The Green Pancake and Shanghai Dumplings!

So as previously mentioned in my below post, I went cooking crazy! This green pancake is called "Kueh Dada" - not sure exactly what it's origins are! But basically it is a coconut, pandan flavoured pancake that you cook - make sure it is fairly thin and wrap it up with some fresh coconut that has been cooked with this brown sugar called Gula Malaka. It's really nice, very rich and not for the faint hearted! :)




I love Shanghai Dumplings - must be the combination of the grated ginger, chinese wine (otherwise known as Shaoxing cooking wine), sesame oil and the soya sauces - all mixed up with minced pork and chives and/or spring onion! Leave to marinate for awhile, and then wrap it up with either storebought or home made pastry. I actually made the pastry here - because well, if I can, I like to make things from scratch which at times is hard - ie curry pastes etc which require 101 ingredients, a pounder and other stuff! Hahaha! But here, all you need is flour and water, hands and patience :)

This pastry turned out sticky - so please make sure if you're not using gloves, wash your hands thoroughly before handling. Once made, let it sit for awhile and I still found it sticky, so use flour to make it easier to handle and roll it into a "log" and cut into slices which you then roll out using a floured rolling pin. Wrap the minced meat in it, lightly oil a non-stick frying pan, and lay down the Shanghai dumplings and you'll hear the satisfying sounds of a soft sizzle, add water for more sizzle, cover, which acts as a steamer till the pastry turns colour - it would originally be white as dough is, which when cooked turns to a light translucent colour... not exactly clear, but perhaps more like cooked wanton skin colour! :)

Serve with vinegar and thinly sliced ginger! YUM!

p.s. There is an art to folding these dumplings - mine looked a little odd... more like mini curry puffs I thought! :P Practice makes perfect I guess! :)