Saturday lunch: homemade roll and cranberry dessert

To make a Chinese style roll, the first and the most important thing is, of course, the wrapper, which is very very thin.

(1) Boil a pot of water, let cool for 2 minutes. Slowly add 2/3 cup hot water into 2 cup all purpose flour, blend well, and form a dough. Cover, let sit for 1 hour. Knead to have a smooth dough.

(2) Roll dough into a long cylinder, cut into 16 small doughs. Press each small dough with palm, and roll dough flat. Brush oil on each dough, stack four doughs and roll them together as thin as possible.

(3) Heat fry pan under medium-low until the pan is very hot. Place rolled wrapper dough in the pan, cover. When some bubbles appear on the surface of wrapper, turn it over and cover again until new bubbles appear (don't overcook). Transfer hot wrapper on the plate, let cool a little bit and then separate the four layers (each layer is one wrapper). Serve warm.

This lunch, I made stir-fried onion roll:

Cranberry dessert:

Pie crust is my favorite, an easy and neat procedure to get tasty dessert.

(1) In a mixing bowl, blend 1/4 cup cake flour and 3/4 cup all purpose flour;

(2) Cut 4 tbsp soft butter in small portions and sprinkle evenly over the flour mixture;

(3) Mix with dough blender to have all flour covered with butter;

(4) Sprinkle ice water (I put some ice cubes in the water to maintain the temperature) one tbsp at a time on the flour mixture, shake the bowl to help mealy flour absorb the moisture, totally, 5 tbsp ice water is required;

(5) Although the dough doesn't look like a real dough, with bits and pieces and don't fully hold together, don't hesitate, stop, put down the bowl, and transfer into zipper sandwich bag, press out gas, and seal the bag;

(6) Quickly form the "dough" into a ball and pat into a flat disk, chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (I chilled them overnight).

(7) Roll pie crust flat and thin, cut into six portions, wrap cranberry pie filling in each portion, make a cut on the top.

(8) Bake at 375F for 35 minutes.

Boned pork hock roll

Pork hock is one of my favourites, no matter baked, simmered with soy beans, braised or cooked with soy sauce. One of the popular ways to make pork hock as a main course in festival is boned pork hock roll.

(1) Four pork hocks are boned with sharp knife, reserve bones;

(2) Rinse boned hocks and season with 6 tbsp salt, let stand in the fridge overnight;

(3) Rinse seasoned hocks to remove excess salt;

(4) Divide meat so that it can evenly distribute;

(5) Place some slices of carrots, roll hocks tightly to form tube and tie with kitchen twine;

(6) In a 5 qt. pot, add 2L water, put in rolled pork hock and bones, bring to boil;

(7) Remove foam, add two white part of green onion, two anise stars (optional), two pieces of ginger root and some drops of lemon juice, reduce heat to medium-low, let simmer for about 1 hour or until cooked through;

(8) Transfer rolls to wire rack, let fully cool;

(9) Strain soup through a sieve to remove all solid ingredients including bones -- soup can be used as stock;

(10) Remove twine, and slice hocks and arrange them on a platter, garnish with chopped parsley flakes.

The skin of hocks tastes very chewy, hocks are not greasy, yummo!

Turkey roll

Most of the time, I hesitate to bring a whole turkey back home, no matter how big the turkey is, it is definitely much larger than chicken. It is not easy to handle this, time consuming and too much leftover for a family with only two members. And, this is an era of green, using
several hours even half a day to bake is not environmental friendly in deed.

One day, I drew a conclusion which seems to change our life, that is, the reason that cooking a whole turkey is so time consuming is BONE. So, why don't I cook boned turkey and at the same time, making a stock with calcium?

In another one hour, I carried a whole turkey from our local supermarket :-D

As the first important step, BONE THE TURKEY, very clean skeleton, eh?

Prepare marinated sauce: 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 2~3 tsp salt, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup water.

Marinate halved boned turkey in sauce overnight (keeping in the fridge).

Place peeled carrot in the middle of turkey, roll tightly to form a long tube and tie with kitchen twine. Wrap with aluminium foil and seal the two sides.

Preheat oven to 400F，bake for about 1 hour or until instant-thermometer registers 160 - 165F.

Open one side carefully, transfer sauce to a bowl.

Let turkey rest for 10 minutes.

Transfer turkey to a cutting board, remove twine and slice.

Place slices on a platter, drizzle sauce on and garnish with parsley flakes. It can also be served with cranberry compote.

For leftover turkey, drizzle sauce on and reheat in microwave oven or sauté with vegetables / mushrooms.