I think the ultimate Chinese comfort food is handmade wonton in soup. Warm, soothing, gingery broth..delicate, floating clouds. In Cantonese, wonton is pronouncedwun tun, which means swallowing clouds. The wonton wrapper is so delicate and thin. the wonton appear to be floating in the soup.
When I was in college, my girlfriends and I would get together and make hundreds of these and freeze them. It was cheap, easy to make and we had quite a bit of fun as we turned it into a dumpling party. Its the best quick meal, as wonton can be cooked directly from the freezer into simmering broth.
Theres all sorts of ingredients that you can use to fill wonton. Shrimp, ground beef, ground pork, cabbage, spinach, bamboo shoots, scallops, mushrooms.really, anything that you want. When snow crab or king crab legs are on sale, Ill make crab and napa cabbage wonton.
I normally eat wonton with a small dipping bowl of red vinegar and slivers of fresh ginger. Thats the Cantonese way!Add in some noodles to make wonton noodle soup and Im in heaven.
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Pork and Spinach Wonton Recipe Video
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Pork and Spinach Wonton Recipe
You can add cooked noodles to this dish to make wonton noodle soup - but just remember to cook the noodles in a separate pot of water (and not the broth) to prevent excess starch from the noodles from clouding up the good broth.
If you want, serve wonton with a dipping bowl of red wine vinegar and slivers of fresh ginger. Peel ginger, then use a vegetable peeler to peel paper-thin slices of ginger. Use knife to further chop into fine slivers. Combine with the red vinegar. To eat, place a wonton on your spoon. With chopsticks, pick up a few slivers of ginger and place on top of wonton. Eat!
Ingredients:
10-ounce package frozen spinach, defrosted
1/4 cabbage, grated on large holes of box grater
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound ground pork
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
16-ounce package of dumpling wrappers (about 50 wrappers), defrosted (see note)
For the slurry: 1/4 cup cool water + 1 tablespoon cornstarchDirections:
1. Squeeze as much water out of the spinach and discard the water (or water your plants!). Place the spinach and cabbage in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes. In large handfuls (or a cheesecloth), squeeze the water out of the cabbage/spinach and discard the water.
2. Add in the ground pork, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, wine, sesame oil and cornstarch. Mix well.
OPTIONAL: Heat up a small frying pan over medium heat, add in a touch of cooking oil. Cook a spoonful of the dumpling filling and taste. Adjust seasonings to the dumpling filling if you wish.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the water and cornstarch for the slurry.
4. Take one dumpling wrapper, place 1 teaspoon of the dumpling mixture in the middle. Paint the outer edge of the dumpling wrapper with the slurry. Fold wrapper over like in a half-moon shape and seal tightly all around. Make sure there are no air pockets or holes in the dumpling. Place folded dumpling on a clean, dry plate and cover with plastic wrap or barely damp towel to avoid drying out.
5. When dumplings are all folded, heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
TO STORE:
- If you want to freeze the dumplings, place all the dumplings flat on a plate. Do not crowd. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze. Once the dumplings are frozen, you can gather them up and store in freezer bag. This ensures that the dumplings freeze individually (otherwise if the dumplings froze and stuck together, it would be nearly impossible to cook.
- When ready to cook dumplings, they can go from freezer to pan. Just add an additional 2 minutes to cooking time.
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