whine & dine

Wonton, or yun tun in Mandarin, can literally be translated to mean “swallowing clouds”, and I think that’s a damn good way to describe eating wonton. The little dumplings of minced pork and shrimp, wrapped in silky smooth wrappers and boiled are one of my favourite chinese dishes. A friend of mine who loves them just as much once ate so many that she’s been off the stuff for 3 months and counting…

Anyway, Marvin has requested that I post my recipe following the jubilant declaration I made last night, and here it is. Or as close as I can get to a recipe anyway – since I didn’t measure anything, and last night was the first time I made it. :p Okay since I don’t have any measurements I’m just going to write it in fluid English.

This recipe is for the “dry” style of wonton noodles – they can also be served in soup which should be quite self-explanatory.

I first made the chicken stock – this part is easy enough. Boil one chicken – I’d recommend chopping it up into quarters at least – in erm a lot of water. You need a lot, ‘cos I made the mistake of boiling my noodles in the same soup that I wanted to drink, and the flour and starch from the noodles ended up making the soup very thick. Throw in two tomatoes (quartered), 2 carrots (roughly chopped), 1 white onion (quartered), some spring onions and a leek. Season with sea salt and finely ground white pepper (or you can use white peppercorns in a strainer), soya sauce, shao hsing chinese wine, and toasted sesame oil. This is pretty much the way any chicken soup is made, but with a slightly chinese twist (the wine and sesame oil). You can also add corn for other sorts of chicken soup, but I don’t really like the sweet flavour in wonton mee.

For the dumplings, I mashed up 200g of minced pork, 5 peeled and deveined tiger prawns, 3 fresh water chestnuts (peeled and finely chopped), about a teaspoon each of minced ginger and garlic. Season generously with soya sauce, sesame oil, finely ground white pepper and some sea salt. Add a small splash of shao hsing chinese wine, and mix thoroughly to combine. This gave enough filling for 30 wontons (and I don’t like the kind that are very giam siap and only have a smidge of filling), as well as 6 meatballs (cos I ran out of wrappers). Whatever you don’t use immediately can be covered with clingfilm and frozen – I’m not sure exactly how long they’ll last though. (When cooking the frozen wontons, don’t defrost them first – just add 2 minutes to the cooking time of the fresh ones.)

Lay your (square) wrapper out on a plate, and draw an imaginary line which divides it into 2 triangles. Place a small ball of filling just below the line, and use a wet finger (ha) to draw around the perimeter with water – this will help the dumplings to seal shut (you don’t need to use egg or anything like that). Fold the top triangle over, and pinch it shut at the apex of the triangle, and slowly squeeze out the air from the middle out to each side before sealing it shut. You want to make sure that there is no air inside the dumplings, as air bubbles will expand when cooking and cause the skin to break.

If you aren’t as lazy as I am, you can always pleat the top but I couldn’t be bothered last night. Anyway you eat them so fast that I hardly think it’s worth it. Unless I’m throwing a dinner party or something, I guess.

While making the dumplings, keep all the completed wontons and unused wrappers under a slightly damp cloth to keep them from drying out.

Fill a small pot with soup (strain out any solids) for drinking, and to cook the wontons in. Reserve the rest. Bring it to a boil, then drop in the wontons to cook. The dumplings take about 3-5 minutes to cook – or prod it gently with a chopstick, it should be firm. Ladle 4 or 5 into a small bowl with some soup.

Before cooking the noodles (you can find them easily in the refridgerated section of any cold storage or NTUC I think), prepare a bowl with the following: about 2 tsp of light soya sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil (or a few good shakes of the bottle haha), 1 tsp of chilli (the kind that comes in chilli oil), another 1 tsp of the chilli oil, some finely ground black pepper, a small splash of chinese wine, and 1 tbsp of the soup. Cook the noodles – while stirring vigorously – in the reserved soup, until tender (about 3 minutes in rapidly boiling soup should do it). Strain them quickly and mix thoroughly with the seasoning in the bowl. If the noodles look too dry, add a couple of tbsp of soup and mix again. Garnish with some finely chopped spring onions, and serve with the wonton, some slices of char siew, and some blanched green vegetables.

Enjoy!

Note: The wontons can alternatively be served deep fried.