"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!
