Pork Wontons

[violette]

One of the kiosks at our Farmers' Market sells Pork Wontons...they are the best I've ever had. The filling is made with pork and spices. I've tried to get them to tell me what they put in it but of course it's their secret. Would anyone have an idea of what special ingredients are in chinese wontons. (they are deep fried YUUUMMMYY!!)

[shootingstar]

You can google deep fried wonton and find some recipes.

I can't recommend any deep fried wonton recipes. I confess I like the meat filled wontons to be boiled (or steamed) and served in a delicious light broth with green leaf veggies/seaweed.

Yea, I'm biased..by my mother's cooking style.

[SadieKate]

Time to go to bed. I read "pork pontoons."

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Time to go to bed. I read "pork pontoons."

Well at least you didn't read "pork pantaloons" or "pork wantons". :D

[SadieKate]

If "pork pontoons" came after only 1.5 glass of the loveliest Navarro Zin, should I try it again after 2 glasses? 2.5? This could be a fun experiment.

I am such a lightweight.

[Kimmyt]

Dumplings are super easy to make and so good! Steamed are much better than deep fried, you can taste the filling so much more without the oil flavor killing everything. Sometimes to get a bit of the crisp from frying I'll panfry mine after steaming.


I've also done baked before, which is similar to deep frying but the texture always seems a little chewy, so I usually just steam.


I make my dumplings with ginger, garlic, nappa cabbage (or leeks for a different flavor), ground meat, green onions, a bit of soy and salt and pepper. Maybe some chili sauce if I want them with a zing.

You can do any combination though... pork and leeks is good, chicken with mushrooms... anything!!

[violette]

This is just a treat. I only eat 3 when I buy them. I love pan-fried wontons, which are steamed and then done in the frying pan with a bit of olive oil until a bit crispy.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ok I'm getting really hungry now. I'm a pork wanton! :eek:

[crazycanuck]

I would like to make a healthy version of wonton soup. Is there such a thing & if so, does anyone have a recipe???

How do you make wontons from scratch?

[Pedal Wench]

I make my dumplings with ginger, garlic, nappa cabbage (or leeks for a different flavor), ground meat, green onions, a bit of soy and salt and pepper. Maybe some chili sauce if I want them with a zing.

You can do any combination though... pork and leeks is good, chicken with mushrooms... anything!!

I make a turkey burger with those same ingredients - but add some shitake mushrooms. Serve with hoisin sauce instead of ketchup. Massive yum!

[shootingstar]

Let's see here-- already 50 and still haven't made dim sum or wonton on my own.

But can only vaguely remember my mother's different pork or chicken wonton soups.

The recipes at this website, look the simplest (to me) and closest to real home cooking. Not the gourmet cooking websites with cooking sherry, sesame oil. Jeesh. Probably delicious but Chinese food cooking doesn't have to be that complicated.

http://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/pork-wonton-recipes.html

http://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/wontons.html As a child, I did help my mother shape the wontons with the real effect as shown on this page, under "storing wontons". It's easy to do.

My tendency to put into the minced/ground pork, finely minced green onion and water chestnut. Or you could use chives. Finely diced, rehydrated shitake mushroom mixed into meat is lovely but probably too complicated for you. (remember you can take pork meat and mince yourself, if you have time to pound the meat for 10-15 min. solid).

I didn't read all the recipe variations but would tend to make a vegetable stock and put into fresh spinch or chopped boy choy, napa cabbage or even watercress. Would boil the wontons separately in its own water and drain starchy water. Then put cooked wontons into soup to serve. The other option is to steam the wontons in their steamer and then add to soup stock-- again, probably too intimidating/time-consuming.

Just make sure the pork meat is cooked through. Or use minced chicken meat.

[crazycanuck]

Thanks for the cool link shootingstar!

[deeaimond]

crazaycanuk,

I'm assuming u'll need to go to an asian grocer to get the wonton wrappers anyways right?, so use the chance to pick up some other essential chinese cooking ingredients (can be used for multitude of other things, keep forever)
- sesame oil (make sure its pure sesame and not 'sesame flavoured oil)
- light soy sauce (buy a chinese brand, the goya and japanese brands taste different...)

real wontons are very simple. the complicated ones have more ingredients, are larger and called water dumplings.

wonton filling (i'm approximating for you, these are the proportions)

1/2 lb ground pork
2tblsps light soy sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp granulated sugar (can be any kind, white brown raw etc)
2tblsps chopped spring onion (scallions) (Whole thing, white part and green part, waste not want not)

the important part is to make sure when you mix it up stir it vigorously until it looks like a paste and is not lumpy.

then you can wrap a 1/2 tsp of the mixture in each wrapper (thats why u need like... 100 hahha)

place on a tray/sheetpan, cover with cling wrap until ready to cook. (don't pile into a bowl. they will all melt and clump together as the uncooked skins dissolve)

to cook just boil some salted water and drop them in one by one. they are ready when they rise to the top.

For broth, I just use a chicken stock cube with some added mustard greens for crunch and sweetness. 2 drops of sesame oil can't hurt either. oh and some more chopped scallions :D

[madscot13]

maybe because I was eating a hundred a week for a couple weeks but I started adding ginger to the filling and then ginger to the broth. I also like to add green onions and cilantro to the broth.

[crazycanuck]

Dee-I found some won ton wrappers on the weekend :). I stocked up on sesame oil a few weeks ago so i'm ok there too!

Thanks again for your recipe :)

[deeaimond]

maybe because I was eating a hundred a week for a couple weeks but I started adding ginger to the filling and then ginger to the broth. I also like to add green onions and cilantro to the broth.

oh yeah, a little grated fresh ginger is good too! not the dried powdered stuff.. that tastes different...

DEe:cool:

CrazyCanuck, u're most welcome. Now I feel like i should make some wontons too!!

[crazycanuck]

What did i do wrong? :( My wontons fell apart when i boiled them & the soup didn't really taste like much of anything.

? :confused:

[deeaimond]

boiling and falling apart
- might be your mixture was too damp and made the wonton skins break open.
- air in the wontons also cause them to burst
- water boiling too hard (like a constant rolling boil) also damage the skins
- too much filling in the wontons
- meat mixture not well mixed, too airy and broken up...

as for the broth... maybe not enough bullion cube? use more...
also might want to cook wontons in salted water.

really hard to tell you what went wrong exactly.. guess its not so easy after all.. sorry.. :(

Do u have any ideas as to where it might have gone wrong?

D

[crazycanuck]

Hmm..too much filling perhaps

I'll try again as the won ton wrappers expire next week!

[deeaimond]

oh, did u seal the part with the meat with a little water?



Hmm..too much filling perhaps

I'll try again as the won ton wrappers expire next week!

[shootingstar]

We always found using a small bit of egg white is helpful 'cause it's sticky to close the wonton.
I can see that deeiamond has real wonton making experience, based on her list of tips. I had a terrible habit of just helping my mother fill and close the wontons, then run off to watch tv, etc. :)

[deeaimond]

hahha... egg whites are unnecessary unless u're deep frying them. and yes. lots of cooking experience because i've been cooking independantly since I was 10 once we stopped having a domestic helper. My parents worked full time and I had to make sure there was dinner for siblings and myself, and parents when they got back from work. I figured out alot of things the hard way hhehhe..