humble wanton wrappers are!

This time, I decided to cook a Chinese sweet soup or dessert. I'm a huge fan of 'Tong Sui' or Chinese sweet soup. Some of this sweet soups may took hours to cook that unless you have large family or group of friends visiting you, it's no point to make it yourself. Back home in my town, I would go to my favorite sellers to buy them. Of course, when you're traveling or living far away from your home, cravings for them over rides the tedious hours of making them :-D This sweet soup I made is very easy and the 'tiny additions' to it made it even more tastier and healthy too that is, if you don't mind the cholesterol or what the scientists said! I, certainly don't for sure, no way when comes to sweet soup desserts! :-D


Wanton Wrappers With Quail Eggs, Lotus Seeds & Gingkos Sweet Soup
Serves 2

12 nos Quail Eggs
30 g Dried Wanton wrappers
60 g Rock Sugar or to taste
50 g Gingko nuts ~ canned or preshelled (optional)
50 g Lotus Seeds ~ canned or freshly packed (optional)
2 cups water
Some extra water

Method:
1. Boil the quail eggs until cooked. Leave it to cool and remove the shells.
2. Wash the rock sugar quickly. Set aside.
3. Cooking the wanton wrappers (this is a bit tricky part): We need a small pot and a bowl of cold water or ice cubes. In a small pot, add in some water (about 2 - 3 cups) and bring it to a boil. Put in the dried wanton wrappers and cook them until softens and almost transparent. Remove them from the boiling water and quickly plunge them into the bowl of cold water. Set aside until needed.

NOTE: The reason I did this because I don't want a cloudy sweet soup. Wanton wrappers are coated with extra flour to avoid pieces stick together. When you pre-cook the wrappers, the extra flour dissolved into water (thus water turns cloudy and yellow due to lye water (read comment #22 at the bottom of page) used as coloring in commercial productions such as noodles or desserts in small quantity). The cold water 'shocking' method also made the wrappers a bit springy and not easily torn apart.

4. In a deep pan or pot, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the rinsed rock sugar and cook until it's fully dissolved.
5. Add in the quail eggs, lotus seeds, gingko nuts and cooked wanton wrappers (don't forget to remove the ice cubes if you used them :-P). Bring it to a boil for 1 - 2 minutes. Serve hot or cold (add in some crushed ice or ice cubes).

Enjoy!

11 comments:

  1. I am very happy to find your blog! It is really beautiful and well thought out. Love your recipes too. This recipe looks so good! How fun to try something different. Thanks for all your hard work. Come by and visit sometime.
    Dana Zia

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  2. Thanks for your lovely idea. I just made ' Wontons in Soup' and have it posted on my recently revamped blog. Believe the fresh wonton skins can also be used in this desert.

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  3. Hello Dana ~ thank you for visiting and leaving encouraging comment :-) I was gawking at your Devilish Cookies :-D It's so interesting and really mysterious! I will try that out soon :-)

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  4. Hi TasteHongKong.. thank you for visiting... Yes, fresh wonton skins can be used just as well :-)

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  5. This is new to me! I have always used beancurd skin ... never thought wanton wrappers can be used too. I love tong sui ... reminds me of Chinese New Year! Yours looks perfectly done - clear and refreshing :)

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  6. I've never eaten anything like this, but it's got my attention. For lack of a better word, this soup just looks so 'clean'.

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  7. wow, I never thought of putting wonton wrappers in this! Very nice.

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  8. Hi Tim ~ :-D 'clean soup'... yep, as I indicated, I prefer it clear and no fuss.

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  9. Hi Little Teochew ~ I learnt the trick of using left over wanton skins from my mom's old friend who operated wanton noodle shop when I was teenager. I usually used them in soups but sometimes I like to try it out in sweet desserts.

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  10. Hi pigpig ~ I'm thinking of using 'koay ciap' next time :-)

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  11. Hi!
    Thanks for liking my blog. I haven't been very diligent this summer updating it.

    But your comment made me want to start again!
    You're the sweetest.

    Hope to blog with you.
    Your recipes look so good!

    ReplyDelete

I really appreciate foodies who took their precious time visiting my blog, leaving encouraging comments and suggestions to help me not only improving my blog but also my skills. Thank you very, very, very much from my heart for your kind attention. Whether you're a professional chefs, enthusiasts, foodies or novice like me, please do leave a comment or two even if you don't speak or write English, I can use translator right? I don't earn any income from comments but I do earned lots of new friends :-D You're welcome anytime to my humble lab :-P

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