Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

The air is crisp, the trees are bald.  Builders start constructing the booths for the Herbstmesse.  It is time for blut and leberwurst. 

PS:  Rhyming is hard.

Servings: 60-80 pieces depending on how thin you make them to be.

That’s right. You read that correctly.

Go ahead, call me names. I am indeed a nutter. Fuschia Dunlop warned me. She said, making wonton wrappers which are thin yet strong is an art not to be attempted by casual cook. I presumptuously thought I was above the casual cook. Serves me right for being so cocky, I hear you mutter.

But, oh, what great reward. I’ve been looking for really silky and thin wrappers and all the store-bought ones never meet the standard. This is it. Perfect wonton wrapper at my beck and call.

One to always get herself into trouble, I think I’ll repeat this sadistic experience until I can say I’m at ease with the whole process. For you, I can only say that if you think your life is perfect and you want to spoil it a little so that it’s not jinxed, go ahead and make this. Add a little suffering to your good little life. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Note: it’s best to use the wrapper quickly. Put in your filling and dump the wrapped wonton immediately into boiling water. Have someone else fish it out the moment it’s cooked and keep the wonton warm on a plate drizzled with oil to prevent sticking. Wrapping the whole batch then cooking them won’t work as the juice from the meat permeates the wrappers and makes them wet and sticky as I painfully found out.

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Everywhere I look these days, everyone talks about this signature recipe from a chef who revives the old British habit of eating everything from nose to tail. Of a pig’s, that is. Chef Fergus Henderson’s Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley salad was said to be one of Antony Bourdain’s current death row meals. Everyone from the New York Times’ Mark Bittman to obscure and amateur food bloggers  heap praises to this dish. Naturally, I was intrigued.
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