Wonton Soup

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I attempted to make my very first wonton soup last week. Wonton soup is one of my favourite meals, and its always so cheap no matter where you go! But the challenge is finding a soup thats up to scratch.

Sometimes the wontons are tasteless or have little to no filling in them and are just little pieces of slimy wonton pastry floating in your soup. Other times the wontons can be sensational and full of flavour but the soup resembles hot water with some bokchoy in it. I figured the best thing about making my own was that I had the power to control how much flavour the soup should have.

I decided on chicken wontons as my flatmate isn't very fond of pork. I used a filling that I had used with a girlfriend once for a Thai dinner party. So the flavours were a little blended because I used a basic Hong Kong recipe for the soup.

In my food processor (one of my favourite kitchen appliances, could not live without it!) I put some breast chicken, cloves of garlic, fresh coriander, water chestnuts and some light soy, this was my wonton filling. For the soup I used some chicken stock, shaoxing rice wine, light soy and some fresh ginger, let that simmer on the stove while i prepared the noodles and vegies.
I always ask for the flat rice noodles with my soups, I find the egg or Hokkien noodles too heavy, especially along side the wontons. I like my soups to be light and fresh. I chopped up some bokchoy, spring onions and some beanshoots and placed these in a bamboo steamer with the noodles. I buy the fresh noodles out of the fridge in any Asian grocery, I find that the dried ones tend to break and fall apart while you are trying to eat them.

So now I was finally ready to put it all together. I had a little pot of water boiling and began to cook the wontons. While they were cooking, the vegies and noodles went over the top of the soup to just semi-steam them so I wasn't adding hot soup to cold noodles and vegies. Once the wontons were ready they went into the bowl with the noodles and vegies and then I poured the hot soup over the top.

All in all, it was fairly easy and I'm still feeling pretty proud of my achievement. My soup was flavoursome and required no additional flavouring (I have a tendency to add soy to soups that aren't tasty enough) and the coriander in the wontons added the freshness to the soup that I love so much!

The photos are not so great, I'm still trying to learn how this whole food photography thing works. If you would like to try my interpretation of wonton soup, recipe is below, enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Wontons

1 Chicken Breast, skin off

Small can of water chestnuts

2 Cloves Garlic

Small handful Coriander

1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

Wonton Wrappers

For the Soup

Approx 6 cups of chicken stock

Small piece of Ginger, sliced

2 tablespoons of Shaoxing Rice Wine

2 tablespoons of Light Soy Sauce

Sesame Oil (Optional)

Bokchoy

Spring Onions

Beanshoots

Fresh Flat Rice Noodles

Method

Prepare the wonton filling by placing the chicken (chopped into chunks), garlic, coriander, and water chestnuts into a food processor. Process until combined, but don't over process or else your chicken will become like paste, you still want some chunks in there.

Wrap the wontons and seal closed with a little egg, ensuring you push out any excess air. To learn how to wrap wontons, see this site. They show lots of different ways to fold your wontons, great if your entertaining.

Place the stock, soy, ginger, and rice wine in a stock pot, bring to the boil and then let it simmer until you are ready to serve.

Wash and chop up enough bokchoy, spring onions and beanshoots for each serve, the amount you use is totally up to you. Add these to a bamboo steamer along with some fresh rice noodles and place on top of your stock pot of soup.

Boil a small pot of water, when boiling, gently place wontons in the water. They will sink at first, when they begin to float to the surface they should be ready for serving.

Place your wontons, vegies, and noodles into a serving bowl and ladle soup over the top. Add a little sesame oil if you wish.