Wonton soup for beginners

Anyone who follows my Twitter feed may have noticed that I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about wontons for these past few days. The reason? Well combined with the fact I’m a slight monomaniac, over the bank holiday weekend I was cooked some rather delicious wonton soup by a friend’s mum in between freezing my non-existent nuts off, and catching a nasty cold at the Leeds festival.

Lovely warm wonton soup

Said friend is of distant Chinese extraction, and he and his mum are dab hands at making their own wontons.  Sipping the hot, fragrant broth through chapped lips – the steam easing my bunged up nose, was a little bit like a scene from a Lemsip advert. And the little parcels of minced pork, punctuated with crunchy water chestnut and spring onion, were utterly lovely, keeping me full and warmed-up enough to face a day of harsh festival going.

Needless to say, as soon as I returned to the south (and to this, all of a sudden autumnal, weather) I just had to make some.  Having asked my friend’s mum to explain the recipe to me, I went in search of wonton skins (the pastry casing) and had no joy in Balham. Tooting, and it’s status as what middle class people call “vibrant” was the next obvious choice, so I hopped on the tube only to be faced with a vast array of Asian, but not Chinese or ‘oriental’ food shops.

After walking seemingly aimlessly down the road (having been looked at in most shops like a loony for asking for wonton pastry), I came across the Tooting covered market, and lo and behold, there was a lovely lady selling pretty much all the ingredients I needed at a very reasonable price.

I later found out from @Liz_Upton that the pastry is very easy to make without leaving your kitchen, which is good to know for next time. This is her recipe.

This is my recipe for wonton soup. It may not be the most authentic one out there (it was muddled together from memory and from what I like) but it was very delicious when I made it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the broth:

Bouillon or stock
Lemongrass, sliced thinly
Spring onion, chopped
Ginger, shredded
A dash of soy and sesame oil

For the wontons:

A packet of wonton skins (one packet does about 40)
Minced pork, 500g
A few juicy, cooked king prawns, finely chopped
Water chestnuts, finely chopped
Half an onion, finely chopped
Three spring onions, finely chopped
Half a green chilli (optional), finely chopped
One crushed garlic clove
A dash of lemon juice
A glug of soy
A dash of sesame oil

Method:
Mix all the filling ingredients up in a bowl, making sure the ingredients are as evenly distributed as possible:

Mince and filling ingredients

Then break of little bits of the mix, and roll them into neat little balls in the palms of your hands. Place them on the pastry (which you might want to stretch a bit to make it easier to seal):

rolled up filling on laid out pastry case

Now pull each opposite corner to meat each other, twist and seal. You’ll find a rhythm with this, and figure out which way suits you best. Then voila! You’ve got your wonton. Repeat 39 times…

Wonton!

Now to the soup. Get a big pan with a lid, place the ginger, lemongrass and spring onion in it.  Mix up your stock – I’d say about four tsps of bouillon per litre – and add to the pan with the soy and sesame oil. Heat over a medium flame for a few minutes to let the spices infuse.

Then add the wontons carefully – depending on the size of the pan and how many you’re cooking for do them in batches of about 20 each (you can freeze the rest). You want to allow 7-8 per person. Put the lid on and simmer gently for 10-12 mins, basting occassionally. During the last couple of minutes add some washed pak choi – cooked until softened and serve in soup bowls. YUM!

Soup, soup, a tasty soup