October Daring Cooks Pho

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

This recipe was a lot of fun for me to make. I've been on an Asian style cuisine kick for a while now so this challenge was perfect.

I will admit that the spice combo was a little scary at first but after the first bite, wow. It was really good. I make my pho with shrimp instead of chicken. I was worried it would taste off, but it did not. The spices and the shrimp blended perfectly.

The long version of Jaden's recipe can be found here.

This challenge was a bit different this time it that there was a bonus dessert won ton recipe. Basically we were told to throw caution to the wind (not in these words) and create a won ton with a dessert flavor and in any shape we like. I created these hazelnut filled won tons. I hope you enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 1 package won ton wrappers
• 8 oz chopped, toasted hazelnuts
• 6 T to 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 an orange, juiced and zested
• Oil for frying
• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 T milk

Method

Pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor (or in my case a small coffee grinder and in batches) until very finely ground. Almost like a hazelnut butter. Add the juice and zest of the orange. Next add the brown sugar. Mix thoroughly with your hands. This should form a very thick paste.

Drop the mixture by heaping half teaspoons onto the corner of a won ton wrapper. Roll up eggroll style. Place under a damp cloth and continue making the rest of the won tons. I had some mix left over for snacking and that's fine by me!

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan until it reaches 350 degrees F. Fry the won tons until golden brown and drain on paper towels.

Mix the powdered sugar and the milk to form a very thin glaze. You can add more milk if you need to. Drop each won ton it and let the excess glaze fall off back into the bowl. Congratulations! You've now made whatever this is.

When making this recipe, I didn't keep the best of notes. So sorry :( If you have a fix for it, drop me a line.

On a side note, what's that white stuff? Well originally I was going to use candy coating. Bad idea. It didn't taste all that good so glaze it is.