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!

Okinawa Spinach (Handama) With Scrambled Eggs and White Sesame

I saw this 2-sided vegetable in the local supermarket and I had to buy it! The label/price label indicated it as 'Purple Spinach'. Hmmm... which I doubt so judging from the smell and the texture of the plant. Perhaps, a distant cousin of Popeye's favourite source of iron??? What attracted me to it was the iridescent purple color below the leaves and dark green on top of the leaves. The tangy taste of the thick leaves with a hint of bitterness, reminded me of Shungiku, Tang O/Tong Hao in Mandarin or Chrysanthemum Leaves. This edible Chrysanthemum Leaves frequently used in stir-fry, soup and omelette (my preferred choice as the eggs brings out the flavour.)

In Japan, this bicolour colored vegetable (pictures below) is called Handama, Suizenjigusa or Okinawa Spinach ( Gyunura Crepidioides) where you can find Okinawans in Japan (hence the name) planted this vegetable which acts as ornamental ground cover and edible plant! C'est une géniale idée! There are 2 varieties (a) Dark green on top and purple on the bottom (b) Brighter Green on both sides but has milder taste. For this gorgeous vegetable I cooked like Chan Coi with eggs but I added toasted sesame for extra texture. This vegetable is also delicious when eat raw in salad or with sambals to maximise the intake of its medicinal properties.

Bunch of Okinawan Red Spinach.

Closer look of the Handama or Okinawan Spinach. I love the colour purple on this plant.

Another similarity with this plant is the Chan Cai, Shan Tsoi, Slippery Vegetable, Poi or Malabar Spinach (It's not spinach but of Basellaceae family.) I had grown this Malabar Spinach (Red Stem) aka Tsuru Murasaki before from seeds in large rectangular boxes; there are 2 species - Malabar Green Stem and Malabar Red Stem. Keep the seeds when they are dried so that you can replant fresh batch. It's a fast thriving vegetable in warm/hot climates :-) You need to fix trellis around this plant to give support to the stalks... pity I don't see any Giant's castle above the clouds with golden goose because they were trimmed ✄ down to feed my stomach first! ☺

There's a warning though when you cook such vegetable, the beautiful purple/red color 'leaks' out into the juice or gravy and you won't see the color purple/red at all after cooking (pictured above ☹.)

Handama (Okinawan Spinach) With Scrambled Eggs and White Sesame

Serve 2-3

250 g Handama/Okinawan Spinach

2 nos Eggs

2 cloves Garlic - minced (optional)

1/2 pc Carrot - julienned

1 tbl Sesame Oil

2 tbl White Sesame Seeds - toasted until golden brown

1 cup Chicken Stock

Cooking Oil

Method:

1. Wash the vegetables; Discard any spoilt or wilted leaves - we use only the leaves, tender shoots and stems. Set aside.

2. In a wok/deep pan, heat some cooking oil until it's really hot; Add in the minced garlic, stir a bit to avoid burning. Add in the carrot and Okinawan spinach. Give a quick stir.

Note: Wok needs to be hot to achieve quick stir-fry process because we don't want to destroy the vitamins and if you cook too long, it will become mushy.

3. Make a hole in the centre of the wok, crack the eggs into the centre. When the eggs start to turn opaque, stir the mixture with spatula to break apart the cooked egg mixture (remember the wok is very hot, so you have to work fast.)

4. Pour in the chicken stock and stir to mx all the egg mixture with the vegetable.

5. Dish out on a serving plate. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top.

6. Spoon the sesame oil around the vegetable and serve hot.

Hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did... Enjoy!

Sweet Basil Omelette

This is a very simple omelette recipe with sweet basil. You can also use any basil available locally in you own country. This recipe has been in my family as long as I could remember. I love eating it with rice and some soya sauce ( I know I like to use soy sauce :-) but it's a versatile liquid and important ingredient in Asian region) which made me happy and content eating that way. The smell of Basil lifts my appetite anytime... :-) 

My Sweet Basil had been growing very happily (actually too happy!) in their pots that I had to trim and use the leaves fast before they turned yellow. The tallest of the bunch was about 2 feet tall now and nearly bent over due to the weight. I had to cut some branches off and replanted again in new pots. I had given away several pots to my neighbours as well. I hope they have good fertile homes...

Sweet Basil Omelette

2 cups Sweet Basil or any of your choice - fully packed

4 nos Eggs ( I used Large Eggs)

1 tbl Fish Sauce (optional)

2 tbl Soya Sauce

White Pepper

Sesame Oil

Oil for cooking

Method:

1. Wash the sweet basil throughly. Drain and set aside.

2. In a large bowl; break the eggs and whisk lightly

3. Add in the fish sauce and soya sauce to taste. If you don't have fish sauce you can use soya sauce through out and adjust the saltiness to your taste. Mix well the mixture.

4. In a medium size pan, heat enough oil to cook the amount of the egg mixture. When the pan is hot, pour the egg mixture in. Before the mixture sets, quickly add in the sweet basil leaves and distribute the leaves evenly around the omelette. (Before add in the leaves, bruise the leaves a bit with your hands to release the basil oil.)

5. When omelette is about to set, fold over a half portion of omelette over the other half (like folding pancake or Coin Purse Egg) carefully to form a half moon shape. Let the omelette cook for few minutes or until there's no more uncooked liquid oozes out when you press it with spatula.

6. Remove from pan and drizzle some sesame oil before serving.

Serves 2-4 portions.

Note: If the basil leaves are large, you can shred it to smaller pieces, chiffonade or chopped to smaller pieces. You can even eat it between 2 slices of bread like sandwich :-)

♪ Enjoy♬