wontons | Sew Sweet and Salty

These are the two kinds of wontons I made for my mom’s birthday wonton soup that went so well with my tonkotsu style broth.

I promise these wontons are way better than the ones you find in the freezer section. Unless your taste buds are just screwed up, and you’re the kind of person who prefers Cup O Noodles over real ramen, or Pop Tarts over fresh pie. I can’t promise that these will taste as good as your grandma’s wontons, but they are pretty damn tasty.

As I mentioned already, I went a little overboard with the amount of food I made. If you use my measurements, then I hope you are having a wonton making party, or you’ll be folding wontons by yourself for half the day. Wontons are really easy to freeze, I’ll get to that later.

First up are my vegetable and shrimp wontons. I’m not much of a vegetarian, but I must say, I did a great job with this vegetable filling. I liked this filling as much as the pork and shrimp filling.

I have here a small head of Taiwanese cabbage. I forgot to take a picture, but they are NOT Napas. They look a little like the green cabbages found at regular grocery stores, but they are flatter. I like these better because they are more tender and sweeter than the green cabbage. Anways, I also have rainbow carrots, green onion, garlic, ginger, and the mushroom from the broth.

I first stir fried the garlic and ginger in oil for a couple of minutes until I could smell them. Then I added the mushroom and green onion. I poured in the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and a little sugar. Gave that a stir and let it cook for a minute, Then I added the cabbage and carrots, and let it cook until the cabbage and carrots softened. Taste the vegetables to make sure they are seasoned to your liking. Note that the brined shrimp are also salty, so take that into consideration.

Since I was using shrimp for both kinds of wontons, I got a 2 lb bag of frozen shrimp. When I was doing wonton research, I read about a good shrimp tip from Serious Eats. So, you know how shrimp can become mushy and mealy textured when cooked? J. Kenji López-Alt recommended soaking the raw shrimp in a baking soda brine. The baking soda and salt keeps the shrimp plump, juicy, and crisp. I let my shrimp sit overnight in the mixture, and I was amazed at how good the shrimp tasted. Apparently just 15 minutes will work, but he said you can let it sit overnight, which is what I did. My shrimp did turn out pretty salty even after getting rinsed off. It may be because I added too much salt to the brine, and or it could have been from the longer brine time. I’ll have to experiment more. So after rinsing the shrimp off, I cut them into thirds.

Update: I just looked up other pages about using an alkaline brine for shrimp. Looks like a lot of people recommend using 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp baking soda per pound of shrimp. Let the shrimp sit in the mixture for 15 minutes to 1 hour. So basically I screwed up the mixture and amount of brine time. I mean, even though the shrimp was salty, it worked out since I made the meat less salty. BUT, now I know. I’ll edit the brine recipe below.

For the pork filling, I got 5 lbs of ground pork, green onion, garlic, ginger, and mixed it with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and a little sugar. I put on a glove and mashed it all together with my hand. You can do a taste test by microwaving a little blob for 10 seconds or until cooked. Since my shrimp were pretty salty, I made my pork mixture less salty. The meat mixture by itself was a little bland, however, once a piece of brined shrimp was included, that bite of meat was transformed. If you are omitting my salty shrimp, then be sure to do taste tests to make sure the meat is seasoned well.

Assembly time! I had help from my sister, cousin, and two friends to wrap these little packets of juicy joy. I’m very grateful for their help because we ended up going through 5 packs of wonton wrappers, and made 380 wontons. It took a long time, especially since we were all newbs at wrapping (except for my sister, who taught us how to wrap). She took care of making 3 trays of wontons by herself.

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to make wontons. There are different ways to fold them, but this is what my aunt taught my sister, who in turn passed it on to us yesterday. Start with a wrapper. By the way, the thinner the wrapper, the better.

Put about a teaspoon or so of filling and a piece of shrimp in the middle. More meat sounds great, but in this case, moderation is key in preventing the over-stuffed exploding Chipotle burrito syndrome.

Dip your finger in water and wet the top and bottom of the wrapper. The water acts as a glue for the wrapper. Be sure to “glue” any openings on the wonton, because if you leave holes, then there will be little meat explosions when you boil them.

Fold one third of the wrapper over the pile of filling.

Fold the other third of the wrapper over the first fold to make a roll. Smear more water to seal the ends of the wrapper.

Fold one end of the roll down.

Fold the other end of the roll down and pinch the two ends together with some water so they are stuck together. See those openings at the ends? Those need to be sealed with water. Now you have a cute little triangular hat looking shape. For the vegetable filling, you do the same thing except use a spoonful of vegetables with a piece of shrimp.

This here is our first completed tray. It helps to sprinkle some flour or spray the baking sheet with cooking spray so the wontons don’t stick and tear. You can see some stylistic differences in the way these wontons were folded.

If you want to freeze them, just stick the whole tray into the freezer. Once the wontons are frozen, put them into a freezer safe bag or container. When you want to cook them, DO NOT thaw them out. Just cook them directly from their frozen state. If you thaw them out first, they will become a gooey, gummy, mess.

We had a handful of leftover wrappers, so that called for Nutella. Put a blob of Nutella in the middle, fold the wrapper into a triangle, and spray a little cooking spray on the triangles. Bake at 350ºF for a few minutes until the wrappers crisp and puff up.

When it was time to cook the wontons, I had to cook them in several batches, since we had so much. I put the wontons into boiling water, covered the pot for a few minutes until the water boiled again. Then I used a strainer to fish them out.

Homemade wonton soup

Brined Shrimp
Ingredients
– 2 lbs of shrimp
– 2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions
– Mix everything together and let it sit in the refrigerator for 15-60 minutes. Rinse the shrimp off. Cut the shrimp into smaller pieces if they are too big to fit into a wonton wrapper whole.

Vegetable and Shrimp Wontons
Ingredients
– 9 cups of Taiwanese cabbage (1 small head)
– 2 cups of carrots (about 4 carrots)
– 1 cup green onion
– 1/2 cup mushroom (4 large dried mushrooms)
– 1 tbs ginger
– 1 tbs garlic
– 2-3 tbs soy sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs sugar
– Approximately 1/3 lb of brined shrimp
– 2-3 packs of wonton wrappers, will vary depending on how much you stuff your wrappers

Directions
– Shred and dice the cabbage, dice the carrots, green onions, and mushrooms. FInely mince the garlic and ginger.
– Cook the ginger and garlic in oil until fragrant. Add the mushroom and green onion. Cook for a couple of minutes. Stir in the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and sugar. Add the carrots and cabbage and cook until they soften.
– Let the mixture cool before wrapping the wontons. When you make the wontons, put a teaspoon of the vegetables along with a piece of shrimp on the wonton wrapper. Follow the illustrated instructions above to fold the wontons.

Pork and Shrimp Wontons
Ingredients
– 5 lbs of ground pork
– 2 cups green onion
– 3-4 tbs ginger
– 2-3 tbs garlic
– 4-6 tbs soy sauce
– 4-6 tbs sesame oil
– 2-4 tbs rice wine
– 1-2 tbs sugar
– Approximately 2/3 lb of brined shrimp
– 2-3 packs of wonton wrappers, will vary depending on how much you stuff your wrappers

Please adjust the seasoning to suit your taste buds and also depending on how salty your shrimp turned out. Taste test your filling by microwaving a small blob for about 10 seconds or until cooked. Don’t blame me if your filling tastes too bland or too salty.

Directions
– Slice up the green onion, and finely mince the garlic and ginger. Mix them with the meat and seasonings. Hands are the easiest tool for mixing the meat. Use gloves if you want.
– When you make the wontons, place a teaspoon of meat and a piece of shrimp on the wrapper. Follow the illustrated instructions above to fold the wontons.

This is the tonkotsu style broth that went with the wontons I made for my mom’s birthday wonton soup.

Disclaimer: I am not much of a delicate and subtle flavors kind of cook. I like bold flavors that pop. Salt is a good friend of mine. This is my tonkotsu style broth. It is thick, creamy, and coats your mouth with its umami richness. If you are looking for a light and clear broth for your wonton soup…this is not it. Go elsewhere.

This is more or less how I make my broth when I want homemade tonkotsu ramen. When I make broth for ramen, I use my 12 qt stock pot, and let it simmer for at least 6-8 hours so that it becomes even creamier and thicker. This time, for my wonton broth, I used a smaller 8 qt pot and simmered for only 4 hours.

I started with 2 lbs of pigs feet and 2 lbs of smoked turkey wings. Don’t look down on the humble foot, for it serves as the foundation for this rich soup.

This step is optional, but I first blanched the turkey and pork. I covered the bones with cold water and let it come to a boil Once the water boiled, I dumped the water into the sink, and washed the bones. This gets rid of a lot of coagulated blood, bits of bone, and other impurities from the broth. This is done to make a visually appealing clear soup without bits floating around. I always skip this step and just skim off impurities, but for my momma’s birthday, I will blanch the damn bones.

That bubbly film is the scummy stuff that came out of the bones

If you are using the same pot to make the broth, you should wash it out first. There’s a lot of scum stuck to the bottom.

Here are my quickly boiled meaty bones. You can see a lot of dark bits stuck on them.

This is like a toothbrush commercial. Look at my tooth-looking pig’s foot all grimy and gross.

Bling! Look how shiny and white my tooth-looking pig’s foot is after a good brushing! I used my finger to scrub the bits off under a little water.

After I cleaned off the bones, I patted them dry. I wanted my broth to have as much flavor as possible, so I got my good ol’ French oven out, heated up some bacon fat on high heat, and browned the pigs feet and turkey wings.

While the bones were browning, I got my aromatics ready. I first soaked 4 large dried mushrooms in a bowl of hot water to soften them. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are. Asian food packaging can be quite mysterious. After about 15-20 minutes, I squeezed the mushrooms dry. Keep that mushroom water! That will go into the broth later. Just discard the very bottom where bits of dirt and whatnot has sunk.

I have a bunch of green onions, a shallot, a head of garlic, 4 mushrooms, 2 bay leaves, and about 4 inches of ginger.

With the help of more bacon fat, I browned the aromatics too. Just let it keep browning until everything has a nice char. Sure, you can skip browning the bones and veggies, and the broth will still taste good. But the browning will help it taste GREAT.

After everything got warm and toasty, they are now ready for the long soak. Dump the bones back into the pot and fill it up with water. Sometimes I also add in a carton or a few cans of chicken stock, but I only had water this time. Do pour in the bowl of mushroom water, sans the bits of dirt. Leave the pot uncovered, and once it boils, turn the heat to low. Leave it alone for about 3-4 hours. Well, don’t ignore it. Check on it every now and then to make sure everyone is doing alright. Also, taste it. If it tastes too watery and bland, let it simmer some more. Add some salt and pepper if you so desire.

Here is the broth after everyone left the pool party. By the way, don’t toss the turkey and pigs feet into the trash. Strip the meat off and save it. You can add the meat into the soup, eat it as is, whatever you do, don’t waste it. Save the mushroom too, they will go into the wonton filling. The garlic and most of the green onion and shallots melted into the soup. I tossed the ginger into the compost. I suppose I could have used the ginger in the filling, but at that point, I had already minced up another ginger root. After the broth cooled down, I put it in the fridge.

Here is my bowl of meat jello. You can keep that layer of fat if you want an extra rich and fatty broth, or you can scrape it off. When you are ready to assemble your bowl of wonton soup, just heat this big lump of jello until it turns into liquid again. Add some sesame oil, chili oil, garlic chili paste, XO sauce, etc, to give your broth an even bigger extra flavor boost.

Tonkotsu Style Broth
Ingredients
– 2 lbs pigs feet, cut up
– 2 lbs smoked turkey wing
– bacon fat
– 4 dried mushrooms
– 1 bunch of green onions
– 1 shallot
– 1 head of garlic
– 4 inch knob of ginger
– 2 bay leaves

Directions
– Cover the pigs feet and turkey wing in cold water and bring to a boil. Once the water boils, pour the water out. Rinse and scrub off the impurities on the bones. Pat dry, then brown the meaty bones with bacon fat on high heat.
– Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for 15-20 minutes, until they are soft. Save the water, but squeeze the mushrooms dry.
– Chop the green onion into large chunks. Slice the ginger root (no need to peel) into thin slices. Peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole. Peel and cut the shallot in half. Leave the mushroom whole.
– Brown the aromatics in bacon fat until they get a nice char.
– Add the meat bones, mushroom water, and water to the pot. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat low. Let it simmer uncovered for 3-4 hours or until very flavorful. Season the broth to your taste.

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