Fact: soups aren’t filling. Nobody gets full from a soup. When’s the last time you ordered a soup as a main dish? How often have you you gone, “oh man. I’m stuffed. I can’t take another millimeter of this delicious broth,” after eating a bowl of soup?
Never. That’s how often.
That’s why moms and dads threw in veggies and chicken in noodle soups and that’s why this week on the BLT Project, wontons reign supreme.
Wontons hail from an entrenched place in Chinese cuisine but for the unfamiliar, they’re similar to dumplings or perogies. Only instead of being filled with dough or mashed potatoes and cheese, these savory bundles and filled with a mixture of pork and chives.
These dumplings get their flavour from hoisin sauce, a deep, black pigmented condiment with a consistency similar to ketchup, only instead of being tangy, it’s sweet and pairs excellently with many meats. The pork and chives keep this sweetness in check with a mild saltiness that rounds out the dish. You can find many of the ingredients in this recipe at a well stocked supermarket or at specialty Oriental grocery stores.
There are many ways to make wontons and while the triangle wonton is the simplest –if not the most unattractive form– it gives any chef versatility in how they want to cook these tasty bundles. If you’re not in the mood to boil, this recipe works just as well steamed or if you’re feeling less virtuous, you can easily deep fry each wonton bundle to make a tasty appetizer.
Extra wontons can be placed on a flat dish, covered with clear plastic wrap and frozen for late use. They should last up to two weeks.
Photography for this week brought to you by Brian Vinh Tien Trinh and Anna Tannas
Pork and Chive Wontons
A BLT Project Original Recipe
What’s In it:
- 50 wonton wrappers
-1 lb of ground pork
-1/2 a cup of chives
-1 green onion, diced
-1/2 cup of minced onions
-2 tbsp of minced garlic
-1 tbsp of sesame oil
-1 tbsp of sugar
-3 tbsp of hoisin sauce
-2 tbsp of soya sauce
-pinch of salt and pepper
Makes 50 dumplings
1. Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until everything is fully incorporated.
The pork should take change from a faint pink to a light brown tinge.
2. Here you’ll need a small container with about a 1/4 cup of water. Place a wrapper on a flat surface. Dip your finger tips in the water and and moisten the four edges.
3. Take about a 1/2 a tsp of the pork-and-chive filling and place it in the centre of the wrapper.
4. Grab a corner of the wrapper and fold over so it touches the opposite corner to form a triangle.
5. Apply gentle pressure to seal up the dumpling by pressing along the edges of the triangle. It’s best to move left to right in order to get rid of any air pockets.
6. To cook the wontons, slowly lower them into a pot of salted, boiling water. Boil for 5-6 minutes or until the wontons float to the top of the pot.
