Wonton Soup

TungTung House inspired me to make Wonton Soup. I’ve always loved dumpling soups but I’d never actually made dumplings before. The February 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living had a feature with dumplings from all corners of the globe, and I’d been keeping that in the back of my mind. Today was the right day to grab supplies and give it a try.

Pork/Cabbage Wontons (Makes about 40 wontons)

1/2 lb ground pork
1 c finely chopped cabbage (Napa or Savoy)
1/4 c finely chopped leek
1 green onion, chopped
1 T minced cilantro
1 t minced fresh ginger
1/2 t sesame oil
1/2 t corn starch
1 T soy sauce
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t kosher salt
a generous pinch white pepper
12 oz pkg wonton skins, thawed overnight in the fridge if frozen (I found them frozen at my Asian market, and refrigerated in the Asian produce section of my grocery store, which to tell the truth is a bit upscale. Don’t know if they have them at Safeway…)

You’re going to want to make the full batch of wontons, and then freeze what you don’t cook for immediate use in soup. Place the extra wontons on a tray and cover with plastic, freeze. Once they are frozen, transfer them to a plastic container for storage. You can add them to soup frozen, they will just need to cook longer.

A note about the cabbage: I wanted to blanch it before adding to the filling mixture – I cut a wedge of cabbage and placed it in a pot of salted boiling water for 2 minutes, then fished it out and submerged it in cold running water to cool it quickly, then chopped it fine. I saved the pot of water to cook the wontons in later.

Combine the pork and vegetables, stirring with a fork. I sprinkled the seasonings over the bowl so they wouldn’t be all clumped up in one area, and stirred thoroughly to make sure they were all blended in. You want the mixture to be sticky and hold its shape, not too dry or too wet.

Open up the package of wonton skins and cover them with a clean damp towel. Have a small bowl of water handy and a cutting board or plate as a work surface. There are many ways to fold wontons – the simplest way is to place a teaspoonful of filing in the top half of the square, dampen the edges, and fold the wrapper in half. You can do this diagonally or as a rectangle. One step fancier is to stick the corners together, using a wet finger to seal them. ** One thing I will do differently next time is put my finished wontons on a paper towel or waxed paper because I was a little too messy with my water and the bottoms got sticky and adhered to the plate. But none of the ones I cooked actually fell apart so that’s good. Cover the wontons with plastic until ready to cook.

** I removed the link to “Wonton Central” because it crashed a friend’s computer, and appears to contain malware. Stay away from the following URL if you are searching the web for wonton soup:
http://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com

Super-Basic soup for wontons (serves 2)

3 cups chicken broth
1/2 carrot, sliced thin
1/4 leek, sliced on the diagonal
1/8 cabbage, cut in bite-sized pieces
(saute the veggies in a bit of oil before adding to the soup for extra yumminess.)
1/2 c. dried sliced shitake mushrooms
2 T soy sauce
1 T mirin
1 T rice vinegar
1 green onion, sliced, for garnish

Bring the broth to a boil. Add everything except the green onion. Return the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Keep the soup warm while you cook the wontons.

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in enough wontons to form a single layer, don’t crowd the pot – they cook quickly and you can do several batches. When the wontons come to the surface, add a cup of cold water. When they float up again, fish them out with a slotted spoon and place them in bowls. Add the soup and garnish with green onions.