Memories and Homemade Wontons

Some of my earliest and fondest food memories came from watching and helping my mom make wontons.  It was more than the food experience or the delicious shrimp and pork dumplings.  It was a family ritual and wrapping wontons with my mom was something my siblings and I loved doing. We would get really excited when we found out that mom was planning a wonton session.  I'm hoping in a few years when Baby A is old enough, she and I will share the same experiences.  In the meantime, I have to practice lots so that I'm well prepared to share my recipe with Baby A.  Since my wife K is allergic to shrimp, I made 2 batches of wontons here.  I have a ground pork and enoki mushroom wonton and a more traditional shrimp with pork wonton.  For the soup base I've deviated from the traditional stock of shrimp shells, pork bones and dai dei fish (dried flounder).  I went with chicken bones, celery, onion, and dai dei fish.  I've provide the recipes for the filling and the stock here.  You can buy wonton wrappers from most supermarkets.  To wrap, there are different methods, but the easiest to do is to put the wrapper in the middle of your hand, fill the middle with a little filling, wet the the sides of the wrapper and fold together and squeeze the skins together to make a little pouch with the filling in the middle.

I like these wontons in the soup on its own with a little scallion and cilantro.  I also like serving these with noodles in the soup to make it a hearty lunch.  Cook the wontons and noodles separately in a boiling pot of water, drain and then pour hot soup over the wontons and noodles.

Pork and Enoki Mushroom Wontons
1 lb of pork shoulder
1 teaspoon of corn starch
1 teaspoon of Chinese cooking wine
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of salt
large pinch of pepper (preferably white)
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
drizzle of sesame oil
1 small egg
1 small package of enoki mushrooms coarsely chopped

Hand chop the 1 lb of pork shoulder until its a coarse ground.  You want it almost like ground meat but some little pieces that will give it some bite.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients together and its ready to fill.

Shrimp and Pork Mushroom Wontons
1/2 lb of pork shoulder
1 lb of medium sized shrimps peeled
1 teaspoon of corn starch
1 teaspoon of Chinese cooking wine
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of salt
large pinch of pepper (preferably white)

1/2 teaspoon of sugar
drizzle of sesame oil
1 small egg


 Hand chop the 1/2 lb of pork shoulder until its a coarse ground.  Chop the peel shrimp coarsely.  You want it small enough to fit into the small wrappers but still a decent size you to give you a bit of bite.  The shrimps should be cut to about the size of the tip of your pinky.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients together and its ready to fill.

Too cook wontons, bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Put wontons into boiling water, careful  not to overfill or crowd the pot.  Work in batches if necessary.  Once the wontons float, they are ready.  

Wonton Soup Stock
Chicken bone/carcasses from 2 chickens
1 piece of dai dei fish (dried flounder) - found in Chinese herb aisle of most Chinese food markets
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 medium onion chopped
Light soy sauce
Salt and pepper
Sesame oil

Put the chicken bones into a pot of cold water. 
Bring the pot of water with chicken up to a boil. 
Discard the water and rinse the chicken in cold water.
Put the cooked chicken bones, dai dei fish, onions and celery into a pot with 5 litres of water.
Bring to a boil and turn down the heat immediately to medium-low and let the stock simmer for 1.5 hours.
Strain the soup stock and discard the bones and veggies.
Season the soup stock with salt and pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil.