Homemade Wontons with Pork, Shrimps, and Shiitake Mushrooms with Chili Sauce

中文菜谱： 猪肉鲜虾花菇馄饨

Wontons and dumplings are two of the most popular and widely popular breakfast choices across the whole mainland China.  There are restaurants, diners, food vendors selling all kinds of wontons.

 But the best ones are not always found in fancy and expensive restaurants, but on the streets.  Some food vendors and small diners have been making and selling wontons for generations.  Years of experience make them experts in very single steps of making wontons from broth to seasoning.

I learned how to make wontons by eating them for breakfast for a long time.  The best ones are freshly made, cooked and served.  So a lot of wonton restaurants have been wrapping and cooking nonstop since they open the door in early morning.  During my wait, I always peeked through kitchen window to see how it is done. 

I did that out of bore and curiosity at first, but soon I got attracted and fascinated watching the cooks in kitchen wrapping wontons at lightning speed. 

A bowl of good wonton soup is made up with freshly made wontons and seasonings.  Both are equally important to how the final product taste.

Ingredients：

200 g ground pork
160 to 200g fresh shiitake mushrooms
10 to 12 fresh shrimps, peeled, divined and chopped
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
3 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon corn starch
1 egg white
a few drops of sesame oil
salt to taste
1 package of wonton wraps (sold in most Asian grocery markets)

Directions：

These are not regular shiitake mushrooms.  They are smaller in size but packed with intense earthy mushroom aroma.  They have signature cracks on the caps.

Use a damp kitchen paper towel to wipe clean the shiitake mushrooms.  In Asia, people believe rinsing fresh mushrooms under running water could ruin their delicate aroma.  The best way to clean them is with damp cloth or paper towel. 

However, there is too much dirt on the bottoms of shiitake mushrooms.  I have to rinse them to get rid of all the dirt.

Add cleaned shiitake mushrooms to a food processor and finely chop them.  

In a large bowl, add chopped shiitake mushrooms, shrimps, and ground pork, along with oyster sauce, rice cooking wine, ground white pepper, ginger, starch, egg white and sesame oil.

Whisk with a pair of chop sticks or wooden spoon clockwise for7 to 8 minutes, or until the filling becomes smooth and silky.

Season with salt to taste.

Add a couple teaspoons of filling to one edge of a wonton wrap.

Roll the wonton half way through, and then pull both ends towards center and overlap them.  Brush with a bit of water or egg wash so that wonton will keep its shape.

Repeat the process until all the filling is finished.

Add wontons to a large pot of boiling water.  Cook until all wontons float to surface.   In between, when the water boils again, add 1 cup of cold water to the pot.  Repeat the process one more time later when the water boils again.  Adding cold water to a boiling pot is a traditional Chinese way to cook dumplings and wontons, so that the wontons can be fully cooked without the outside wraps getting too soggy and mushy. 

Add wontons along with a ladle or two broth to a bowl.  Some of my favorite seasonings are but not limited to: sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic water, Sichuan pepper oil, chili oil sauce, vinegar, chopped picked vegetables, chopped pickled daikon, green onion, cilantro, and crushed dry roasted peanuts.

With a spoon, gently toss everything together.

Bon appetite! O(∩_∩)O~

Bacon Wrapped Shrimps and Skewed Lamb

中文菜谱：

培根烤大虾和烤羊肉串

Summer is coming.  It is gradually getting hot outside these days, which means grill season already starts!

Our favorite grills are shrimps, scallops, skewed lamb/ beef and steak. 

Texas is famous for its seafood, thanks to its long coast line and location right next to Mexican gulf.  The shrimps and scallops here are one of the best I have ever had so far.  I used to live in Virginia and Michigan.  I thought I had some good seafood there before.  After I moved to Texas, my eyes are open to more and better quality seafood here. 

Ingredients：

10 jumbo shrimps
10 slices of bacon
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Directions：

Thaw the shrimps in fridge.  Sprinkle with black pepper and salt.

There were 8 in the plate, and I added 2 more after I took the photo.

Peel the shrimps.  Wrap each shrimp with a slice of bacon, secured with a bamboo skewer

Meanwhile, I prepared some skewed lamb too.

We always use lamb shoulder for grill.  It is juicier and tenderer than lamb leg or stew.  They are not available in regular American grocery store.  I buy mine from H-mart.  Some Middle East grocery stores may sell lamb shoulder too. 

Cut lamb shoulder into 1/2 inch cubes.  Add salt, chopped onion, ground chili pepper, ground cumin, soy sauce, sesame seeds.  Mix well.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. 

Skew the lamb with stainless skewers

Preheat the grill to 400F.

Brush the griddle with oil.  Add bacon wrapped shrimps and skewed lamb.

Excessive dripping fat from bacons may cause the grill to flare up.  Keep a close eye on the grill.  Flip them frequently if necessary to prevent burning or over cooking. 

Skewed lamb is becoming golden brown.

When bacon wrapped outside the scallops is golden brown and the scallops are kind of firm to touch, they are ready.

Lamb is ready too.

How good does that look? O(∩_∩)O~

Bon Appetite! O(∩_∩)O~

Smashed Shrimp Paste for Hot Pot

中文菜谱：

虾滑和粥底火锅

If you like Asian style hot pot, you will love this smashed shrimp paste.    

Cooked smashed shrimps taste a lot better than regular cooked shrimps.  It carries on the shrimp flavor but with a smoother and slight crunchy texture, which makes eating these tiny shrimp balls so fun.

Ingredients：

1 lb shrimps
1 egg white
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 to 2 teaspoon rice cooking wine
salt to taste

Directions：

Peel and devein shrimps.  There are peeled and deveined frozen shrimps sold in the store.  However, all these extra factory processing weakens part of shrimp flavor.  I always buy whole shrimps and clean them at home.  That is some extra work, but well worthy in the end.

With a cleaver knife, finely chop the shrimps.

I really mean to finely chop O(∩_∩)O~

Try not to use a food processor here.  The texture would be a lot different.

Add egg white, corn starch, ground ginger, ground white pepper, rice cooking wine and salt to taste.

With a pair chopsticks or a whisk in hand, whisk well clockwise.  The trick is to whisk hard and always along one direction.  Do not whisk clockwise for 1 minute and counterclockwise for the next minute.

I whisk for almost 10 whole minutes.  It is hard work.  The texture of smashed shrimps depends on it.

Spoon the smashed shrimps to a shallow plate.  Smooth the top with the back of spoon. 

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

The smashed shrimps can be added to soup, braised, stir fried, deep fried or steamed.  My favorite way to eat it is hot pot.

Hot pot can be as simple as a pot of water, or it can also be as complicated as a pot of slow simmered broth with a lot of spices.  I am using rice porridge here.

Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot pot

Cook until they float and turn into pink color.

Serve hot immediately.  The smashed shrimp paste has been seasoned.  Any additional sauce is not required but always welcomed to add some extra flavors.