Wonton 雲吞 | 云吞
One of the nice things about pandemic cooking is that it’s helping me get over my perfectionist tendencies. Before, I’d be way too slow in trying recipes over and over until I think they’re good enough. I still want to push myself to get better of course, but I think there’s value in putting out something not quite as perfect and to show more about how things are done. After all, in cooking there are no perfect dishes and things can always be adjusted to your preference.
This recipe is made with mushrooms since I have a crustacean allergy. If you have frozen shrimp on hand and want to make it while you’re stuck at home that’s fine as well. I’ve stocked up about a week ago and I’m trying to wait this out till end of them month or longer before doing any more grocery shopping so I’m sure you’ll see my cooking get more bare bones over the next few weeks.
For this one, I used morel mushrooms and while they are still expensive, they’re much cheaper at Chinese grocery stores. Part of it has to do with luxury ingredients are valued by different cultures. I only have these because the last time I visited my folks, they sent me back with a small bag of them so this recipe used more than half of what they gave me. Again, you don’t have to use these and shiitake mushrooms are perfectly fine as well. For any kind of shiitake mushrooms, you must remove the stems since they’re pretty tough.
Some of the tips of making really good 雲吞 wonton that my parents got were from chefs that they worked with. For example, one is to add water and to treat it similarly like fishcake. This makes the texture more 滑 waat or smooth. The other trick is to let the filling rest for at least an hour or two so it fully absorbs the water that’s been incorporated and this also makes the texture better and more consistent. The nice thing about this is that you can prepare the filling and let it rest in the fridge overnight before wrapping them.
I like to wrap them so they’re more plump so my 雲吞 wonton are a bit more chonky. For a more Hong Kong style one, you want to wrap them so they are smaller and eaten in a single bite. The ones I wrap are one really big bite or two bites. My mouth burns easily, so when I eat them I usually split them open and blow to the filling to cool them a little. For that reason, it doesn’t matter as much if it’s one or two bites. If anything, my mom told me that the size of how I stuffed them are closer to a northern Chinese style of 雲吞 wonton which there’s nothing wrong with them, but she says they tend to make them bigger than Hong Kong style ones.
The nice thing about making a big batch of them is they freeze easily, so my fridge is well stocked for a lot of breakfasts.
RECIPE: Makes about 75 chonky ones
8 morel mushrooms, dehydrated
2 lbs of lean ground pork
2 tbsp Knorr chicken bouillon
1 tbsp dried flounder powder (optional)
1 tbsp sesame oil
Salt, to taste
Sugar, to taste
2 eggs
3 tbsp corn starch
About 1/2 cup of cold water
1 package of wonton wrappers
Overnight, soak the mushrooms in a large covered bowl of water.
Rinse off any remaining sediment and drain. Mince and set aside in a large bowl.
Over medium low heat, heat up a small pot of water until it is simmering.
Add the pork to the bowl and season with salt, sugar, chicken bouillon, sesame oil, egg, corn starch, (dried flounder powder, optional) and combine. Slowly add the cold water until the texture is desired while slapping the filling against the bowl to release the meat glue and until it is smooth. Refer back to my post about making fish cake for the technique.
To taste, scoop a small amount of the mixture and poach it in the small pot of simmering water to cook it. Adjust the seasoning. You don’t want to be too heavy handed on the salt for wonton filling. If you use dried flounder powder, just know that this is salty too, so adjust the amount of salt whether or not you use it.
Cover and let this rest in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.
I made a quick clip on IG about how to wrap them so check that out on how to do it.
If you are not eating right away, they can be frozen on a tray lined with parchment paper or a silpat so they don’t stick. If they touch, be careful when separating them so the wrapper doesn’t break. They can be transferred to a Ziploc bag after they are fully frozen for longer storage.
