Now for Something Completely Different: Pork Wonton Soup

I had some ground pork in the freezer.  I had picked it up to make some meat loaf, but then I found The Country Cook's recipe which ended up not needing the pork after all (Tangent: want to make a small meatloaf with just 1 pound of ground meat?  Brandie's recipe is very very nice!)

Anyhoo, here I was with a pound of ground pork.  What to do...what to do...

After having dinner at a local Chinese restaurant last week, I had an idea.  I'd attempt homemade won ton soup!

So here we go!  I didn't document this as well as I would have liked -- this is a messy (but FUN) recipe and when Jacob got into helping me, it got more messy!

I used a combination of two recipes here, since one had ingredients I had on hand, and the other provided some better cooking information.

Start this recipe either the night prior or first thing in the morning before serving.  You want 6-48 hours of time for the ground meat mixture's flavors to combine.

Chop up a green onion...or two.  No one's counting.

The recipe called for a cup of finely shredded Napa cabbage.  Sadly, our local Publix was all out, so I got all lazy and picked up this bag of cole slaw mix.

Ran my knife across it a couple times...

Toss everything into a large bowl.

For my finely shredded carrot, I used my Microplane and 3 baby carrots.  Use the Microplane for the ginger too.

Add some sesame oil and soy sauce....

Mix it all together...use your hands, it'll work better that way!

Cover the mixture with some plastic wrap (tuck the wrap right down on top of the mixture) and chill for 6 hours or overnight.  The first recipe I liked says 30 minutes, but I vote for 6+ hours, per the 2nd recipe.

After chilling the mixture to let the flavors combine, it's time to prepare an assembly line for the wontons.  If you're going to cook the dumplings immediately, get a pot with 6-8 c. of chicken broth heating to a simmer (homemade is best!).  You'll turn it up to a gentle boil just before popping the dumplings in, but I took a while assembling the noodles, and to have the broth boiling all that time would have evaporated everything away, tee hee.

Here's my bouillon-cube chicken broth simmering.  I didn't have any of the good stuff on hand, although I need to cook up a batch soon!

You should be able to pick up refrigerated won ton wrappers at any grocery store.  I got these from my local military commissary.

Jacob made most of the wontons, which was a great help.  I wish I had done this a little more neatly, but you need a bowl with water (or egg white, but water works for us), the wonton wrappers, the meat and a place to put the finished wontons.  I put the finished wontons on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper, and a damp towel on top.  (PSST: Like my new Penn State Scentsy warmer in the upper right?)

Here's a wonton.

With a moistened finger, damped TWO adjacent edges.

Scoop out one teaspoon of the meat mixture.

Put that teaspoon on the center of the wonton, perhaps slightly off center.

Fold over the wonton and press the edges down.

You can have a little fun from here, folding them into assorted other shapes.  

I tried to keep them separated, but somehow that didn't happen.

Time to turn up the heat on the broth to boiling.  Drop in 8-10 of the wontons at a time into the water and bring it back to a boil.  Gently boil for 7 minutes, and then remove to serving bowls...2-3 at a time with some broth.  Garnish with some chopped green onion.

Don't crowd the pot, the wontons will stick to each other, and the bottom of the pot.

Unlike our local Chinese restaurant, I must have loaded the bowl with 5 wontons per person for dinner Saturday night.

I had a LOT of extra ground pork mixture, which I stir fried and added to the soup when I served it to the family.

This was somewhat labor-intensive, but not difficult.  Jacob had a good time helping me out, and all 4 of us agreed that this homemade soup was just as good as what we enjoy in restaurants.