Friday, September 3, 2010

Wonton Dumplings

I still remember my first attempt at trying to make Chinese food as a teenager in my mom's pristine Italian kitchen, and the horror on her face at the maelstrøm that ensued.  Thank goodness for her patience, and for not banishing me from her kitchen forever.  Although I waited years before re-entering the forays of Chinese cuisine at home, I continued to enjoy one of my favorite soups in restaurants.  As it turned out, it also became one of my mom's preferred soups. With time and experience on my side, I  came to master the production of  hundreds of these little dumplings on my own kitchen table, much as my mom did with her ravioli. As a working mother, with school age children at the time, I always had a batch in the freezer and containers of  chicken broth ready to make a quick soup during our cold Canadian winters.  I would simply re-heat the dumplings in boiling water for five minutes and then add them to hot chicken broth where they would finish cooking. A delicious garnish of fried garlic slices and chopped green onions completes the dish.  


Pork Filling:
Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1 egg
1/2 cup water chestnuts (drained)
4 green onions
1/2 teaspoon finely minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce (Kikkoman)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

In a food processor finely chop the water chestnuts, shallots and ginger.  Add the ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil to blend.  Add the pork and egg. Pulse to incorporate the ingredients. Makes about 86 dumplings  (Any left-over meat is delicious grilled in a pan and served with a little salad on the side)






Won Ton wraps come in 14 ounce packages and can be found fresh in Asian grocery stores or frozen in all major grocery stores
Place a teaspoon of the pork mixture on the center of each dough sheet


 and brush some water along all the edges.

Take one corner of the dough and fold into a triangle
With your finger pat gently to remove any air pockets, and press the edges to seal the dough
Taking the two tips of the longer part of the dough triangle, turn the tips backwards to meet. Lightly wet the tip with water and pinch together
Place the finished wonton dumplings on a parchment lined pizza tray or cookie sheet and freeze.  When frozen, transfer to a plastic container, layering the dumplings between parchment paper to prevent them from sticking together.
The wontons should be cooked in boiling water for 5 minutes, drained, and then added to boiling chicken broth.  Continue to cook the dumplings for an additional 5-7 minutes and  garnish with green onion and fried garlic slices.


7 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, thanks so much for this! I always have chicken broth in my freezer, and I vow to make a batch of these spectacular little dumplings this fall. Perfect cooler weather food! Why do you have to boil the dumplings before adding to the soup (i.e. could they not just boil in the soup itself)? I'm sure there's a good reason, I just can't think of it!

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  2. Ever since I can remember, my mom always insisted on boiling the noodles before adding them to the broth. Boiling them in water removes the surface starches, and as a result does not cloud the broth.

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  3. Nice post.

    I'd like to share my dumpling posts with you, which includes dumpling wrapper design. Hope you'll enjoy.

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  4. Hi, I checked out your post and feel totally intimidated. They are very impressive!

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  5. @Anna C: Thanks for checking out my posts. I'm glad that you liked them. I have never tried dumplings in square wraps. Your simple dumpling design is something new to me. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Thanks for the excellent tutorial Anna, like I said on FN gallery, totally remind me of tortellini LOL. I know these will be a huge hit here, I think the kids would have as much fun assembling them as they would eating them.

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  7. Hi Ava,
    Great idea,I'm sure your kids will enjoy making the wontons and eating them too. They would probably love them fried and served with a sweet cherry sauce. By the way, I could have probably used those extra little hands to help making mine. Do you hire them out? lol

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