Jamaican Cookery News

Easy Chinese wonton soup. These wontons do not contain cabbage and carrots, which are used by commercial wonton producers to cheapen the filling. The filling in these wontons is superior. Wonton filling is essentially stir-fry, but with smaller particles and less cooking. It goes hot into a wonton wrapper (equal to 1/4 of an egg roll wrapper), which is then cooked in a hot broth.

Wontons are fresh squares of noodle dough. Usually comes in one pound packages. Thickness varies from thick to thin. Fresh won tons will keep in the refrigerator one week. Can be frozen, wrapped air tight, for about 2 months. Use thick wrappers for deep-fried wontons. Thin wrappers are better for soups. See Jamaican soup recipes

Chinese arrived in Jamaica in 1854. They played an integral part in Jamaican cuisine.

Ingredients

About 25 wonton wrappers (6-8 servings as dinner soup)

1/2 cup ground pork (unseasoned)

1/2 cup prawns, shelled and deveined

2 tbsp. water chestnuts

2 tbsp. bamboo shoots

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. rice wine

1 egg white to seal wrapper

Ingredients to make soup

8-10 cups chicken stock, (seasoned with 1 tsp. salt or to taste)

2 forest mushrooms, (soaked until soft, rinsed and slice)

1/2 cup sliced bamboo shoots

1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts

2 cups sliced bok choy (Chinese green) or any other green leafy vegetables

1/4 cup chopped scallion (green onion)

Instructions

How to make wonton

• Chop ground pork, prawns, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots until smooth. add salt, cornstarch, and wine. Mix until smooth, refrigerate until ready to wrap wontons.
• Place 1 tsp. filling (heaping) on the top corner of wrapper. Fold tip of wrapper over the meat. Roll wrapper until halfway down covering meat. Put a small dad of egg on the left hand side of covered meat-ball . Pull sides back and pinch together, placing one side on top of the egg white.
• Boil wontons in a large pot of boiling water for 2 minutes.
• Remove boiled  wontons from pot and rinse in cold water

Wonton soup broth recipe

• In a medium-size pot, bring chicken stock to a boil, adding salt, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and mushrooms. Add wontons to soup, bring to a boil, reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes.
• Add bok choy during the last minute of cooking. Toss scallion on top to garnish.

Tips for handling of wonton wrappers

Wontons wrappers are sold fresh or frozen, thick or thin, usually in one pound packages. If frozen, defrost, taken out the amount needed and wrap the remainder air tight and may refreeze only one time.

Fresh wrappers keep only one week in the refrigerator. Always cover wrappers from the air to keep from drying out.

The white powder on the wrappers is cornstarch. Always keep the side with more cornstarch on the outside when wrapping, so  it will cook out.

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