A classic relationship conundrum.  Joe likes Wonton Soup, and I occasionally crave a salt fix via deep fried wontons.

A friend recently shared a video on FB for “Easy Wonton Soup”.  I watched it with scepticism and decided to try it.  What would be the worst that could happen ?  I might waste a bit of ground pork, spices, and time.  But at least I’d try it.  Best case would be we never have to debate which of us wins in the Wonton debate because we’d have a supply of home-made wontons stored in the freezer.

I had my doubts that I would get any further than a few mangled misshapen excuses for Wontons.  My fingers aren’t nearly as dextrous as most people with Cerebral Palsy making it awkward for me to do anything really intricate with my hands.  But the prep for the recipe itself was beyond easy.  The meat isn’t cooked before hand, so instead of dealing with crumbly cooked ground meat to stuff and fold into Wontons I was dealing with raw ground meat.  This made the process much easier.

Wonton Filling

• 4 oz. ground pork
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp Shaoxing Wine (I didn’t have any, so skipped this)
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp ground fresh ginger root
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1 green onion, finely chopped
• small pinch of black or white pepper

To make the Wontons – just add everything in the above list to a bowl and mix it up.  This recipe provides enough to fill about 20 wrappers.  Watch this video of the preparation on YouTube to see the method of wrapping wontons.  I was surprised at how easy it actually was, even with my awkward stiff hands.  Joe just needed to set me up with a chair at the counter, put some music on, and I happily sat there in my Wonton Wrapping “Zone”.

To make Soup or to Deep Fry – the eternal question

Before I met Joe, one of my guilty pleasures was to order Chinese Food along with an appetizer order of Deep Fried Wontons.  I’d generously salt them up and satisfy my craving for greasy salty food.  When I met Joe I learned that his favorite Chinese Food Appetizer was Wonton Soup (no salt, no grease).

So I made these Wontons the other day.  We had doubled the recipe (my insane optimism) and wound up with 40 not-so-bad-looking Wontons.  Joe was impressed.  I immediately brushed a few of them with oil and put them into my AirFryer to see how they would deep fry up.  Amaze-balls !!  I had my very own salt-fix-satisfying supply of Wontons and I no longer had to order the entire plate just to have a few.  Joe said they tasted like something you’d get in a restaurant

For dinner that night we made the soup and it was awesome!

Soup Recipe

• 2 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 or 4-  1/2 inch thin fresh ginger root slices
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Bring to a boil, reduce to low and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.
• Discard solid ingredients from soup base and bring it to a boil.  Carefully add the wontons and cook for another 10-15 minutes.  (Wontons will be cooked in 3 minutes, but longer boiling time will spread the flavors).

Original Recipe