Saturday night's recipe: Ching's won tons

A few weeks ago I bought myself Ching's Chinese Food in Minutes with some birthday money. I'd tried one or two of the recipes before, round at a friend's for dinner, and they were so delicious - and, she insisted, easy - I'd wanted the book since.

So far, I'm really enjoying it. I've cooked a couple of things from it, and keep going back to it for more. I've given it to my Dad for his birthday, alongside a big box of ingredients he'd need to go to a Chinese supermarket to get, ordered from the web. When I bought his box, I decided to buy myself one too, so now I have everything I need.

And on Saturday night, we decided to try her won ton recipe. I love won tons and dim sum -they're my favourite part of a Chinese takeaway, and I was really excited about trying them at home.

The recipe is here and I found it very easy. The only ingredient you couldn't pick up at any supermarket were the won ton wrappers themselves - all the rest you'll be able to get at your local supermarket.

The hardest part was chopping everything up small - we used pork escalopes because we didn't want a whole pound of mince. I should have used the food processor much earlier in the process than I did.

Making the won tons up was fun - you can see the results below. Mine are on the chopping board, The Husband's on the plate. His are more beautiful, but took longer!

Boiling them up was quick and fun - we waited until they rose to the surface, a sign they were cooked, although I found they stuck a bit to the pan and some needed a nudge with a spoon.

And here's the end result! We only made the soy, cider and sesame sauce, not the chilli one, for simplicity and to limit the amount of oil involved. In fact, I think this was a mistake, as without the chilli the dumpling filling was just a tiny bit bland - could have done with the ooomph. But it still tasted and looked great.

We decided to make the full quantity for two people as a main (we'd had some fruit and veg at other points in the day, I promise), but our pack had 30 wrappers, and the recipe catered for 36 won tons, so the remainder I fried off and fed to the cat. He rather liked it!

I was amazed at how relatively easy they were to make, and will make them again. I'd even consider making them as a dinner party starter, as almost all the work can be done in advance, and the final boiling is so quick and easy.