Wontons
Ingredients
Aromatics
- 1 inch ginger finely minced
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 4 small shallots finely minced
- 4 stalks spring onions finely minced
Sauce
- 2 tbsp soya sauce
- 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp white pepper
- 1 generous drizzle onion oil if you have any on hand
Filling
- 300 g minced pork, beef or mix of choice should not be too lean
- 400 g napa cabbage / wong bok (½ a large cabbage) Chop finely & add 1 tsp salt. Set aside for 15 minutes before squeezing out & discarding the water.
- 100-200 g shiitake mushrooms Chopped finely
Wrapping
- 1 - 2 200g pack packaged thin, round (my preference, square works too) wonton wrappers any extra can be frozen
- 1 small bowl water for sticking
Instructions
- Chop and prepare your ginger, garlic, shallots, spring onions. Set aside.Mix all your sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Add the minced meat, 'squeezed' cabbage and shiitake mushrooms to a large bowl. Mix evenly and add your sauce mixture, ginger, garlic, shallots and spring onions. Mix once again.
- Prepare a clean, dry plate to put your folded wontons. Especially if freezing, you will want to keep them dry and separate. Even better would be to line the plate with some baking or wax paper just to make sure they don't stick. Keep your wrappers dry on one side and have the small bowl of water handy to seal the wontons.
- Place one wrapper in your palm, scoop 1 tbs of filling into the centre. Wet a finger and dab the water across an edge of the wrapper. Fold that side upwards into a half moon shape. Now you can just stick both sides together for a flat edge, or fold with pleats per the video below. In this case, only press the middle point together first and begin pleating one side and then the other. I usually just do 4-5 folder per side.Once you are done, press down firmly on the pleated edge to make sure it is securely closed. Place each one on the dry plate apart from each other. Do not stack them, ever!Depending on your wrappers and folding, you can adjust the amount of filling to your liking.
- If eating immediately, just add wontons to boiling soup for 2 - 3 minutes. They are small and will cook quickly. Especially after boiling, be gentle as they may are delicate!If freezing, I would put the whole plate in the freezer for at least an hour. Once frozen, you can divide them into portions and freeze in sealable bags. They will no longer stick at this stage. They can be cooked straight out of the freezer. When added to boiling soup, they still cook quickly - you can see that the skin will get translucent and wontons will float after a few minutes. If unsure, just cut one in half to check.
Notes
Many of us are used to having these in a side of wonton soup (i.e. just boiled in a nice broth), but you can definitely make this into a speedy one pot meal.
Trust me, be lazy and use a portion of your prepped wontons to beef up a bowl of instant ramen. Perfect for a speedy WFH lunch on a busy day.
Boil the amount of water suggested on the packet and add any seasoning / bouillon powder that comes with. Once the water is rolling, add the wontons and any green vegetable you have handy (e.g. baby bok choy, halved).
I would cook the wontons and vegetables through and remove from the soup before cooking the noodles in the same pot. This is just because they tend to be delicate and easily overcooked. Just leave them in the bowl you will eat from while the noodles cook and pour all the soup and noodles over when ready. You can definitely cook it all at once if you're confident about the cooking time.
Enjoy!