Wonton Noodles: Wonton-making can be a fun family activity that even young children (ages 3 and up) will enjoy! Freeze up a batch for Wonton Noodle – they will come in real handy whenever you need to whip up a fast, easy & healthy meal!
Remember the Dim Sum Cabbage Roll recipe we shared last week? Did you know that the same meat mix stuffing used for the Cabbage Roll can also be used for many different dishes, including Siew Mai (Shrimp and Pork Dumpling), Chinese Fried Money Bags, Stuffed Squid and Wonton Soup and Crispy Fried Wonton? I love how versatile it is!
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So anyway, after making the Dim Sum Cabbage Rolls last week, we ended up using the leftover meat stuffing to make ALL of the above over the next few days! Same stuffing + Different Presentation = New Dish, so there is always some variety in our family meals. We will be posting up the other recipes over soon, but for today I want to share about how to make Wonton Noodle Soup.
How to Fold Wonton
First let’s talk about the Wonton. There are many different ways to fold Wonton. The easiest of all is the triangular shaped Wonton. So I enlisted the help of my 3 1/2 year old son to help us out with the wonton folding. This is the first time he is folding Wonton, but he was very game and in fact enjoyed the project so much that he stayed put throughout until we had finished the whole stack of wonton skin. It was a great bonding activity for us! And also a great way to keep an active boy occupied for a good 45 minutes, instead of paying to send him for outside enrichment classes!
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Here’s a video of my boy folding the wontons. He could get them into a nice triangular shape but needed my help to seal the wonton all around and press out the air pockets. I also helped to convert some of his triangular wontons into gold ingot shaped wontons, but if you are happy with the triangular ones you can just stop there.
If you want to fold the gold ingot shaped wontons, here’s the official tutorial by Mum on how to fold Wonton and Siew Mai.
Wontons – Boiled or Fried, Or Both?
Once the wonton folding is done, you can choose whether to have the healthier wonton soup version, or the more decadent fried wonton mee version. Or even a mix of both! We did a mix of healthy boiled wontons to go with the noodle soup, as well as some deep-fried wontons on the side served with Thai sweet chilli sauce (recipe coming soon)! Doesn’t that look gorgeous?
Sometime, we also add in a few slices of Char Siew (Barbecued Stick Pork) (recipe coming soon!) to go with the wonton noodles, which is usually how wonton noodles is served in our local eateries. But if you prefer something simple and healthy, it is not a must to add Char Siew. Sometimes plain and simple gives you greater satisfaction. Don’t forget to drizzle some Crispy Garlic and Garlic Oil (see recipe link) over the Chye Sim before serving!
After all the photo-taking was done, it was especially heartwarming to finally be able to tuck into my bowl of wonton noodle that was prepared by three generations of the family (my mum, myself and my son) – a real family effort. And I think this reflection would sum it up nicely as I end this post: Food nourishes the body, but family nourishes the soul. Hope you enjoy this recipe, and please leave me a comment below if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for me!
Suggested Modifications for Special Diets
- Child-Friendly: No modifications needed.
- Egg-Free: Skip the egg in the meat mixture – it should still be able to bind well together. Use water to seal the wonton skin instead of egg.
- Fish-Free: Use chicken stock instead of Ikan Bilis stock.
- Nut-Free: No modifications needed.
Wonton Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 100 gm Wonton Skin About 70 Cents
- 250 gm Chye Sim
- 1 Packet Hong Kong Noodles
MEAT STUFFING
- 350 grams Lean Pork
- 2-3 pieces Black Wooden Ear Fungus Depending on the size
- 15 Medium Size Prawns Medium Sized
- 6-7 Water Chestnuts
- 1 Egg
- 2 Sprigs Spring Onion
MARINADE
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2-3 tsp Oil
- 2 tsp Corn Flour
- 2 1/2 tsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 Dash White Pepper
INGREDIENTS FOR STOCK
- 80 gm Ikan Bilis
- 70 gm Soya Bean
- 2 litres Boiling Water
- 3-4 Slices Ginger
- 1 TBsp Oil
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Light Soy Sauce
GARNISHING - OPTIONAL
- 2 tbsp Crispy Garlic See recipe below
- 1 tbsp Garlic Oil See recipe below
- 1 sprig Spring Onion
Instructions
PREPARATION FOR WONTON STUFFING (Active Time: 20 min, Total Time: 50 min)
- Soak the wooden fungus for about 20 minutes until it expands and becomes soft.
- Mince the pork coarsely.
- Marinate the pork with the marinade ingredients for about 15 minutes.
- Wash the water chestnut, using a brush to remove the mud. Remove the skin with a peeler. Then cut the water chestnut into small cubes.
- Wash, shell and devein the prawns. Then cut into 3-4 pieces each. See my video on how to devein prawns here.
- Wash and cut the spring onion into small pieces.
- Remove the skin from the ginger and slice it thinly
- Wash the wooden fungus thoroughly to remove the sand in between the grooves and cut into small squares.
- In a big bowl add in the pork, wooden fungus, water chestnut, prawns and spring onion and mix well.
- Crack an egg into the mixture, then mix well until incorporated.
- Leave the meat mixture in the fridge for 1/2 hour.
PREPARATION METHOD FOR BROTH (Active Time: 5 min, Total Time: 30 min )
- Wash the ikan bilis and soya beans.
- In a pot, heat up 1 TBsp of oil and add in the sliced ginger to fry till aromatic. Add in the ikan bilis and fry for 1-2 mins. Pour 2 litres of boiling water into the pot.
- Add in soya beans and continue to boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, turn the fire down to medium and continue to simmer for 30 minutes, while you start folding the wonton.
- Once the soup turns milky it is done, sift the soup to remove the soya beans and ikan bilis and ginger slices.
- Add salt and light soya sauce to taste. Before adding, taste the stock first to see if it is salty as some ikan bilis tend to be very salty.
METHOD FOR FOLDING WONTON (15 min)
- Place 1 tsp of meat mixture at the centre of the wonton skin.
- Use the back of a small spoon to coat 2 adjacent sides of the wonton skin with a thin layer of beaten egg mixture.
- Fold the wonton skin into half to form a triangle, ensuring that all 3 pointed edges are properly aligned
- Gently press out any air bubbles from inside out before sealing the wonton skin well along the edges
- Place the wonton on a plate in a single layer, without touching each other. For instructions on how to fold the gold ingot wonton, watch our youtube video instead.
COOKING METHOD FOR WANTON NOODLE SOUP (20 min)
- Wash and blanche the Chye Sim in a wok for about 1 - 2 minutes in boiling water with 1 tsp oil of water added to the water. Remove and set aside
- In the same wok, add the wonton in small batches and boil for about 5 minutes. Once cooked, scoop them up with a spider sieve and place in a bowl. Drizzle some oil over the wonton to prevent them from sticking to one another.
- Add more boiling water to the wok and bring to a boil. Once boiling, loosen the bundle of noodle and put in the boiling water. Using a pair of chopstick, spread out the noodle and let it boil for about 2-3 mins.
- Remove the noodles from the wok and put it in a pot of tap water spreading it out with chopstick to remove the excess starch. Scoop up the noodle and plunge it back into the wok for a few seconds.
- Dish out the noodle into a bowl. Place the wonton and Chye Sim on top of the noodle and pour the hot broth over it. Drizzle some crispy garlic and garlic oil over it see recipe here). Top it with spring onion. Best served hot.
Notes
- Be sure to press out the air pockets before sealing the wonton, otherwise the air pockets will expand during cooking and cause the wonton to burst open.
- The cooking time for the wonton depends on how much stuffing is added to each wonton.
- Boil the wonton and noodles in a wok of water first, rather than adding them directly into the broth. Otherwise the broth will turn starchy and cloudy due to the excess starch.
- If the water is getting too starchy, add more hot water before cooking the next bundle of noodle otherwise the noodle will be very starchy and not cooked through as the heat cannot penetrate well through starchy water.
- Do not over cook the vegetables.
- Adding a drop of oil to the water will make the vegetable more glossy and appealing.
- To make the vegetable look very green, restaurants and eateries usually add some sodium bicarbonate to the water before blanching the vegetable, but I prefer not to do when I am cooking at home.
- After frying the ikan bilis, immediately pour boiling water (not room temperature water) over it. This will cause the wok to sizzle and bring out the burnt 'wok hei' aroma.
