Wor Wonton Soup...with homemade wontons!

These are the views I woke up to this morning...{sigh}

...It's April 19th, and I'm in the middle of a blizzard.  I haven't left the house today, but last night I had to run to the store and the roads were terrible.  At one intersection it took me half a block to stop my van.  I'm just grateful there was nobody in front of me.  The stores are closing down, the schools are closed, and I decided it was a soup day.  I love soup :)

Last night I had made wontons once the kiddos were in bed (which is the only reasonable time to make wontons).  So I set up my iPad, sat down at my kitchen island, turned on Netflix and watched an old episode of Beverly Hills 90210 while filling wonton wrappers.  It was actually quite relaxing.  Here's how you can do it too:

Filling Ingredients:

1 lb. ground pork (I had exactly 1.3 pounds and it was perfect)

1/4 c. dehydrated onion flakes (or fresh, finely chopped)

1 egg

1 T. soy sauce

1 clove garlic (or 1 t. minced)

1/2 t. fresh ginger (or 1/4 t. groud ginger)

1/4 t. white pepper

1/4 t. salt

You will also need a package of wonton wrappers (mine was 454g and worked out exactly).

In a mixing bowl, mix together all your filling ingredients. 

Your work stations should include a small container of warm water, your bowl of pork filling, and your pile of wonton wrappers.  Be sure to leaf through your wrappers before you start filling, to be sure they are separated properly, as they often come pretty stuck together.

This is what my wonton wrapper package looked like from the store.  It was 454g and contained 74 wrappers.  I had exactly the right amount to go with the filling.

With each wonton, begin by dipping your finger into the warm water and running it along two edges of the wonton wrapper.

Place a small spoonful of filling (approx. 1 t.) in the middle of the wrapper.

Fold wrapper in half, forming a triangle and press along the edges of the wrapper to seal the filling inside.

Wet the centre point of the triangle and fold in the other two corners as shown, pressing gently in place.

Place wontons onto a clean cookie sheet or other surface as you fill them.

Yields approximately 74 wontons.  Now, what you do from here is up to you, but whatever you do, be sure to act quickly, as the wontons will dry and crack in no time.  You can put them in a freezer bag and freeze them until you're ready to use them, or you could make wonton soup, or deep fry them.  I'm going to use half for soup, and the other half I'm planning to deep-fry, at my son's request.

So, if you plan to make soup with your wontons, here's what I do.  I made wor wonton soup, which is basically just wonton soup with a bunch of veggies.  Here's what I used:

Ingredients:

12 c. broth 

(chicken or beef, it's your choice.  I used half of each)

40 wontons

1/2 head cauliflower (chopped small)

4 large carrots (sliced diagonally)

10 mushrooms (quartered)

1 floret of broccoli (chopped small)

4-5 green onions (finely chopped)

1/2 package bean sprouts

For my broth today, I used about four cups of beef broth I had in the freezer, boiled from beef bones.  If you have the time and resources, broth from chicken or beef bones is always so yummy.  Because I only had about 4 cups, I substituted the rest using water and bullion.

Bring broth to a boil.  

Add wontons, cauliflower, carrots and mushrooms and boil for 8 minutes.

Add in broccoli, green onions and bean sprouts.  Boil for 2 more minutes.

And that's it!  It's pretty simple, and extremely delicious.  I just finished my first bowl, and it warmed me right up on this exceptionally cold spring day.

This makes a large pot of soup, so invite some friends over and enjoy!