Cantonese Wonton Soup Recipe (廣東雲吞)

This wonton soup is a comfort food. The wontons are silky, slippery, the stock is aromatic. These Cantonese wontons are very popular in Hong Kong. The fillings of Cantonese wontons are mainly prawns (shrimps) mixed with minced pork. Yellow chives seem to be a must to be added. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to find any yellow chives throughout the year in Australia. So I just used spring onion (shallot), adding a fresh green flavour though. The flavours of the soup are rich and the texture of wontons is very tender.

Makes 30

Ingredients:

• 150g minced pork (or called ground pork)
• 175g medium green prawns (shrimp), peeled and deveined
• 30 fresh wonton wrappers (1 packet, available at Asian store)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 bunch Chinese vegetable (Choi Sum or baby pak choy)
• yellow chives (or chopped spring onion) for garnish
• A dash of sesame oil

Seasoning for pork:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• a pinch of white pepper

Seasoning for prawns (shrimps):

• 1/2 tsp chicken powder (chicken bouillon powder)
  
• 1 Tbsp egg white
• a pinch of salt
• pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Marinate minced pork for at least 20 minutes. Put pealed and deveined prawn under cold running tap water for 5 to 10 minutes. This step will make the prawn meat crunchy. Drain well and pat dry with paper towels. Dice prawn meat into 1.5cm cubes to make about 175g. Blend the prawn well with the seasoning. Cover and chill them for 15 minutes.
2. Stir chilled prawn meat in minced pork. Prepare 4 tablespoons of water in a little bowl for wrapping wontons. Place one rounded teaspoon of prawn and minced pork filling in center of wonton wrapper. Dip a finger in the little bowl of water and run along bottom edges of wrapper to moisten. Gather the corners of the wrapper, lightly twist to enclose filling. Repeat with the remaining filling and wonton wrappers. Set aside.
3. Heat chicken stock in a large saucepan on high and bring to a boil. Cook Choi Sum or baby pak choy in the stock. Usually I place the hard stems in the stock first, then followed by the leaves. Cook until softened. Add salt, white pepper and sesame oil to taste. Set aside.
4. Use another wok or saucepan to cook wontons with boiling water. Carefully place wontons in the boiling water, stir immediately and don’t let them stick to the bottom or stick together. When the wontons float to the surface, that means they are cooked. Transfer the cooked wontons out with a strainer and divide them between bowls. Ladle over chicken stock and serve with vegetables. Sprinkle spring onion or yellow chives if desired.

Note:

1. You can just buy minced pork from any supermarket. Usually I use pork neck and mince it with a food process by myself. Jut rinse pork and pat dry with kitchen papers. Cut into chunks and mince the pork meat in a mini food process.
2. The water will become cloudy after cooking wontons. And that’s why we used another saucepan to cook wontons. Hong Kong people like clear soup going with wontons.

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