captureDelights: May 2012

Wheat Rotini with Herb Chicken (Demo)

Wheat Rotini with Herb Chicken by JWong

Roasted Spareribs (Demo)

Roasted Spareribs by JWong

Delightful Won Tons Part 3 (Recipe)

Delightful Won Tons Part 3 by JWong

The last and final part to my Delightful Won Tons!

1) Take the left over mushroom stems and add into broth of choice. Mine is a chicken based soup with mushroom stems.

2) Blanch vegetables of choice. I used a type of bak choi. Set into bowls and save water.

3) Make sure to have a bowl of cold water for the won ton bath!

4) Grab a handful of won tons!

5) Drop them in and let them boil until they float.

6) Scoop the won tons and do a quick cold water bath and put them back into the hot water.

7) After they boil again, place them into bowls.

8) Add soup~ Garnish with green onion slivers and wah la!

Extra won tons we made go into the freezer. With the fish ball holders we saved, we can fit 10 won tons comfortably in one case. Put them in the freezer and they'll be good 2-3 months!

Delightful Won Tons Part 2 (Recipe)

Delightful Won Tons Part 2 by JWong

You've got all the ingredients minced and you're ready for the marinade!

1 tbs low sodium soy sauce
3 tsp ground sea salt
3 tsp sugar
1 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp ground dry ginger
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 package of won ton wraps

1) Add in all the minced ingredients into a large bowl. Then swirl in the soy sauce along with the rest of the ingredients.

2) Use the fold and tuck method to incorporate the ingredients.

3) Let it marinate for 15-20 minutes.

4) Finally right before you wrap the won tons, add in two eggs and mix the filling.

5) Time to wrap the won tons! You'll first need a bowl of water and a butter knife/pair of chopsticks.

6) Grab a wrapper and using the knife/chopsticks place a small amount of filling into the center of the wrap.

7) To simplify things, I'll use the direction in the picture. Take the bottom right corner of the wrap and fold it toward the top left corner and tuck it into the filling like the image below.

8) Now dip your knife/chopsticks into the bowl of water and tap some water to the top right corner. Take the bottom left corner and the top right corner and squeeze them together. Hold for about 3-5 seconds to let the dough seal. One down and a tray full to go!

9) With the my dad's help, one tray didn't take that long =].

Delightful Won Tons Part 1 (Recipe)

Delightful Won Tons Part 1 by JWong

14-18 oz of pork shoulder

16-18 medium size shrimp

6-8 dried shitake mushrooms

1/2 cup of dried cloud black fungus

6 green onions

1) Boil some water and put dried ingredients into a bowl. Once water comes to a boil, dump water into bowl and let it soak in the boiled water for a couple of hours. If you don't want to wait, put ingredients into a bowl and let it soak over night. Cut the stems off of the mushrooms but save them later for soup base. You can cook the mushrooms in broth for enhanced flavor (optional). Rinse the fungus with cool water and set aside.

2) Rinse the pork and shrimp and set aside. We'll first start by mincing the pork.

3) Traditional won tons don't use ground pork from the market. Everything is done from scratch...sometimes including the skin! Start by cutting the fat off the pork. I like my won tons a little leaner but still preserving some fat for flavor. After you have removed some fat around the edges of the meat, cut it into small pieces. As you can see, I have two knives for easy mincing.

4) After I had battled with the pork, I decided to use a hammer! Grab some plastic wrap and cover up the meat. Get ready to pound the meat till it is minced!

5) ...several pounds later and a dual cleaver smashing you'll get meat that looks like this!

6) Next you'll have to mince the shrimp as well. The easiest way to do this is by smashing the shrimp with a cleaver in one motion. You're almost pancaking the shrimp but make sure you're going from one side to the other.

KAPOW!

7) ...several smashes later!

8) Dice the fungus.

9) Dice the green onion.

10) Dice the mushrooms.

You are now done with Part I of JWong's Delightful Won Tons! *clap clap clap*

Snazzy Pasta Twist with Hotlinks (Recipe)

Snazzy Pasta Twist with Hotlinks by JWong

1 box of 12oz pasta swirls
1 yellow onion
1 green onion
2 tsp oil for pasta
1 tsp sugar
10-12 small hothouse tomatoes
1/4 jar of pasta sauce
3 hotlinks

1) Boil water for pasta. Add sea salt while it is boiling and dump pasta into water. Let it cook open lid for 5 minutes while boiling. Afterwards, cover with lid and let it sit for 7-10 minutes or until desired pasta texture. Drain pasta and dump back into pot. Add 2 tsp of oil and stir pasta (prevents pasta from clumping up). You can also substitute with butter if you like a creamier flavor.
2) I like to boil my hotlinks after I have diced them to get some of the chili oil that is deposited in it. This decreases the heat of the meat but it also helps for easier digestion. If you choose not to boil it, just go straight ahead to the next step.

3) Saute diced hotlinks and diced green onion until they are golden brown and set aside.
4) Next saute the sliced onion in the hotlink oil. Add a little salt to flavor the onions and cook until caramelized.
5) Set aside onions and add in the small halved tomatoes.

6) Add 1 tsp of sugar into the tomatoes. Cook for about a minute and add in 1/4 jar of the pasta sauce.

7) Once the sauce heats up, add in the hotlinks and onions and stir together.

8) Pour mixed sauce directly into the pot of pasta.

9) Mix together slowly and serve! =] Parmesano is optional but chowing down is not =p

Simple Roasted Chicken (Recipe)

Simple Roasted Chicken by JWong

1 chicken (3-4lbs) <-- I like to use free range =] A lot skinnier and healthier!
6 tsp of sea salt
6 tsp of fresh ground pepper
2 tsp of ground chili powder
4 tsp of garlic salt
1/3 onion (yellow = sweeter, purple = tangy)
4 tbs of oil (olive, canola, etc.)

1) Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towels. You don't want any water to be puddling in any part of the chicken!
2) I like to cut my chicken down the keel (center floppy bone of the chicken) and split the breast. Be careful of the sharp bones if you happen to break it.
3) After splitting the chicken, coat the inside of the chicken with 2 tbs of oil. Add 6 tsp of sea salt, 4 tsp of garlic salt, 6 tsp of ground pepper, and 2 tsp of ground chili powder into a bowl and mix it together. Now spread half of the mix evenly inside the chicken.

4) Now flip the chicken over and use the rest of the mix and spread it evenly! Make sure to get in between the chicken thighs and wings! Set the oven to "convection" and at 375 degrees F.

5) Flip the chicken back over and top with thinly sliced onions. The white onions give it a nice sweetness =].

6) Cook for 20 minutes on one side and flip over. Then cook another 20 minutes at convection and finally 3 minutes on broil. This will give it a nice golden brown color and crispy skin. Wah la! You're all finished with a simple chicken dish. You can serve with roasted vegetables and a nice glass of vino =].