Kenwood Disaster Chef 2015 Week 3 Recipe Challenge – Dim Sum

I can’t believe it’s week 3 already!

This week’s recipe is Pork and Vegetable Wontons in a Spicy Oil Dressing and was created by Martin Johns, Kenwood Development Chef.

I love wontons but never imagined I’d be making my own from scratch. I have to admit I was very nervous about making pasta from scratch.  It looks so technical and complicated. After watching Martin’s video tutorial I was ready to begin.

Pork and Vegetable Wontons in a Spicy Oil Dressing

Makes: 4 Portions

Preparation time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Equipment: Kenwood Chef Sense with K-beater, food processor and pasta roller attachments

Ingredients

Paste

  • 200g Bread flour
  • ¾ teaspoon Salt
  • 50ml  Water
  • 1 Egg (large)
  • 30g Cornflour

Filling

  • 50g Spinach
  • 1 Spring onion
  • ½ teaspoon Fresh ginger
  • 3 Shitake mushrooms (any mushrooms will do)
  • 1 Knob of butter
  • 150g Pork chop
  • A pinch of Salt
  • A pinch of Black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Rice Wine (or a dry sherry)
  • 1 teaspoon Soy sauce
  • 3 teaspoon Fresh Coriander

Sauce

  • 1 tablespoon Soy sauce
  • A splash (to taste) Sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon Rice wine/ dry sherry
  • 1 teaspoon Sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon Dried Red Chilies
  • 2 tablespoon Chilli oil
  • 2 tablespoon Olive oil
  • 4 tablespoon Fresh coriander

Method:             

Paste

  1. Place the flour and salt into the Kenwood Chef Sense
  2. Mix the water and egg together in a jug
  3. Using the K-beater attachment, switch the machine on to speed 2 and slowly add the water and egg mixture
  4. Process for a couple of minutes until it has all come together – if the paste is too sticky add a little more flour, if too dry add a little more water
  5. After about 5 minutes, take the mixture out of the machine and wrap in cling film. Leave it on the side for 20 minutes to rest.

Filling

  1. To blanch the spinach start by filling a pan of water and placing it onto a medium heat and bring the water to the boil, add the spinach to the saucepan and cook for 2 minutes.
  2. Fill another bowl with cold water and lift the spinach out of the boiling water and place directly into the cold water. When the spinach is cold, take the spinach out of the water.
  3. Place the spinach onto a tea towel and drain the water out of the spinach.
  4. Roughly cut the Shitake mushrooms and fry them in butter until golden brown, then remove them from the heat
  5. Peel the ginger and then add the blanched spinach, spring onion, ginger, mushrooms and a pinch of sugar, pepper and salt to the Kenwood Chef Sense and using the food processor attachment pulse for about 20 seconds until finely chopped.
  6. Remove the bone and cut the skin from the pork chop, then cut the pork into small pieces.
  7. Add the coriander, rice wine and Soy sauce into the food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds until combined.

To make the Wontons (aka Dim Sum)

  1. Line a baking tray with parchment paper
  2. Attach the pasta roller attachment to the Kenwood Chef Sense and set the pasta wheels to the widest setting (setting 1) and pass the dough through a few times, folding each time in order to maximise gluten development. Once it is no longer crumbly you no longer need to fold the dough.
  3. Reduce the thickness of the pasta wheel by 1 notch and pass the pasta through again.
  4. Dust with corn flour if it gets too sticky.
  5. Continue to do this until you get to notch 3 – it is thin enough when you can see the shadow of your finger through it when held up to the light.
  6. Place the  dough onto a floured surface and cover with a tea towel for 10 minutes to dry slightly, then flip it over and cover it again to allow the other side to dry,
  7. Cut the sheets into 6 inch squares. You can store these in the fridge for up to 3 days, to do this, layer the paste squares on top of one another making sure you place parchment paper in between them. Wrap in a plastic bag or cling film as tightly as you can to remove excess air.

To fill the squares

  1. Take one in your hand, place some filling into the centre
  2. Wet two of the edges with a little water and fold over
  3. Press firmly on the edges to seal
  4. Place on the baking tray then do the same to the next one

Sauce

  1. Chop the coriander and chilli and add to a small bowl
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine. After about 5 minutes it will be ready to set aside in a warm place to infuse

To cook

1.     Place a steamer of boiling water onto the hob, bring to the boil
2.     Place the dim sum into the steamer basket making sure they don’t stick together
3.     After around 3-5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon, dry on a tea towel then place in your serving dish and serve with the dipping sauce.

I decided to get the easy part done first so I made my spicy oil dressing (I added extra chilli as I like it hot) and left it to infuse.

Now the pasta dough. I placed my flour, salt, egg and water into my Kenwood Chef sense and mixed for 5 minutes, wrapped it in cling film and left it to rest for 20 minutes while I got started on the filling.

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The food processor was easy to attach. I was able to mix all my ingredients for the filling effortlessly.

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I saved the best for last, now it’s time to roll my pasta and make my wontons.  Surprisingly the pasta roller attachment was easy to set up thanks to the twist connection system.

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I was nervous when I first started rolling the dough but I felt relieved after passing it through a few times.  I got it as thin as I could and left it to dry slightly for 10 minutes. I cut it into squares and placed my filling in the centre.  Once done I added my wontons to a pan of boiling water for 5 minutes, drained and served.

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My finished dim sum was delicious and the dressing had a real kick to it (just how I love it).

I’m now inspired to make my favourite wonton soup, I think it’s more satisfying making it at home than ordering it at a Chinese restaurant.  I also think with practice I’ll be more confident making homemade pasta and say bye bye to shop bought ones! Thanks to Kenwood Disaster Chef.

Check out the contestant blogs to see how the others are getting on.

Stay tuned for Week 4 recipe challenge – Swiss Chard Tart.

I hope you’re inspired to try some of these recipes.  Please feel free to comment below.

Have a lovely weekend

Lola 🙂

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Hi there! I’m Lola, founder of Discover Green Beauty, a blog that is all about an organic, non-toxic approach to beauty, health and wellness.

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