[Wonton Soup] Very Easy Comforting Chinese Dumpling Soup from Scratch

It was a few weeks ago when Katherine, a good coworker of mine, told me that she loves wonton soup and she had a great wonton soup recipe she's been using for long time. She said it's "tellement facile et tellement bon," I was determined to try the recipe. Katherine sent me the recipe right on that day, and I've made it twice already. I feel that it will become a regular to our table since we all liked it. :) 

As Katherine guaranteed, it's amazingly easy and tasty. The only problem(?) is that you will end up with a kind of leftover Napa cabbage since you can't really buy a small Napa cabbage and you can't use all of it at once. :( 

One consolation is that Napa cabbage stays fresh for long time for you to make another batch of wontons even if you don't find any other recipe to use up Napa cabbage.

As you must know already, wonton is a type of dumpling commonly found in Chinese cuisine. You must be  able to order a bowl of wonton soup at any Chinese restaurant. If you like Chinese wonton soup, now you can make it on your own, from the scratch. 

 Here goes the recipe:

(adapted from Suzanne Liu's Soupe won-ton recipe)

Ingredients

(for 4 servings)

1 package of wonton wrapper(count 6 wonton dumplings per bowl) 

(For the filling)

300g minced pork

4 large slices of Chinese cabbage-type Napa

Salt and white pepper to taste

2 tsp sesame oil (optional)*

water in a small bowl, to moisten the inner edges of the wonton wrappers.

(For the broth)

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups vegetable broth

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 green onion, chopped

1 tsp sesame oil (optional)*

* I omitted sesame oil only because my younger son is allergic to sesame. Feel free to use it.

Directions

1. Blanch cabbage leaves for about 3 minutes.

Then, drain.

2. Dice the leaves of Napa cabbage into small pieces.

3. In a bowl, mix pork, diced Napa cabbage and season with salt and pepper.

4. This is my way to make wonton ravioli faster. Arrange all the wrappers on the kitchen counter and Place a small ball of filling on the center of each wrapper.

5. With the water prepared, dip a fingertip into water and run it across the inner edges of the wrappers. 

6. Fold the opposite to form a triangle edges.

7. Gather the outer edges by pressing firmly to close the wonton.

Then, it looks like this. (This is not an authentic way of folding though)

8.  Place the wonton ravioli in salted boiling water for 4 minutes 

Then, drain and set aside.

9. Heat chicken and vegetable broth, then season with soy sauce, salt and pepper.

10. Drop six wontons in each of soup bowls 

and pour the broth equally into four bowls and add a 1/2 teaspoonful green onion.

And Enjoy!

Isn't it really easy?

Also it's "tellement bon" :)

Happy cooking & eating!

Wonton Soup

[Shrimp Egg Rolls] Fresher and Healthier Egg Rolls Brimmed with Delicious Flavour

There was a popular Vietnamese restaurant near my previous work place. I went there once a month to have Vietnamese vermicelli noodle with an egg roll. One egg roll was $1.25 before tax. I refrained myself to have two, but it was really tasty! 

Actually it's surprisingly easy to make. As you imagine, homemade egg rolls are much healthier, because you are using clean oil, and also much fresher, because you make them to eat for the next meal. And it is, for sure, cheaper, too. Egg rolls make a great appetizer or a side dish to a meal. 

I'll get thinner spring roll wrappers sometime and introduce a very easy pork spring roll recipe. Egg rolls and spring rolls are very similar to make.

As I said above, egg rolls are very easy to make if you keep a couple of rules.

Rule # 1 - Your egg roll filling must be cooled off. You don't want to end up with soggy egg rolls.

Rule # 2 - Your egg roll filling must be completely drained.  You never want to end up with soggy egg rolls.

Here goes the recipe. I got the recipe from the back of the the egg roll wrappers. It's actually pretty good  and I've used it several times.

Ingredients

1 package egg roll wrappers 

1/2 lb shrimps

3-4 mushrooms, any kind

2 staks celery

1/2 onion

1/2 lb bean sprout

1-2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

salt

pepper

1 teaspoon  cornstarch

Sauce - Plum sauce (store-bought)

Directions

1. Chop mushroom, onion and celery.

2. Cut shrimp into small pieces. Drain any excessive liquid.

3. Heat a large pan over hight heat and add the cooking oil to coat the pan. Add the shrimp and cornstarch, and cook it over medium - high heat. Put shrimp aside.

4. Add another tablespoon oil. Then, continue stir-frying onion.

5. Add celery, and then mushroom and cook for another minute.

6. Add bean sprout and stir-fry for another minute.

7. Drain any excessive liquid and put aside to cool off for 20-30 minutes. You can prepare up to this step ahead.

Now you are ready to roll!

8. Place 1 tablespoon filling at the bottom corer of a wrap.

 Lift the bottom corner up and begin rolling until you reach halfway up.

9. Fold over the left side and the right sides towards the centre.

10. Continue rolling and finish up the roll, seal with a little bit of water and place seam side down. 

Now you are ready to fry.

12. Fill a wok with 2 inches of high-heat cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350°F (175°C) (or until a cube of bread will fry to golden brown immediately. Frying 5 to 6 egg rolls at a time, turning occasionally until golden brown about 90 seconds. 

12.  Place on paper towel to drain and cool.

Plum sauce is a nice pick for egg rolls. Buy any jar of plum sauce. 

It's much easier than it looks. Try!

When I make egg rolls at home, I make a lot to make sure I can eat as many as I want!

Long weekend started!

Happy Easter!

Shrimp Egg Rolls