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!

Boiled Osmanthus With Gingko Nuts, Lotus Seeds & Foo Chuk In Milk

Boiled Osmanthus With Gingko Nuts, Lotus Seeds & Foo Chuk In Milk

1 pkt Fresh Gingko Nuts (100 g @)

1 pk Fresh Lotus Seeds (100 g @)

300 ml Fresh Milk

1-2 tsps Preserved Osmanthus Paste (Gui Hua Tang)

2 pcs Fresh Foo Chuk (Fresh Soya Milk Skins)

1-2 tsps Dried Osmanthus Flowers

Some Sugar (to boil Gingko Nuts)

1. In a small pot, put in the Gingko nuts and cover with some water (just enough to cook the nuts) When nuts cooked enough to your liking, add in some sugar to taste. Remove the nuts from the pot and set aside.

2. In a clean pot, pour in the fresh milk. Add in the fresh Lotus Seeds. Let the milk boils and add in the sweetened Gingko Nuts. 

3. Let the milk boils again for 1-2 minutes. Add in the preserved Osmanthus paste. Stir until the paste dissolves. If using the preserved Osmanthus paste, you don't need to add in any sugar. The paste is sweet enough to sweetened this dessert. 

4. Add in the fresh foo chuk. Reduce the heat and simmered until mixture reduced slightly.

5. When the Lotus Seeds are cooked, add in 1 tsp of Dried Osmanthus. Stir the mixture. 

6. Turn off the heat and let it steep for awhile wild the dried Osmanthus infused with the milk.

7. Serve in individual bowls either hot or cold and sprinkle with some Osmanthus on top.

Reasons why I used 2 types of Osmanthus because the Osmanthus Fragrans in the preserved paste was actually a white variety and larger petals. Due to the preservation state with sugar, the paste looked dull but still with Osmanthus scent. So, for the color contrast to this dessert I also used the orange-flower variety; Osmanthus Fragrans Aurantiacus which can be use as well if you can't find the preserved Osmanthus paste.

Note: If you feel that the lotus seeds is too bland you may pre-cook it with some sugar earlier. Beware that fresh Lotus Seeds cook faster than dried seeds. If you're using Dried Lotus Seeds, please pre-soak the seeds with warm water until soften ( I leave it to soak for 24 hours) and then boil it until tender. You can decide later if you want to add sugar for sweetness if using in desserts. If you're using it for savoury dishes, you don't need to add anything prior to cooking because the Lotus Seeds will absorb the sauce/gravy after the dish cooked.

If you can't find fresh foo chuk which is made from soya bean milk skins rolled up in small bundles you can use the dried version which you have to soak until soften and cut to smaller bite sizes pieces before cooking.

Nowadays, you can find ready cleaned & skinned Gingko nuts & Lotus seeds in small packets of 100 g. If you can only find Gingko nuts still in their shells, you have to crack the shells open and check for any spoilt nuts. Pour some hot boiling water over them and let it soak for few minutes or until the brown skins are loose. Drain, rinse under cold water and rub between kitchen towels to remove the skins off.

Variations: You can also add in some Lily Bulb petals, yam, sweet potatoes or chopped Waterchestnuts to have a crunchy dessert.