Wanton

Felt very much like having dumplings, so went to get some wanton skin. Its still the most traditional kind of dumpling that I've eaten since childhood, unlike all the 'shanghai' dumpling skins and 'gyoza' dumpling skins that we see in the supermarket nowadays.

Ingredients
1 packet of wanton skins (about 22 inside, don't ask me why there's such an odd number)
300g minced pork
200g prawns, shelled and chopped into small bits. You can also mince it, but I prefer a bit of bite
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
a bit of water (to seal the edges of the wanton), with 1/2 tsp corn flour added (optional, since the wanton has already been dusted with flour, its actually 'sticky' enough to seal the dumpling)
1 tbsp corn flour

Sauce for the noodles
1/2 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp chilli sauce
1/2 tsp tomato ketchup
Dash of sesame seed oil

Soup
1 tbsp chicken stock concentrate
1l of water

Method
1) Marinate the pork and prawn with the wine, soya sauce and fish sauce. I didn't bother to let it marinate very long as I knew I would take some time to wrap the dumplings, so that would be more than sufficient time for the mixture to marinate before it goes into the pot.

2) Using a teaspoon, spoon 1 tsp of the mixture into the centre of the wanton skin.

3) Fold in half to make a triangular shape and use the water or corn flour paste mixture to line the sides. Press down to seal the edges, gently easing the air bubbles outwards. I then press the 2 edges together, as I was taught but you can leave it as a triangle if you prefer. The triangle method works very well if you intend to deep fry the wantons.

4) Gently throw the dumplings into a pot of water which is at a rolling boil. The dumplings are ready to dish up and drain once they float to the top, about 2 to 3 minutes. Don't throw in too many dumplings at 1 shot and crowd the pot, bringing down the overall cooking temperature.

5) To serve, I never deep fry anything in my house, and I prefer soupy stuff, so I made 2 variations.

a) Dry: Cook the noodles in the same pot of water according to instructions, and serve with noodles and a sauce (1/2 tsp oyster, 1/2 tsp chilli sauce, 1/2 tsp tomato ketchup, dash of sesame seed oil) and toss the noodles to coat thoroughly. Dish the dumplings on top. You can also add vegetables of your choice, eg bean sprouts or cai xin

b) Soup: Pour away the water used to cook the dumplings and noodles. Using water from a freshly boiled water from a kettle, add the chicken stock. Once the stock has come to a boil, ladle it over the dumplings. I served mine with meatbals, which were actually the leftover filling.