My Mummy's Bestest Wantons, Ever!!!

These are without a doubt my favourite wantons in the whole wide world. As people always say "Mummy knows best!" Regardless fried or soup, hot or even cold, they will still taste so gooooooood! Anyone who has had the privilege of savouring them would certainly attest to it. Well, at least to me they will & would always be ;P" 

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler & 1 adult): 

240g of Australian corn fed minced pork

5 prawns, shelled & diced

8 water chestnuts, skinned & diced

Generous amount of chopped spring onions (missing in mine as I've forgotten to ask my hubby to buy when he did the groceries)

1 tbsp of Bob's Red Mill All Natural Cornstarch

1 tbsp of sesame oil

1 pack of wanton skins

360ml of thawed salmon stock

A dash of freshly ground black pepper (can replace with a few slices of ginger)

3 stalks of organic xiao bai cai 

Pot of water

Directions:

1. Marinate the pork with cornstarch & sesame oil for at least an hour.

2. Add in the prawns, water chestnuts & spring onions then mix evenly.

3. Put a tsp of the mixture onto the centre of a wanton skin (the side with more flour facing outside), fold it half & slightly press the edge of the filling to close it up properly. 

(Note: May have to wet the wanton skins slightly if they've dried up & hardened.)

4. Repeat till all the wanton skins have been used up.

5. Bring the pot of water to boil & add in the wrapped wantons to cook.

(Note: By not cooking them in the stock, it will ensure that your soup won't have a strong ghee taste.)

6. Meanwhile, add the pepper to the salmon stock & bring it to boil in another pot. Form meatballs with the remaining mixture (I actually kept about 100g of it for his dinner as the portion was a bit too much for both of us) & cook them in the stock. Add in the xiao bai cai when the meatballs are almost cooked & cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

7. Remove the cooked wantons & put into a bowl. Top with the salmon stock & xiao bai cai then serve immediately.

The efforts in prepping this dish is definitely worth the while. Trust me on this. My boy finished everything in his bowl & even asked for more which I gladly refilled with more meatballs & soup. The salmon stock which I've frozen previously really came into good use too. With all the preparations required for the wantons, I'm glad that I didn't have to prepare seperate ingredients for a broth to go with them. Especially when you've a clingy BB for the day. One thing I will like to improve on is the skins as they're not homemade. My only consolidation is at least they don't contain preservatives. Maybe I'll be more advantageous & up to the 'challenge' one day. But, not today..hee ~.^ Let's wait a few more months till my boy can be Mummy's lil' helper in the kitchen.

Beneficial Combination:

Pepper + Pork = Favourable for digestion & absorption of nutrients

Highlight of Yesterday's Luncheon: Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork &Wolfberries

Corn onion soup with xiao bai cai: Cut 1 organic corn into thirds & halve 1 yellow onion. Add them to 750ml of water & bring to boil. Then, simmer in low fire for 2 hours. 5 minutes before time is up, add in the organic xiao bai cai.

The following were cooked simultaneously in my Techno 3-Tiers Electric Steamer.

Organic brown rice: 4 tbsps of organic short grain brown rice + 1 tbsp of organic brown rice soaked overnight in water to remove the phytic acid. Pour away the soaked water & rinse a couple of times before adding 80ml of water.Steam for 35 minutes.

Steamed pomfret with organic extra virgin coconut oil: Top 1 pomfret with some ginger strips then pour 1 tbsp of EVCO over it. Steam for 15 minutes.

Steamed organic tofu with Australian corn fed minced pork & wolfberries (yields 3 portions of what is shown in the picture below): 100g of pork marinated with 1 tbsp of Bob's Red Mill All Natural Cornstarch & 2 tbsps of EVCO for at least 30 minutes. Mince 1 pack of tofu & mix well with the pork. Divide equally into 3 small bowls (alternatively, can use just 1 big bowl) & top with 1 tsp of wolfberries (or 3 tsps) for each. Steam for 20 minutes.

The tofu dish turned out to be pleasantly light & we both love it! Although this is a very simple dish, one can actually distinctly taste the individual flavours from all the different ingredients. The light sweetness from the pork, the clean tofu taste, aroma from the EVCO & not forgetting the natural sweetness from the wolfberries. I could barely believe it when BB, an avid soup lover, actually chose the tofu over the soup. As usual, he finished his normal portion of rice, 1/2 the fish, 2/3 of a corn, 1 1/3 bowl of tofu then down a bowl of soup ~.^

Beneficial Combinations:

Corn + Onion = Promote the production of body fluid & saliva to relieve thirst as well as lower lipids (fats in blood)

Tofu + Xiao Bai Cai = Promote the production of body fluid & saliva as well as moistening & remove heat from the lung to relieve cough

Our Dinner with PaPaPa

Daddy-O is having reservist training this week & would be back earlier and so we decided to have dinner at home. Apple porky bone soup was already prepared during lunch & warmed up just before dinner was served.

Stir-fry organic Xiao Bai Cai with garlic: 1 clove of garlic, mashed slightly & 1 pack of xiao bai cai, washed & cut into smaller pieces, separating the stalks & leaves. Add extra virgin coconut oil to a hot pan followed by the garlic. Let it cook till starts to brown then add in the stalks & stir fry on low fire for 1 minute. Add the leaves in, stir fry till the leaves have turned a darker green & remove promptly.

Prawn scrambled eggs: 6 medium prawns shelled & cut Into smaller pieces (keep the heads to cook prawn bisque). Add some extra virgin coconut oil to a hot pan followed by the prawns. Stir fry till they start to change colour. Beat 3 eggs (I only used 2 as used up the rest earlier on for my brioche bread), pour over the prawn & let it spread evenly over the pan. Let it cook & set slightly then stir fry gently to combine the ingredients.

The following were cooked simultaneously in my Tecno 3-Tiers Electric Steamer.

Organic brown rice: 1 cup soaked for 7 hours in 1.5 cups of water. Steam for 35 minutes.

Steamed fish with organic cherry tomatoes: 1 fish & 9 tomatoes, halved. Pour some sesame oil over the fish & top with ginger strips. Steam for 10 to 15 minutes depending how big is your fish.

Really glad to see that BB's appetite has almost fully returned. He ate an entire bowl of rice with the dishes & yet managed to finished the big bowl of soup I left for him (I usually don't feed him soup during the meal as he'll keep asking for the soup instead of eating his rice).

Beneficial Combinations:

Garlic + Pork = Eliminate fatigue, improve attention & help enhance immunity

Pork + Tomato = For healthier stomach & digestion as well as invigorate spleen & replenish qi

Harmful Combination:

Garlic + Red Dates = Indigestion

Another 35 Minutes Meal

Probiotics fed chicken, corn, red dates with onion soup: Cut 1 corn into thirds & 1 yellow onion into halves. Cut to the centre of each of the 8 red dates (I use 'ji xin zao') to allow more flavours to be infused into the soup. Add all the ingredients, including a piece of chicken thigh, to 2 litres of water & bring to boil. Then, simmer in low fire for 2 hours. Remove the chicken thigh after 30 minutes if you don't want it to be overly cooked & use scissors to cut down to the desired size.

The following were cooked simultaneously in my Tecno 3-Tiers Electric Steamer.

Organic ten multi-grains (Simple Natural brand found at most Cold Storage outlets): 5 tbsps soaked overnight in 100ml of water. Steam for 35 minutes.

Steamed organic 'xiao bai cai': 3 stalks of xiao bai cai cut into smaller pieces. Add some soup & steam for 5 minutes. 

Steamed pomfret with wolfberries: 1 small pomfret & a small handful of wolfberries. Steam for 15 minutes (10 minutes is usually enough but due to the recent incident of the enmasse deaths of fishes at the local kelongs, I was advised to cook the fish more thoroughly).

Nice sweet soup from the addition of chicken meat & red dates. BB finished up everything in the second picture above plus half the fish! He has always been a corn lover but given the fact that corns don't contain much nutrients, I'll usually give it to him only after he has more or less finished his meal. This was the second time I gave the entire piece of corn to him & he managed to eat more compared to the first time before dropping it on the floor. He even figured out by himself that he could suck on the core to get more sweetness out of it. It was quite a hilarious moment hearing him do that..hahaha!!!