This must be my family’s all time favourite soup. Comfort eating at its very best. Simple to prepare. Delicious to eat. Combining three fabulous ingredients. Chicken soup, pork wonton and deep fried tofu puffs. Homemade chicken soup is pretty much a staple in our house.Fresh from the stockpot or frozen from the freezer.  While nothing quite compares to homemade there are  many good quality commercial soups available on the market that would work equally well in this recipe. If I’m not too pressed for time I also like to make my wonton.  More often than not, though, I will purchase them from my very obliging Asian grocer. Who prepares them on the premises. That same grocer also stocks the all important wonton wrappers and deep fried tofu puffs. And even more importantly very generously dispenses advice on all manner of recipes  and ingredients.

Here is my version of wonton soup. I’ve included a very simple recipe for homemade  pork wonton and a link back to an earlier post for chicken soup. Sometimes I vary the ingredients and add bok choy, shiitake mushrooms  or egg noodles. There really are no hard and fast rules. Its all about comfort eating.  It matters not whether this meal has been prepared from scratch or an express route using the very best prepared ingredients.

Pork Wonton Soup With Deep Fried Tofu Puffs And Shredded Snow Peas.
Serves 4

Pork wonton and fried tofu puffs are readily available in the chiller section of a good Asian grocer. As are wonton wrappers if you would like to try your hand at making your own. 

8 cups chicken stock, recipe for homemade chicken soup here
1 teaspoon green ginger, finely grated
24 pork wonton, recipe follows below
1 x 200g packet fried tofu (bean curd) puffs, sliced in half on the diagonal if large
100g snow peas, julienned

BRING stock and ginger to a rolling simmer in a large saucepan over high heat.
MEANWHILE bring another large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the wonton, making sure there is enough room for them to move about freely. Cook the wonton for  about 4 minutes, until they rise to the top and the filling is cooked through. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Frozen wonton will take a little longer to cook through.
DIVIDE wonton and deep-fried tofu puffs between four serving bowls.
LADLE over chicken stock. Sprinkle with julienned snow peas and serve.

Pork Wonton
Makes 60

500 g lean pork mince
1 small Chinese (wombok) cabbage
30g knob of ginger, peeled
half a bunch of long green shallots
4 tablespoons soy sauce (add more if needed)
3 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon Shaoxing (Chinese rice wine)
1 packet of wonton wrappers (60 pieces)
water for sealing

Make the Filling
FINELY chop cabbage. Place in a very large bowl. Set aside.
FINELY chop shallots. Place in a smaller bowl. Set aside.
GRATE ginger and add half to each of the bowls.
HEAT oil in a small pan to smoking point (80-90 C). Pour the hot oil over the shallots and ginger, allowing the oil to absorb the flavours of the ginger and the shallots .
ADD the ginger and shallot oil to the cabbage with the pork mince, soy sauce,and chinese rice wine.
MIX thoroughly to combine. Season to taste with a little more soy if required.

Working in batches until all wonton wrappers have been used
PLACE five square wonton wrappers onto a clean work surface.
PLACE a scant teaspoon of the filling in the centre of each wrapper. Be careful not to overfill.
BRUSH edges with a little water.
FOLD wonton over to enclose the filling and form a triangle. Press to seal.
PLEAT the edges by using small overlapping folds to bring the base corners of triangle up and around filling.
COOK or freeze the wontons immediately. To freeze, place a baking paper lined tray of wonton directly into the freezer. When they are solid, transfer them from the tray into a resealable plastic bag.