Every year as the Lunar New Year rolls around, I have this craving for homemade wontons – just like we used to have at home growing up. The wonton fillings can be anything you like, just ground pork or add on other veggies such as napa cabbage. For this Lunar New Year’s dinner, I made the pork fillings with cabbage and radishes – traditional ingredients to bring in Wealth and Treasure – a felicitous wish for making money and amassing a fortune.
Give it a try and let me know how your wontons turn out!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pack of wonton skin
- 1 lb ground pork
- 2 scallions, finely chopped
- 1 TBSP soy paste or sauce
- 1 TBSP toasted sesame oil
- 1 TBSP grapeseek or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp grated peeled ginger
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper (optional)
- 1 large egg
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large bowl, mix thoroughly by hand all the ingredients except egg: pork, scallion, soy paste/sauce, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, ginger, rice wine, salt and pepper.
- Crack egg in center of pork mixture and use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir vigourously until fully mixed and lightened in color, for ~4 minutes.
- Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 15mins and up to 12 hours.
- Fill a small bowl with cold water. Place a small wonton wrapper in the palm of your hand, scoop a little bit ~1 tsp of the pork mixture into one corner of the wrapper. Starting from the corner, roll gently to the center of the wrapper, dip finger into water and run it on both ends of the rolled wrapper. Now gently and carefully, bring one end of the wrapper over the other end, and press tightly for form a little gold nugget. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining wonton wrappers and pork filling. Cover and chill until ready to boil.
- Wontons can be assembled and refrigerated for next day use. Keep chilled or freeze up to 1 month. Freeze in a single later on a cookie sheet until frozen, then transfer to an airtight container. To cook from frozen will take a little longer, ~4 minutes.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. In batches of 10 wontons at a time, boil wontons until they float to the surface of the boiling water ~3 minutes. Remove using a spider or slotted spoon and transfer to bowl.
- To serve, spoon homemade chili oil (recipe coming soon), sesame oil and soy sauce over, and top with chopped scallions.
