I'm crazed over little wanton wrappers and, despite having to queue through the back door of Loon Fung for them, they're within (quite) easy reach for a last minute supper, or sneaky dim sum in the middle of the day. You can even cook them in the office microwave.
They're a great vehicle for leftovers - the weekend's roast, a couple of raw prawns that need cooking, shrinking vegetables, or stray rice noodles at the bottom of the packet.
For this recipe I used leftover stuffed guinea fowl made by my darling housemate - all hard work done. Make sure you have always have fish sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar on hand and you're away. Peel the wrapper, fill it, crimp it, steam it, dip it and pop it in.
ASIAN-STYLE BROTH WITH GUINEA FOWL DUMPLINGS
SERVES 2
ingredients
FOR THE DUMPLINGS
150g leftover guinea fowl, roughly chopped
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 spring onion
10 wanton wrappers
FOR THE BROTH
750ml guinea fowl stock (or chicken)
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp mirin rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 star anise
thumb-sized knob of ginger, peeled and finely sliced
1 red chilli, finely sliced at an angle, extra to serve (optional).
5 shitake mushroom, sliced
3 spring onions
Place all the dumpling ingredients in a food processor, and blitz to a rough paste. Transfer to a small bowl, cover and set aside.
Heat the guinea fowl stock in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat. Add the fish sauce, rice wine and soy sauce and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and add the star anise and chilli. Cook on a low simmer for 10 minutes so all flavours can infuse.
Meanwhile, assemble the dumplings. Lay a dumpling wrapper in the palm of your hand and place a heaped teaspoon of the mixture in the centre. Fold up the sides around the filling to form a flower shape. Press to hold, using a little water to bind if necessary. Place on a lightly floured and continue until all the mixture has been used.
Drop the dumplings into the simmering broth along with the shitake mushrooms and cook for two minutes until the pastry is soft and they are hot all the way through. Ladle the broth into two bowls and divide up the dumplings. Scatter with the spring onions and the extra red chilli. Serve with a cold beer and extra soy sauce.
