This month’s challenge was hosted by Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. Thank you, Jaden!
There were two elements to this challenge: Vietnamese (Chicken) pho, and dessert wontons.
Vietnamese Chicken & Mushroom Pho
This was the list of ingredients given for the (chicken) pho:
Ingredients:
For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce
1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)
Accompaniments:
2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice
Apparently, the only thing which was non-negotiable was the spices for the broth and the toasting thereof. Here, have (badly-taken) pictoral proof:
Otherwise, my broth was somewhat different. Used the spices as above, charred some ginger and onion to go with it too. I have this thing against commercial chicken stock, though, so I did my own, which essentially consisted of chicken bones, liquid from soaking mushrooms, konbu, and katsuo-bushi (i.e. your sort of regular Japanese dashi). Fish sauce, sugar, and I added soy sauce and Chinese sherry to it too.
For the noodles, I used the only rice noodles I had on hand – the kind you use for pad thai. Not pho-ish noodles per se, but close enough, I suppose. Served it with coriander, chilli, chicken (leg, not breast, because the latter’s just… urgh), enoki mushroom, and shitake mushroom.
Next came the dessert wontons (Am I the only one who keeps tying it ‘wanton’? I blame the Hokkien pronunciation that I’m so used to.). What was suggested were chocolate wontons, i.e. chocolate nuggets placed in wonton wrappers which were then folded into half to form triangles, sealed with dabs of egg wash along the edges, and fried.
Now, before I proceed, I have one thing to say:
Wontons + Sweet? No, no, no, no.
I’m sorry. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I’ve always thought of wontons as (preferably soupy, as I’m really not fond of deep-fried food) as little things with savoury filling. I felt somewhat comforted when, upon speaking to a few other people, I realised that I wasn’t the only one having a problem who found the idea of chocolate-filled wontons, or anything-sweet-filled wontons, a tad weird. All the same, one of my friends helpfully pointed out that fried dessert wontons are pretty much like churros, with savoury batter and sweet add-ons, so they probably weren’t too strange, so there you go!
Didn’t stop me from making huge, fat savoury wontons bursting with bits of prawn when I was done with the dessert wontons, though. Ah, bliss.
(Also? I don’t like wonton wrappers. They have a disgusting egg-y bitter taste to them. I usually use shui jiao wrappers instead if I can help it, but since wonton wrappers were required here…)
To get myself warmed up, I did the chocolate wontons as suggested, the only variation being using pure egg white instead of an egg wash to seal the wontons:
Then I did my stuff!
The filling I did was a mixture of apple, currant, cinnamon and custard. Cook the apples and currants in butter until they soften, stir in the cinnamon and brown sugar and vanilla if using, cook until it’s becoming somewhat toffee-ish, and add enough custard (I used some sabayon I had made before hand for the custard, flavoured with tea and mint and with a massve reduction of sugar) to achieve the right consistency.
Here, this is how I fold wontons when I’m trying to impress people (I usually fold them somewhat differently, more a boat/ingot shape which, coincidentally, allows for more filling; these are prettier to look at, but because the way it’s folded doesn’t even allow for half as much filling, which is rather sad when wontons are always about the filling.):
Fry them, dust with icing sugar, and there you have it. To go with them, I made a raspberry sauce which was essentially raspberry puree, vodka, sugar, lemon juice, and mint. Apologies for the even-worse-than-normal pictures: I was running out of light by the time they were done cooking.
And done. *g*
I’m not even considering making the dessert wontons.}:P
Dessert wontons are very tricksy things. 😛
Amazing presentation! Your dessert wontons wih the apple currant filling sounds and looks so delicious!
Thank you!
Okay, dessert wontons, just no. No matter how delectable the filling is. XD
But your Pho! Looks soooooo good! :D~ ~ ~
Well, I made those dessert wontons, and I’m still not sure I’ll eat them if I had a choice… *g*
And thank you very kindly!
Everything looks great. I love the use of those beautiful mushrooms! I must add enoki next time. Well done!
Thank you! I adore enoki, so it’s pretty much a must-have in soupy noodle-y dishes. *g*