Makes about 24
For the filling
The meat of two pheasant thighs minced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stem of lemongrass – outer layers stripped and very finely chopped
½ inch ginger, peeled and chopped
2 spring onions, washed and finely chopped
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1 tsp organic sesame oil
1 red chilli, finely chopped – optional
Chop the garlic, lemongrass, ginger and spring onion finely by hand before making into a paste with the other ingredients, bar the pheasant, in a food processor.
Season the pheasant meat with this paste and leave to marinate for at least an hour or so.
For the dough
250g organic white spelt flour
125ml cold water
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp. sesame oil
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl to make a dough. Work and knead the dough for 2 or 3 minutes until it becomes smooth then leave to rest, covered, in the fridge.
To assemble
On a lightly floured surface roll out a quarter of the dough as thinly as you can without it becoming fragile – ideally just about thin enough to see through but without risking it breaking. Cut the rolled out sheet in half and place teaspoonfuls of the pheasant mix at intervals on one half. Cover with the top half of the dough and press down gently around each pile of filling. Be sure to exclude air from the filling. Then, using a small pastry cutter cut out the filled wontons and store them on a lightly floured surface. Repeat until you run out of ingredients.
Fry the wontons in hot vegetable oil (180C) for about 3 minutes – take one from the fryer and check it is cooked by cutting it in half – and drain on kitchen paper for a few minutes before serving with the dipping sauce. Alternatively, the wontons can be steamed or poached in a spicy broth.
Dipping Sauce
50mil x Soy sauce
20 x Rice vinegar
2 x juice of 2 limes
1 x clove garlic crushed
1 x tsp Fish sauce
1 x tsp Brown sugar
1 x bunch Spring onions
1 x tsp sesame seeds
In a saucepan warm the vinegar and sugar till dissolved.
Leave to cool, then add lime, soy, fish sauce, chilli and garlic.
Toast the sesame seeds.
Finely chop spring onions.
Add toasted seeds and spring onions to sauce.