Huntun 餛飩

Dorothy Vas from Mangalore [Mangaluru] India, Susanna Okafor from Switzerland, Dr Marie my neighbour, came for lunch today and we had huntun miantang 餛飩麵湯 and Victoria sandwich for afters.  

Chinese people had been making huntun miantang 餛飩麵湯 [huntun noodles soup] for over 2 000 years and this dish had been recorded in Chinese historical records.  

Perhaps you know this dumpling by its Cantonese name wonton 雲吞. 

Chinese people buy huntun skins [wrappers] from Chinese supermarkets. There are two types of huntun skins - Cantonese and Shanghainese. I use Cantonese huntun skin and it is labelled as 雲吞皮 on the package. There are 64 wrappers in this pack of 400 grams of huntun skins. 



I imagine it is possible to make huntun skins if one were to have a pasta machine as the skin has to be very thin. The Shanghai wrapper has no eggs and the Cantonese wrapper has added eggs. 

Therefore one has to make the filling for the huntun.  Here is my recipe for the filling. You will need 600 grams of huntun skins to use up all of this filling below. 

500 grams of free range lean pork - minced
200 grams of prawns with its shells - uncooked prawns - about 180 grams of prawns without shells

4 stalks of spring onions - finely sliced
1 inch ginger - finely minced

seasoning
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp sugar - huntun has to have a little sweet taste
2 tbsp soya sauce - I use Golden Orchid soya sauce

2 tbsp Chinese rice wine 紹興酒 Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp shallot flavoured oil 

To get rid of the fishy smell from the prawns, soak the prawns in rice wine and salt as soon as you get home from the shopping and put the soaked prawns in the fridge until you need them. Remove the shells from the prawns but do not throw the shells away. You can add the shells into the chicken stock to improve the taste the soup. In addition, you can add dried anchovies and dried prawns into the soup as well. 

Mix in the finely chopped spring onion [the green part only], finely minced ginger, with the pork. Add the above seasoning into the minced pork with the minced prawns.

Allow the mixture to stand in the fridge for at least half an hour.

How to wrap the huntun

Place one of the wrappers diagonally with one end facing you
place a teaspoon of filling on the middle of that wrapper.

Moisten the edges of the wrapper with water - you could dip your index finger on a bowl of water to moisten the edges of the wrapper.

Fold the wrapper over to a triangular shape - slightly off centre, and seal the edges.

Gently bring the wings [ends of the wrapper] together, moisten one wing and place the other wing on top of this and ensure the wings are stucked together.

Bring to boil 3 litres of water and the water boils, add the wrapped huntun into the boiling water. When the huntun floats to top, fish the huntuns out and drop these into cold water, if you are not going to serve these immediately. 




Huntun Mian 餛飩麵

Mian you should know this Chinese word. Everybody knows chaomian 炒麵, which is stir fried noodles. So huntun mian are the noodles which are eaten with huntun. You can buy huntun mian in two forms - one fine and the other broad. For this lunch, I am using the broad version because the fine version did not look very good in the shops yesterday when I went to get the ingredients for this lunch. 

There are five portions of noodles in this 400 grams pack. However, for small eaters, you could share each portion of noodles wtih two people. 

When the guests have arrived, bring to boil 3 litres of water and when the water is boiling, add some of the huntun noodles into hot water and boil for a couple of minutes. Then add the drained cooked huntun. When the huntun is hot, noodles are cooked, drain these and add these onto a bowl. Add 200 ml of hot boiling soup onto the huntun and noodles. Top with some vegetables, if you wish.

The recipe of how to make stock for the soup has already been explained in the post on chicken pulao.



We finished the meal with a Victoria sandwich to celebrate the English independence with green tea. 



An alternative way to serve huntun mian - the Cantonese lo mien 撈麵: - After cooking the noodles, toss the cooked noodles with some oyster sauce and soya sauce - do not add too much oyster sauce, as it is very salty. The put the noodles on a plate with some cooked vegetables and with the cooked huntun - I serve 8 huntun parcels per person.  Finally, sprinkle the whole dish with a little sesame oil. Serve with the hot soup on the side. I serve 200 ml of soup per person.  

Chicken Pulao

On this Sunday after Thursday's independence, I am posting this Independence Chicken Pulao, which is also known as chicken pilaf, to celebrate our independence.

The rice cooked in a wok

How the rice dish is presented - rice in the bottom of the bowl, with cooked vegetables in the middle layer and chicken pieces on the top

I use sella rice to make this dish. One needs to soak the rice the night before and I normally soak sella rice in water with a little salt for at least 24 hours before cooking the rice.

If you were to buy a rice cooker, you get a plastic cup which is a little more than a quarter of a pint [150 ml]. And I use 5 cups of sella rice.

I also soak the saffron the night before and I soak it in room temperature water in a little cup.

For this amount of rice, I use two small chickens - each chicken is under two and half pounds in weight [1.2 kg chicken].

Cook each chicken separately in just over 100 fluid ounces [3 L] of water with half an onion, one teaspoon of Himalayan salt, a handful of black peppercorns, and a few slices of ginger. When the water is boiling, I slowly put the chicken in the pot and at high heat I wait for the liquid in the pot to come to a boil.  When it starts boiling, I lower the temperature and set the timer for 10 minutes. You need to make sure the liquid is constantly boiling during these ten minutes. The pot too needs to be covered and I use a pot with a glass lid so I can see that the liquid is boiling and adjust the heat accordingly. At the end of the ten minutes. I switch off the heat and put the pot aside without lifting the lid and allow the chicken to continue cooking in the hot liquid for an hour. At the end of the hour, I remove the chicken, and allow the chicken to cool so I am able to handle the chicken. When the chicken is cooled enough for me to handle, I remove and dispose of the skin, the parson's nose and any bits of the chicken which I do not like. I then remove the cooked flesh and put the bones back into the stock and let that boil for another hour. At the end of the hour, I fish out the bones, black peppercorns, sliced ginger, onion and dispose of these ingredients. I then season the liquid with enough Himalayan salt to taste and also add two Kallo organic chicken stock cubes into the liquid.

The five cups of rice and two small chickens should be able to feed 8 people.

I also prepare some spices. Which spice you use is very personal. The minimum should be one cinnamon stick and handful of cardamon pods. However, I also use three star anise and three pieces of dried mace. If these whole spices do not look clean, do not be afraid to wash these whole spices in cold running water. 

Get 100 fluid ounce [3 L] of seasoned stock boiling, drain the soaked rice onto a colander and when the stock is boiling, slowly and carefully pour the drained rice into the boiling stock.  You need to cook the rice in hot liquid for 8 minutes and you start counting the eight minutes from when the stock starts bubbling and you also need to keep stirring the rice grains gently without breaking them. By the end of the 8 minutes, the rice grains should have elongated to twice its original length at a minimum. On the 7th minute, that is with only one minute to go, add the whole spices to the stock and rice. At 8 minutes, drain the rice onto a colander. 

Meanwhile, on a large non stick pot, add about 2 ounces [50 grams] of butter and when it is hot and melted, add a little shallot fragrant oil, and add slices of a peeled potato. I normally do this at the same time as cooking the soaked rice for eight minutes. When the rice is 90 percent cooked, the large non stick pot is ready with the fried sliced potato.

I gently add the 90 percent cooked rice on top of the potato, and then pour the soaked saffron and liquid on top of the rice. I cover the pan and cook in low heat for at least one hour.  And if your guests are late by a few minutes it does not matter as this could be cooked for perhaps one hour and 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I fry some sliced shallots, cashew nuts and sultanas for garnish.

When it comes to serving the rice, I fill a large serving bowl with the rice, add cooked vegetables on top of the rice, the chicken pieces and the guests can add the cashew nuts, sultanas and shallots on top of their rice. 

You can also serve green salad and cherry tomatoes with the rice dish and perhaps some yogurt as well, if you wish. 

I hope you will try this chicken pulao dish to celebrate our independence.

For those people who do not know how much is 100 fluid ounce, it is about 3 litres and a quarter of a pint is about 150 ml.  Two and a half pounds is about 1.2 kg. 

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs were the first thing I learnt to bake as a child.  



Some Europeans call this dessert profiteroles.

7 fl oz [200 ml] water

½ oz [14 grams] caster sugar 
a pinch of salt (optional - some people do not salt in their desserts!)

3 oz [85 grams] unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing or use a silicon mat or silicon cases

4 oz [113 grams] good quality flour - about 11 percent protein content

3 medium free-range eggs, beaten – may not use all of the eggs 

Method for making the pastry casing

Preheat the oven to 200 C fan baking mode.  If your oven is in fahrenheit then you will need to set it to 400 F and that would be gas mark 6. 

For making of the pastry casing: place the water, sugar, salt and butter into a saucepan with a heavy base. Heat gently until the butter has melted – the butter should have melted before the water boils! Turn up the heat, then quickly pour in the sifted flour all in one go. Turn off the heat, if you are using an induction hob [if you use a gas stove or other electrical hob, remove the pan from the stove] and beat the mixture vigorously until a smooth paste is formed. Once the mixture comes away from the side of the pan, allow the mixture to cool, perhaps for 10-15 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth and glossy and has a soft dropping consistency - you may not need all the eggs.

Lightly grease a large baking sheet or use a silicon sheet or cases. Using a piping bag and plain with a ½ inch [1.25 cm] nozzle, pipe the mixture into small balls in lines across the baking sheet. Gently rub the top of each ball with a wet finger - this helps to make a crisper top.  You should be able to pipe 20 pastry cases.

Place a small roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven to heat.

Place the baking sheet into the middle of a heated oven. Before closing the oven door, pour half a cup of boiling water into the roasting tin at the bottom of the oven, then quickly shut the door. This helps to create steam in the oven and this will make the pastry cases rise better. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden-brown - if the pastry cases are too pale they will become soggy when they cool down. If you are using a steam oven, then you will not need to have a roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven. 

Remove pastry cases from the oven and turn the oven off. Prick the base of each pastry case with a skewer. Place back onto the baking sheet with the hole in the base facing upwards and return to the oven for five minutes. The warm air from the oven will help to dry out the middle of the pastry cases. 

When the pastry cases have been cooled, pipe whipped sweetened double cream [600 ml - about 1 pint] into the cases and pour cold chocolate sauce on the cream puffs before serving. One would need a pint of double cream for 20 cream puffs. 

Space and Music Cake

Nav has ordered a sample cake for her son Chet's 18th birthday.  Here are pictures of the sample cake. The inside is a Victoria sandwich with strawberry jam filling and Swiss butter cream is used to glue the icing to the cake.

At the moment the weather in England is very hot and humid. Hence the icing on the cake is sweating! You might be able to see the sweating cake in these pictures.

Chet's interests includes space and music and you will see symbols of these on the cake. 

Vinay 18th Birthday 22 June 2016

Vinay is celebrating his 18th birthday today - 22 June 2016

Many happy returns of the day - Vinay

Vinay is a chocoholic and therefore I made a chocolate cake covered with ganache.

Osita and Bijal Wedding Cake

Dr Osita Okafor is marrying Dr Bijal Shah today and I have the privilege to make their wedding cake.  The cake is painted with a pink gold luster, including the flowers. The pictures were taken at sunrise this morning so the cake could look romantic! 

Congratulations Dr and Mrs Osita Okafor - and why are we so sexist that Dr Bijal Shah is now known as Mrs Osita Okafor!  Anywhere I am not here to fight with society!



I have also made extra cakes - one eggless cake and two chocolate marble cake - one glazed with icing and another with ganache.

Queen's 90th birthday cake

We had a community celebration for the Queen's 90th birthday today and I made a special Victoria sponge cake.

One layer is filled with strawberries, cream and strawberry jam another with blue berries, cream and wild blue berry jam and the top with fruits like the Union Jack. 

The cake was 10 inch in diameter and about 4 inches tall, enough for 30 slices.