Once again…one of our favourites… always a noodle soup. This time it’s wonton noodles! It is a famous Cantonese dish and it’s very popular in most Southeast Asia countries. You’ll find different variations of it, even the dried wonton noodle style with the soup served separately or ones that have Char Siu pork as well, not just the wontons! Whichever variation it is, they somehow all taste really good! Ultimately, we find what makes a good wonton noodle soup all comes down to the broth and of course… the wontons.
So first and most importantly, prepare the broth! You can either use a conventional stove top with a pot or, like us, use a pressure cooker to save time. Begin by filling a pot with about 3 litres of water and bring it to a boil on high heat. Place in the chicken and/or pork bones, prawn shells, dried shrimps, ginger slices and spring onion. Once it comes to a boil, lower the fire and let it simmer for 3 hours. With the pressure cooker, it’ll only take about 15 to 20 minutes. Either way, whilst broth is cooking, you should be preparing other ingredients, especially the wontons!
For the wontons, mix all the filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl, including the minced pork, prawns, spring onion, dried shrimp, white pepper, cornstarch, salt, sugar, light soy sauce and ginger. To wrap them, have a small bowl of water on the side and dip your fingertips into it and wet the edges of the wrapper sheet. Place a small bitesize amount (~1/2 to 1 teaspoon) of the filling in the centre, make a loose fist with your hand, push the wrapper/filling into your fist, and gently squeeze the edges together to seal. There are heaps of other fancier ways to wrap them, but we like this simple way.
When the broth is done, strain the broth into a separate pot to get your clear broth. Should already be smelling amazing! Add seasonings including table salt, grounded white pepper, light soy sauce, sugar, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil and let it simmer on low heat to keep the broth warm. This is the time to taste and make adjustments if needed!
Time for assembling! When preparing the bowls, try to make them 1 or 2 servings at a time. Cook the wontons first in a pot of boiling water on high heat. Add about 10 to 12 wontons in each time depending on how much you are serving each person. Each should usually have about 5 or 6 each, but feel free to add less or more! Fresh wontons should take about a shorter time of 3-5 minutes to cook and frozen ones around 6 to 8 minutes. Either way, once they float to the surface, they are about done! Set them aside in serving bowls once done. Next, you cook the noodles either with the same water or a fresh batch of boiling water if it’s too starchy. Make sure to give the noodles a good swirl to loosen them up. We prefer using the fresh packaged ones you find in the refrigerated sections at Asian grocery stores rather than the dried-up ones, simply because their texture is way better! OR if you can hand make them on your own, why not? They should take about 60 to 90 seconds to cook – not long at all. We love having our wonton noodle soup with some green vegetables, you can choose to have bok choy, kai lan (Chinese broccoli), choy sum or even lettuce if you’d like… but traditionally it’s usually kai lan or choy sum and we love it with choy sum. Just simply boil them and arrange them in the serving bowls.
When ready to serve, especially for a bigger group of people, make sure each bowl is already assembled with the above noodles, wontons and vegetables, then add the hot broth over and garnish with the finely chopped spring onions. It’ll be nice and hot for everyone at the same time! Feel free to serve with some side chilli sauces to dip the wontons in for extra spice! Enjoy!!
