Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Pork Prawn Wonton Soup


Well-seasoned pork and prawn parcels are boiled in rich pork broth for a deliciously warming wonton soup, a favorite of locals and visitors alike in Singapore. The added green vegetables make this a full meal.

I’ve been traveling to Singapore rather regularly since 1981 when my father moved to Jakarta and it was a convenient stopover on a very long trip from the United States. (And if you've read my About me, you know I've had my own homes there as well.) One of my favorite childhood friends lived there with her parents and, if they were in residence when I was coming through, I was welcomed into their home like a second daughter. During our teenage years, her mother was at a loss to connect with her obstreperous daughter so I think my visits came as a relief, finally, a young person who would actually converse with her without raised voices and animosity. I’m pleased to say that my friend came around when she gave birth to her first daughter and her mother was once again raised to oracle status - Woman Who Knows All. Singapore was safe, even back then, and we were allowed to roam free, taking taxis and buses into all the seedy corners of the little city-state, eating at scruffy outdoor stalls, enjoying the spectacle on Bugis Street and drinking chilled Tiger beer.

One of my favorite breakfasts – yes, breakfasts, as folks in Southeast Asia tend to eat noodle soups for their morning meal as well as lunch or dinner – was wonton soup. The tender wonton skins are filled with a mixture of pork and prawns (or sometimes just pork) with seasonings and boiled in a rich pork stock, then topped with shredded vegetables. Sprinkle in some chili peppers and another dash of soy sauce and you’ve got yourself a filling bowl of savory goodness. To make the dish even more filling, often extra fresh egg noodles are added in addition to the wontons. This is a dish that turns up on our family table fairly often. Try it and you’ll see why.

This week, my Sunday Supper family are taking a virtual Asian foodie holiday and sharing Asian dishes.  This great event is hosted by Amy of kimchi MOM, whose photos cause me to drool every time I read her blog. Make sure you scroll down past my recipe to see all the great Asian-inspired dishes we have for you today.

Ingredients
For the wontons:
12 1/2 oz or 355g ground or minced pork (not too lean)
4 3/4 oz or 135g, peeled and clean, prawns or shrimp 
1 medium bunch green onions (Some will go in the soup.)
Generous 2 in or 5 cm piece fresh ginger (Some will go in the soup.)
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 egg white
1 teaspoon salt
1 red chili pepper (optional)
50 fresh wonton skins (These are sold in most Asian markets. If you can’t find them fresh in the refrigerated section, ask for help. If turnover isn’t great, they are often put in the freezer to extend their shelf life. Just thaw in the package and use as fresh.)

For the soup:
2 1/2 quarts or 2.4 liters pork broth or stock
Fresh ginger
Green onions
1 red chili pepper (optional)
Assorted green vegetables, thinly sliced or shredded – cabbage, lettuce, asparagus, snow peas, etc.
Soy sauce to taste

Method
Peel your ginger and slice half into thin sticks for the soup and mince the other half finely for the wonton filling. Chop your red chili peppers, if using, and divide the pile in three. Two bigger ones for the pork and broth, a little one for garnish. Cut half of the green onions into 1 inch or 2cm pieces for the soup and chop the rest finely for the wonton filling and set a couple of teaspoons aside for garnish.




Finely shred or thinly slice your extra vegetables for serving with the soup.



Put the stock on the stove and simmer slowly with the sticks of ginger, the long pieces of green onion and one of the bigger piles of chopped red chili pepper, if using.

Use a sharp knife to finely mince your peeled and cleaned prawns or shrimp. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine your ground pork and minced prawns with the minced green onions, ginger and minced red pepper, if using, along with the Chinese wine, sesame oil, sugar, egg white and salt.

Mix very thoroughly to combine.



Line a clean plate with cling film and set aside.

Take six wonton skins out of the pack at a time, keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth to keep them from drying out. Lay them out on a clean work surface and brush each a pastry brush dipped in cold water.

Add a scant teaspoon of the meat mixture and start folding the wonton skins in, first from the bottom corner to the top, then the sides and finally fold the top down, to create a little package.



Place your wontons on the lined plate and repeat the process until all the pork/prawn mixture is finished or you run out of wonton skins. If you need a second layer on your plate, cover the first with cling film.


(If you have extra wonton skins, you can cut them into pieces and boil with the wontons and serve. If you have a little extra filling mixture, it can be added to the simmering broth and whisked to break it up into little flavorful bits.)

If you are serving everyone at the same time and won’t have any leftovers, you can now put all the wontons in your broth and turn the heat up to a gentle boil. Add the vegetables just before serving so that they are just cooked but still crunchy.

If you know that you will have leftovers, you don’t want to add the wontons to the broth because they will continued to suck up your broth as they sit overnight in the refrigerator, getting mushy in the process. So, use a metal strainer submerged in the broth to cook several at a time.

Add a few shredded vegetables when the wontons are cooked through and you are almost ready to serve up that bowl. Cook them for just a couple of minutes.



Pour the contents of the strainer into a bowl and top with more broth. Garnish the soup with some green onions, sticks of ginger and red chili peppers. Serve with soy sauce, allowing each person to add a drizzle to suit his or her taste.



Enjoy!



Here's the whole round up of Sunday Supper's Asian recipes!

Small Bites
Soupy Goodness
Big Plates
On the Lighter Side
Cheers!
Oodles of Noodles


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Posted by at 3:22:00 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body. Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

Food Lust People Love: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body. Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

After last week’s indulgent recipes, #SundaySupper is focusing on healthy meals today!  Our host, the lovely Sunithi from Sue’s Nutrition Buzz is all about good food, made healthier.  I chose to make chicken noodle soup because it’s one of the comfort foods of my childhood.

Make sure you scroll on down to the bottom of this post to see what other wonderful healthy dishes my fellow bloggers have cooked up for you this week.  There are even some fabulous, guilt-free desserts!

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup


Ingredients to serve four
4 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts – about 1 lb or 500g
Sea salt
Black pepper
8 cups or almost 2 lt chicken stock
One stalk lemon grass
6-7 stalks green onions
1-2 red chilies (depending on your heat tolerance)
Large thumb fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 medium carrot
5 1/4 oz or 150g (or more if you love them) snowpeas or mange-tout
200g fresh baby corn (about 12 little ears)
6 oz or 170g bean thread noodles

(Note: Feel free to substitute your preferred vegetables, sliced thinly.  Just about anything fresh would taste good in this soup.)

For serving:
Small bunch fresh cilantro or coriander leaves
1 lime

Method
Start by slicing your chicken breasts thinly, then sprinkle them with some flakey sea salt and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper.  Put them into a bowl and give them a good stir.  Cover with cling film and pop the bowl in the refrigerator.



Put your chicken stock in a large pot.  Bring it to the boil and then turn the heat down to simmer.

Cut the root ends off of the lemon grass and the green onions and slice the white parts very thinly.  For the lemon grass discard the hard green part of the stalk or have a read here of some ideas to use it.  Cut the green part of the onions into 1 inch or 2cm lengths and set them aside to use later for garnish.




Chop your red chilies.  Peel and mince your ginger. 



Add the white parts of the lemon grass and green onions, the ginger and the chilies to the gently simmering stock.  Add in the two tablespoons of fish sauce.



The longer you simmer, the better the soup will taste, but ideally this step should take a minimum of 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, pull the tough threads off of both sides of your snowpeas and cut your baby corn into short lengths.



Cut your carrot into little matchsticks using a sharp knife, or if you have a handy tool like mine, (a gift from a dear friend who knows me very well – purchased at Lakeland) use that. (Update: Since a few people asked, I found a Google Affiliate ad for a similar julienne peeler from SurLaTable and I've added it at the bottom.  I think I earn a few cents if you buy through the link.)



Some recipes call for the chicken to be added to the stock a few minutes before the vegetables but I find that makes for a cloudy soup.  So, pan-fry your sliced chicken with a little drizzle of olive oil over a high heat until it is just cooked, possibly still a little pink inside.  It will finish cooking as it sits in the pan.  (If cloudy chicken soup doesn’t bother you, feel free to add the chicken straight into the pot.)



Cover the bean thread noodles with very hot water in a heatproof bowl and allow to soften.  This takes just a few minutes.  Drain in a colander and then cut the noodles with a pair of sharp, clean scissors.  This will make them way less messy to eat.  Set aside until ready for serving.



When you are almost ready to serve, chop your cilantro and slice the lime into wedges.


About five to 10 minutes before you want to eat, depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables, add the carrot, snowpeas and baby corn to the pot.  Turn the fire up slightly and cook until the vegetables are your desired doneness.


To serve, add some of the noodles and chicken (if it’s not already in the stock) to the bowl.  Fill the bowl with hot broth and a share of the cooked vegetables.  Top with a little cilantro and green onion.  Each person should get a lime wedge for squeezing into the soup.  

Food Lust People Love: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body. Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

Enjoy!


Finish up that box of Valentines’ Day chocolates.  Go ahead.  We’ll wait.  *drums fingers and whistles*  Okay, now follow these links to make something delicious and healthy for your next meal!


Sizzling Skinny Appetizers & Soups

Healthy Skinny Mains & Sides

Guilt Free Skinny Desserts & Snacks

Pin this Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup! 


Food Lust People Love: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body. Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

Posted by at 2:04:00 AM 66 comments
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