Wonton Noodle Soup With Homemade Dumplings -

Wonton Noodle Soup With Homemade Dumplings

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: bbq pork, noodles, pork, shrimp, soup, wonton

Prep Time: 45

Cook Time: 2

Total Time: 2 45

Servings:

Calories: 1326kcal

Comfort food at its best! Especially on cold days! With a little ingredient preparation, you will be able to enjoy this heavenly bowl of wonton noodle soup with delicious pork broth and plump wonton dumplings to warm you up with a satisfying 'aaahhhh'. Way better than takeout!

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Equipment

Ingredients

Broth

1 pound pork shoulder (bone-in) cut into cubes
2 pounds pork side spare-ribs cut into individual pieces
8 liters cold water
1 cup yellow onion (1 large) diced
¾ cup fish sauce
2 tablespoons sea or kosher salt
⅔ cup lump / rock sugar cane
2 pounds daikon radish (1 large) peeled & cut into 2" cubes

Wonton Dumpling

2½ pounds lean ground pork
1 cup green onion (4 stalks) trimmed & chopped
1½ Tablespoons garlic (3 cloves) pressed or minced
2½ Tablespoons white sugar
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sea or kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 packages wonton wrappers 1 package = approx. 65 wrappers

Assemble & Garnish

2 trays fresh wonton egg noodles (6 x 397g bundles) loosened
1 pound uncooked medium size shrimp peeled (tail on), deveined
2 large bok choy cut into quarter, length-wise
1 pound bean sprouts rinsed
1 pound char siu pork sliced
1 whole lime sliced into wedges
1 cup cilantro chopped
½ cup green onion (2 stalks) trimmed and diced

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Instructions

Broth

In a colander, under running hot tap water, rinse cut pork shoulder and spare-ribs until clean. Place meat into a large 12 or 16 quart stock pot. Add water and bring to a boil on high heat.
With a skimming ladle or serving spoon, skim impurities / foam off the surface of boiling water until surface is clear.
Add fish sauce, rock or lump sugar cane, diced onions and salt to broth. Stir to combine and simmer broth for 1 hour on medium-low heat without lid. Add cubed daikon radish to broth (and 2 cups of water if broth evaporated a bit) and continue to simmer for another 1 hour on medium-low heat. Skim any remaining foam or impurity in between simmer time and stir broth every so often.

Wonton Dumplings

While broth is simmering, prepare wonton dumplings. In a large mixing bowl, add ground pork, green onions, garlic, sugar, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt and black pepper. Mix / knead thoroughly to combine all ingredients.
Place a wonton wrapper into the palm of your hand with the corner facing your index finger (looks like a kite). With a butter knife, scoop a small meat ball about 1 inch in size and place meat into the center of wrapper. With your free hand, take the bottom corner and fold it up, placing it to the right. This should resemble a staggered triangle. Next, with your left and right thumb on each side of the filling, firmly pinch / crimp each side into the center so that it creates a pleated dumpling and seals the dumpling. Repeat this step until all wrappers are filled. Cover wontons with cling wrap or a clean dish towel to prevent wontons from drying/hardening. See demo video below.

Assemble & Garnish

Place 8 large soup bowls on the counter (in preparation of assembling the layers). Take loosened, uncooked, fresh wonton egg noodles and divide approx. 1 cup of noodles into each bowl.
Fill 3/4 of a large sauce pan with water. Bring to a boil. Fill 3/4 of a second large sauce pan or large pot with water and bring to a boil (both pans to boil at the same time).
For pan#1, take measured noodles from 1 bowl, place into mesh strainer and blanch the noodles in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes (move noodles around with chopstick or fork while blanching). Then rinse under cold water for a few seconds, shake excess water off and place noodles back into the bowl. Repeat this step for all 8 bowls.
Next, place 5 or 6 wonton dumplings into mesh strainer and blanch in pan#1 for 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked. No rinsing required. Place dumplings on top of noodles. Repeat this step for all 8 bowls. The water will be cloudy at this point for pan#1. Discard the water (turn off heat) and move on to pan#2 with boiling water.
In pan#2, place 4 wedges of bok choy into mesh strainer and blanch for 2 minutes or until softened to desired texture. Place 1 wedge to the side of the bowl (on top of the wontons). Garnish the next 3 bowls the same way. Repeat this step for the remaining 4 bok choy wedges until each bowl is garnished with 1 blanched wedge.
Add 3 to 4 uncooked shrimp into mesh strainer and blanch in pan#2 for 1 to 2 minutes or until shrimp is fully cooked. Place cooked shrimp opposite bok choy wedge in the bowl. Repeat this step and garnish the same way for the remaining 7 bowls.
Add 4 slices of char siu pork in the center of the bowl, on top of the wontons. Repeat this for remaining bowls. The result should look like this:
When ready to serve, use a clean mesh strainer and pour broth through strainer into bowl for a clean / filtered broth. Pour enough broth into bowl to cover the surface of layered food items.
Add a handful of bean sprouts and garnish with cilantro / sliced green onions / fried sliced shallots or serve separate on a serving plate. Wonton noodle soup can be enjoyed with lime, sriracha or sambal oelek (hot chilli sauce), red vinegar and / or soy sauce. Serve sauces on the side so each person can customize their own bowl. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

What is the foam that I am skimming while making the broth?

It's the impurity (or better known as cooked blood) from the meat that rises to the surface once the water starts to boil. Some prefer to boil the meat to cook off the blood, drain the water and refill the pot with fresh water to boil a second time when making broth. I personally prefer not to do that because I like to retain as much of the meat flavour in my broth as possible.

What is Char Siu Pork?

It's also known as chinese bbq pork that can be bought pre-made from an asian grocery store at the hot food section. It is a red coloured, sticky barbecued pork tenderloin and is sweet in flavour. You can also make your own char siu pork. For my recipe, go here (3-ingredient) or here (from-scratch)

How do I store left-over uncooked wonton dumplings?

Lightly dust wontons with cornstarch (to prevent sticking) and place wontons in a single layer in an air tight container or a plastic freezer zipper bag. You can also store these in a single layer with parchment paper in between layers. Refrigerate uncooked wontons up to 3 days if you plan to eat more wonton soup in the following days. Wontons can be frozen up to 2 or 3 months (not beyond that as freezer burn might occur).

What else can I do with left-over Wontons?

You can deep fry the dumplings and serve with sweet chilli sauce as an appetizer or snack. Heat a neutral oil (such as peanut, sunflower or vegetable oil) to 350°F (176.7°C) in a medium sauce pan (make sure there is enough oil to cover the dumplings) and deep fry wontons for about 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the dumplings with a tong often and don't over crowd the pan as that may slow down cooking. A little trick I usually go by for doneness is to fry the wontons until they float to the surface.

Can I substitute ground chicken for my Wonton dumpling filling?

Yes you can, treat the ground chicken the same as pork except cooking time may be a little quicker.

Why do I need to blanch?

For this recipe, we're blanching the ingredients prior to pouring the broth. The reason for this is to ensure that our ingredients are cooked and pre-warmed so that by the time the hot broth is poured, it will finish cooking the blanched ingredients for a perfect bite and prevent temperature drop so you can enjoy a nice hot bowl of wonton noodle soup.

Can I freeze left-over wonton broth?

Of course! Make sure to freeze your broth in large freezer zipper bags. This way, when you're ready to thaw and re-heat the broth, all you need to do is cut the bag open (rather than thaw the broth in the microwave in a container), add 2 tablespoons of water into a large pot and place the frozen broth into the pot. Cover with a lid and re-heat at medium heat until fully thawed. Then turn heat to high to bring to a boil and re-season if needed. Instead of freezing, you can also use left over broth to make another type of soup with ingredients you have on hand.

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