I've been meaning to make these at home for a very long time. Today I finally found the time and have gathered all the ingredients.
They are:
For the dumpling stuffing mixture:
300g minced lean pork
200g raw prawns, chopped roughly
1 egg
1 heaped tsp corn starch
3 chopped spring onions
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp salt
A few shakes of white pepper
5 drops of toasted sesame oil
1 tsp light soy sauce
Simply mix all these ingredients together with your hands.
There are a lot of home cook recipes out there, that add all sorts of vegetables to the mix, but I want the most authentic Chinese restaurant taste, that I crave. So no extra veg in my mix!
I have bought dumpling wrappers from an Asian grocery. They usually come frozen. There are thin ones or thicker ones, round or square ones. The shape doesn't matter, but thinner ones are better for this purpose.
Next it's filling the wrappers. After defrosting, gently pull a wrapper off, lay it out in one hand and with a spoon gather a small amount of stuffing and place it on the middle of the dumpling skin. Have a cup of water nearby to dip the spoon in and use the edge of the spoon also to lightly wet the outer edge of the wrapper. Then fold over and seal. You only need to wet one side, to stick it to the other side. It seems a bit fiddly at first but I promise it gets easier as you go!
There are many ways to shape wontons, but however you do it, it's going to be the right way! As long as the filling is enclosed in the wrapper ;)
I have tried both steaming and boiling the wontons, and both work, but boiling achieves a softer texture, while steaming a more chewy one.
I like them both.
As there are now quite a few wontons lying around, so I have frozen some in batches and have eaten some straight away... but to make the actual soup, I used the water that the wontons cooked in. Strained out any bits and seasoned with a little light soy and added a few chopped spring onions. To make more broth, I would use a light chicken stock to create it, seasoning with light soy and a couple of drops of sesame oil.
The wontons are so delicious they need nothing more.
However to make it more of a meal, Chinese cabbages, mushrooms and noodles can be added.
