Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!
I love pasta and noodles. They are something I grew up with and enjoyed at least once or twice a week if not more. That is until we moved to Portugal. Here there just isn't much in the way of pasta dishes except maybe so spaghetti once in a while. In fact the only time we've had any thing with pasta or noodles in it that wasn't spaghetti, I've cooked.
Another thing that I'm always craving is Asian food, particularly Chinese food. This is something that for some reason since I moved away from my hometown of Portland, Oregon has been a pain for me to find. Sure I've gotten a hold of some when I live in Oklahoma and Canada, but both places were buffet style (I NEVER had buffet style Chinese food until moving to the middle of the US, it was always family style) and the food left something to be desired. And when I say that, that means it was pretty bad as any Chinese food is good Chinese food in my eyes.
So when it was announced that this month's Daring Cook's challenge was to make pasta or noodles, I was dead set on making my own hand pulled noodles and add include a simple lo mein recipe.
This idea unfortunately didn't make it to the table.
I had the dough made, and was just getting in the periodic kneading that is required through out the day, when my day was finished and I HAD to get dinner cooked.
This usually isn't a problem for me, but since moving to Portugal, we have been staying with my in-laws until we can get our own place here. On top of that o marido started his first day of an intensive one month course to become an English teacher (this is just for the teaching portion, his English is excellent... I know, he corrects me all the time). This means that there is a set time food needs to be done for dinner, and my dough just wasn't ready.
I was actually going to try it the next day, but something else was planned for dinner already, so I had to put it off until the next day. The dough smelled a bit off and the taste was odd by this time, and I didn't want to chance it, so I threw it out.
On the plus side, I had also made dough (basically the same dough as the noddles but without so much kneading time) for wontons in the form of Potstickers!
Now, if you're like me, you'd be thinking that wonton's aren't noodles. I agree with this, but the rules for this challenge were pretty lenient and the idea of pasta/noodles was a much broader idea than what is conventionally considered pasta or noodles. Ravioli is a pasta, right? So why not consider the famous Chinese dumpling as a noodle?
Mushroom and Vegetable Wontons
Filling
- 10 mushrooms, sliced into small sticks
- 1 small onion, minced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 cups of shredded nappa cabbage
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely minced
- 1 cup bell pepper, finely sliced
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Cilantro, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar to taste
Wonton Dough - Adapted from Jeroxie {Addictive and Consuming}
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup water (more or less)
- Pinch of salt
For the filling, place all the ingredients into a bowl, mixing with your hands and allow to sit for about 30 minutes to marinate.
If you are adding meat of some kind, I personally suggest to cook it before adding to the filling (just to be safe).
If you like your filling a bit softer and without so much liquid, cook the whole filling in a saute pan for about 10 minutes prior to filling the wontons and drain any unwanted liquid from the pan before allowing it to cool.
For the dough, whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add in the water a bit at a time, mixing until it forms into a ball and all the flour is incorporated.
Knead the dough a few times to be sure everything is well incorporated and the dough becomes smooth.
Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth, allowing the dough to rest for about an hour.
Cut the dough in to 4 sections, take 1 and place it on a floured surface and cover the other 3 pieces.
Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8th inch thick, and using a glass/round cookie cutter, cut out the circles. Pull away the dough that is left over and roll it back out and repeat with the cutting.
Using a teaspoon, scoop a small amount of the filling and place on each wonton skin, remember that less is more.
Fold the dough in half and press the edges together, pushing the air out. Because it's fresh wonton dough, no wetting of the edge is necessary to help seal the edges.
To make the pleats (which helps keep the wonton from coming apart) fold and pinch at the top of the edge to make the first pleat, then work your way down one side and then down the other in the same motion. This can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite easy.
Place the finished wontons on a dry surface. If the wontons are damp on the outside, dust the surface with a bit of flour to help soak up the liquid, so the dough doesn't fall apart.
Repeat the above steps until you have all your wontons filled.
To cook your wontons, place about a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Place the wontons, in batches, flat side down into the pan, making sure they don't touch. Cook like this for 1 minute.
Add 1/4 cup water (this is necessary no matter how small your pan is!) to the pan and cover immediately. Allow this to steam the wonton for 2 minutes. Remove the lid and allow any water that is left to cook out of the pan. Remove the wontons and repeat with the rest.
I personally like a mix of soy sauce and garlic chili sauce (this is super hot to most people, but if you like spicy get it), but I couldn't find my all time favorite chili sauce. I instead used a piri piri oil added to soy sauce as a dip which turned out fantastic with the flavor and the heat which I love.
If you like a sweeter sauce, look for a plum sauce or hoisin and mix with a bit of soy sauce or fish sauce to give it a little salt.
Try varying your filling with different flavors, meats, mushrooms, seafood or veggies!
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