RCP: Chinese wonton

Wonton dumplings, boiled, steamed or deep-fried, are popular all over China and various regions have their own dialect names for the dish and their own styles for the filling. Wonton is the Cantonese name; in Sichuan they are chao shou. All the regional variants use a skin made out of pasta dough rolled out thin and cut into squares. Wonton wrappers are available at most US supermarkets and Asian groceries. I'm not a fan of the ubiquitous Nasoya brand as, in my experience, the wrapper tends to crack while folding the wontons. The ones I prefer are made by Twin Marquis in Brooklyn. They come 70 to a one-pound package, just about the right amount for one recipe of the filling. These are Shanghai-style wonton wrappers, made without egg and very thin. Because of the way they are packaged, the wonton wrappers like to separate in pairs. If you've never worked with them before, you may be surprised at how thin they are. Check to make sure you are working with only one wrapper before you start to fill it.

There are various styles for wrapping the dumplings; I'll be giving three variants.

All of the filling recipes involve 1/2 pound of ground pork.

Here are the ingredients for a Shanghai-style filling (from the Joyce Chen Cookbook):

1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS cold water
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp minced scallions (green onions), or more
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp shaohsing rice wine (or dry fino Sherry)

Here are the ingredients for a Sichaun-style filling (from Fuscia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery):

2 TBS ginger water (crush 30 grams fresh ginger, soak in 2 TBS water for 10 minutes, discard ginger and keep water)

1/2 egg, beaten
1 tsp shaohsing rice wine (or dry fino Sherry)
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp (heaping) salt
3-4 turns of a black pepper mill
50 grams cold chicken stock

For both fillings, mix all the ingredients with the meat in a bowl until thoroughly combined.

You then fill each wonton wrapper with a scant 1/2 tsp of filling, applying one of the folding techniques in the following replies. Keep the finished wontons under a damp cloth or paper towel so that they don't dry out.

Raw wontons freeze well, but when deep-fried the texture of defrosted wontons will be a bit different from fresh.

To deep-fry wontons, heat vegetable oil (I prefer peanut oil) in a suitable deep-frying vessel to 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to use an electric wok for this. The sloping sides of the wok let you use less oil (about 2 pints) and the electric thermostat does the temperature control for you. Fry the wontons in batches and avoid overcrowding. Drop them in top side down so that the edges flare out, then turn them over (two chopsticks work well for this) so that the bottoms cook first. After about a minute the oil will start to bubble a lot as the filling cooks and releases its moisture. When this happens, turn the wontons over. After another minute, turn them again so that the bottoms are downward. They will be golden brown after another minute; remove them. The big brass-wire Chinese scoop is ideal for scooping them out. Drain on paper towels. Serve with Chinese plum sauce (the authentic original of that abomination Chinese-American "duck sauce"), Thai sweet chilli sauce, or Chinese hot mustard.

To boil wontons, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat, drop in a batch of dumplings and stir once to prevent sticking. When the water has returned to the boil, put in a coffee cup of cold water. When the water returns to the boil again, the wontons should be done. Scoop them out and drain in a colander. They can now be served in individual bowls with various condiments or added to soup. For wonton soup, you could cook the wontons directly in the soup, but surface starch on the wontons will make the soup cloudy, so if you want crystal-clear wonton soup you must boil the wontons separately.

In restaurants, they use a chopstick to place a minuscule amount of filling in the center of the wrapper, then they bring up all sides of the wrapper around the filling to form a rough bag shape. This makes sense when you have to fold thousands of them at a time, but in the home there are more elegant (albeit slower) techniques. The three in the next replies--the leaf, the flower, and the nun's cap--differ only in the first fold.

-Paul W.

The final wonton shape has two completely overlapped flaps on opposite ends of the dumpling. I prefer it for boiled wontons because the doubled-over flaps resist getting mushy.

[1] Place a wonton wrapper on a plate, then put 1/2 tsp (scant) of filling in the center of it. With a finger moisten the skin just above the filling, in the direction of one of the corners of the wrapper:

wonton_leaf-1.jpg

[2] Fold the wonton point-to-point to form a triangle by bringing the corner opposite the moistened edge over the filling. Press around the filling to drive out any air bubbles and to seal around the filling:

wonton_leaf-2.jpg

[3] Roll the hypotenuse of the triangle up, about halfway to the right angle:

wonton_leaf-3.jpg

[4] Moisten the left point with some water, then bring both points around and press the left point firmly on the right point so that they adhere. The final wonton should look like this:

wonton_leaf-4.jpg

-Paul W.

The final wonton shape has flaps at each corner. I prefer this shape for deep-frying because the non-overlapping flaps are crunchier. And they look elegant when deep-fried.

[1] As with the leaf wonton, place 1/2 tsp (scant) of filling in the center of the wonton skin. Moisten the wonton skin above the filling in the direction you will be folding.

[2] Fold the lower corner of the skin across the filling to a position 1/2 way between the upper left edge. Press down the skin above the filling, eliminating any air bubbles and sealing in the filling:

wonton_flower-1.jpg

[3] Roll the filling side up parallel to the first fold:

wonton_flower-2.jpg

[4] Moisten the bottom of the left flap, then bring both flaps towards you and press the right one over the leftt one to seal. The final wonton should look like this:

wonton_flower-3.jpg

-Paul W.

The final shape looks like, well, a nun's cap. This shape works well either boiled or deep-fried.

[1] As with the other styles, place 1/2 tsp (scant) of filling directly in the center of the wrapper. Orient the wrapper so that the sides are parallel to you (as opposed to point-up, as in the previous folds). Moisten halfway around the side of the filling away from you.

[2] Fold the wrapper over the filling to form a rectangle. Press around the filling to eliminate air bubbles and to seal in the filling:

wonton_nuns_cap-1.jpg

[3] Fold the filling side away from you to form a narrower rectangle:

nun_3b.jpg

[4] Moisten the left side flap, then bring the right side flap over it and press to seal. The final wonton should look like this:

wonton_nuns_cap-2.jpg

-Paul W.

Thank you, thank you! I have made won ton before but never knew the details of all the shapes.

I added the missing picture of the 2nd nun's cap wonton fold, and also added some more info about wonton skins.

I also found this page with ten different ways to fold wonton: https://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/how-to-fold-wontons.html.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, I didn't realize there were so many other ways to fold wonton! And, btw, there's an 11th--something I do sometimes with round, not square, wrappers. They end up like little beggars purses--have never seen them that way in Chinese cooking, it's just something that happens rather naturally in my hand for some reason.

I LOVE WONTONS. Especially with chili oil.