SOUP - pork wonton

 

 I LOVE SOUP!

  

This year, I have tried many new and unusual soups, including pea and basil, global artichoke and purple carrot with dumplings.  This pork wonton soup is one of the most awesome soups  I have EVER tasted and is my current and most absolute favourite. 

The coriander, ginger and chili create the most amazing sensations; to steal a phrase from my niece….Yumyum!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

 



Trust me, try this and you will not be dissapointed.  This soup is a good starting point to get kids used to the asian style flavours.  My kids eat the cooked wonton's but are not yet up to enjoying the broth style soup. I feel that even though they are only eating the wonton's, they are getting used to the flavours and will one day enjoy this entire dish as well as others with similar flavours.

 

I can eat it for days running, in fact, I love to make it on a weekend and eat it over a couple of days for lunch and dinner and enjoy it every time.

It takes a little bit of time to put the wontons together but no longer than chopping a bunch of veggies for a soup.  I set up like a production line by laying all the wrappers out, spooning all the mince mixture in and finally sealing the little wonton parcels.  The wonton's can be frozen for a couple of months and defrost quite well.  I tend to freeze half the wonton's for another day.

 All ingredients can be found in the  local supermarket.This recipe calls for pork, but i usually use a pork/veal mix.  The ginger and chili give this soup some bite and can be minimised or added to according to taste. 

 






TWEAK a recipe to make it your own!
 

 

 

Pork wonton's

• 500 g pork mince
• ¼ cup drained water chestnuts, chopped
• 2 green spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 30 fresh wanton wrappers

Soup

• 4 cups chicken stock
• 6 cups water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 long red chili, thinly sliced
• 3 spring onions, sliced thinly
• 1 cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped

To make wantons

• All dumpling ingredients except wanton wrappers go into food processor and buzz until combined well.
• Set wanton wrappers out onto a clean surface.
• Place a teaspoon of pork filling into centre on wrapper, brush edges with water and fold into a pouch.  Pinch edges to seal.

To make soup

• Place stock, water, ginger, chili and soy sauce in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Add dumplings, return to boil and simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes or until wantons are cooked.
• Stir in coriander and spring onion.
• Serve and enjoy!

 Source – New Idea Test Kitchen 2012

Lemon Syrup Cake

 

 

This is for you Mary- Anne, and anyone else who LOVES the tangy taste of lemon.  

 

I have made this lemon syrup cake many times. It is a pretty quick cake to make, is  light and tangy with some sticky, gooey bits.  Yum!  It is certainly a recipe I don't want to loose in my continually growing stash of recipes.  Tasting best hot, it should be a winter favourite.  Don't forget to plop on a good dollop of cream.  My Nana says it is one of the nicest things she has tried in ages... but then, she often says that!  When I was little, I used to make Nana and Pop french toast for breakfast.  He said I made the best french toast.  Later Nana informed me he said that so he didn't have to cook breakfast.  I still make a pretty good french toast!

 

 If you want a tingly taste bud experience

Have a go

An scrumdidelyumptious recipe is written down below.....



 

 

 

Lemon syrup cake

What you need

Cake

• 150g butter – softened
• 175g castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• zest of  lemon
• 175g self-raising flour
• 125mls milk
• icing sugar for dusting

Lemon syrup

• 140g castor sugar
• 50 mls lemon juice

What to do

Cake

• Preheat oven to 180°C, line an 18cm square cake tin with baking paper
• Beat together the eggs caster sugar and butter until smooth and fluffy
• Fold in flour
• Gently mix in lemon rind and milk
• Bake in preheated oven for 20-30  minute’s or until a skewer comes out clean
• Remove from tray and cool on a wire rack

Syrup

• Place lemon and sugar in a small saucepan.  Cook over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved

To put it together

• Prick the cake all over with a skewer
• Spoon the hot syrup evenly over the top, allowing it to be absorbed into the cake
• Dust with icing sugar and serve cold OR serve warm  with a dob of fresh cream on top

Enjoy!

                                                                                           

Rosti or hashbrown?

It's a busy cooking class and you have enthusiastically described one of today's dishes, broad bean risotto. The kids are all excited, they LOVE risotto, they don't really care what is in it as long as there is rice and CHEESE!  You go to the freezer to get the last of the frozen broad beans from last months harvest, and they have all been used in the other classes.... NOOOOO!   What to do, what to do and QUICK!   There are some potatoes over there, potato rosti, kids love potato, and we can still use the cheese that is sitting there.  I did potato rosti at TAFE last week, and we did it a bit differently to how I was previously  taught. These were super crunchy.  I remember loving them when I was growing up (and now!), but they were always a little soggy.  We made them in class and they turned out awesome and crunchy.  The kids then got them at home for tea, still awesome and crunchy.  This new way is a WINNER!  So now I'm thinking, what is the difference between a rosti and the hash brown I grew up eating?  After a google search apparently the only difference is adding onion to the potato in a hash brown.   Anyone know any other differences?

Crunchy rosti with home made tomato sauce.

The trick to super crunchy rosti? Par boil the potatoes!

Grate them and squish them down flat. 

Shallow fry in a combination of oil and butter (but watch that the butter doesn't burn).

 

Grated parmesan cheese, salt & pepper or herbs mixed through the potato

prior to cooking are delicious additions.

Getting Started....

So, what I am thinking is, I can put all the recipes on here that people ask me for and I never get around to emailing.  A bit like a one stop shop!  What do you think?....A million people have done this before me!...What will make this page any different?...Yea, that is what I think too, BUT It will be different because it is mine! LOL!







 



The silly season is approaching, and we are all feeling the end of year  pinch... roll on Christmas festivities... and holidays!  Like all my Uni friends, I have been studying hard to get my essay submitted in time, and with work commitments and kids stuff  taking most of my time I haven't had much time for FUN cooking.  So I organised for the three of the main ladies in my life, Mum, Nana and my Auntie to come and enjoy some tastings of favourite things I have been making at school and uni these last few weeks and need practice in.

Apart from the cooking, it's also fun to get out the vintage favourites for the table settings.  

 

Today's Menu

Broad Bean Bruschetta

Spaghetti with Basil and Tomato Sauce

Poached Egg on a bed of Rainbow Chard with Hollandaise Sauce

Date pudding with Custard Sauce and Berries

Fresh lemonade

 

 



Date Pudding with Custard Sauce and Strawberries

 

As I dont always think we need to leave the best till last, let's have the dessert first.  I decided to practice custard sauce as it is coming up in my end of year tests and I split the last one. Now what to go with the custard sauce?  Sticky date pudding, minus the sticky, plus the custard sauce? Sounds good to me. I'm not a big fan of dates, but I kinda LOVE sticky date pudding.  This one is so light, fluffy and sooo easy to make. Both pudding and custard were delicious hot and cold.

 

 

Date Pudding with Custard Sauce

 

Date Pudding - makes abut 14 muffins or a 20cm cake tin

 

What you need

• 200g dried dates
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 100g butter
• 150g castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or a vanilla pod
• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
• Berries of choice as garnish
   

What to do

• Pre heat oven to 180 C
• Lightly spray muffin moulds or a cake tin
• Place roughly choppd dates in a saucepan and bring to boil.  Turn off the heat, add bicarb soda and let sit for 10minutes or so
• Beat butter and sugar until pale in colour
• Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time and beat well
• Fold in flour and date mixture until well combined
• Spoon into prepared molds
• Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes or until firm to the touch
• Turn out to cool on a wire rack

Custard Sauce

What you need

• 1 L milk
• 9 egg yolks (egg whites can be frozen for later use)
• 120g castor sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence or a vanilla pod

What to do:

• Create a double boiler using a saucepan and bowl.  Once the water is at boiling point, turn down to a simmer
• Separate the eggs and place yolk in the bowl with castor sugar. Stir over the double boiler until the sugar is dissolved
• Add the milk, vanilla/vanilla pod and stir using a wooden spoon until it coats the back of the spoon
• Strain to remove any bits of coagulated egg and vanilla pod and it is ready to serve

To serve, place pudding in a bowl, make a moat of custard sauce and top with chopped strawberries to garnish.

Enjoy!