Pork wonton soup

This is turning out to be one of my all time favourite soups. It has an amazingly fresh flavour and smell and leaves you feeling good. I put this down to the ingredients and their positive effects – honey, ginger, lemon, garlic and I suppose you could count sherry too, right? It’s just like a natural cold remedy.

If you’re scanning down the ingredients and method and thinking it looks complicated, it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t want to make the wonton wrappers, go buy some! If you’d just like to try out the soup then it features in one of my guest posts on Not Delia.

For those of you who fancy trying something new, or like a little challenge, try this. I think you’ll agree that it’s worth the effort!

Pork wonton soup

Serves 2-3

Wonton wrappers

75g plain flour
3-4 tbsp hot water

Filling

1 cabbage leaf (savoy is good), chopped
¼ red pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 spring onion, washed and chopped
1 inch piece ginger, chopped (skin on)
1 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp fish sauce
130g minced pork

Soup

2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
1 ½ inch piece of ginger, chopped skin on
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2pt/1l chicken stock (2 stock cubes makes enough)
1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sherry
2 tbsp honey
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 cabbage leaf, tough part removed then shredded
2 servings of noodles, cooked or straight to wok
2 spring onions, diagonally sliced
coriander, to garnish

Begin by placing the flour in a large mixing bowl. Pour in tablespoons of hot water, one at a time, whilst mixing with a chopstick. Once the flour clumps together squeeze it into a ball with your hands and knead for 10 minutes. It should feel smooth and firm, a little like a stress toy! Roll into a sausage shape, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Now you can start making the wonton filling. Place all the filling ingredients, apart form the pork, in a blender and blitz until everything is finely chopped. Scoop it out and mix with the pork. Chill in the fridge for 10-20 minutes.

While everything’s chilling you can prepare the soup. Put the lemongrass, ginger and garlic in a blender and whiz for 5-10 seconds. Place a large saucepan on a low heat and pour in a little groundnut or vegetable oil. Spoon in the mixture from the blender and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken stock, chilli, soy sauce, sherry and honey to the pan. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Lightly flour your work surface. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into 10 pieces. Flatten each piece with your thumb and use a rolling pin to roll to 1-2mm and as square as possible.

Spoon 1 heaped teaspoon of pork into the center of the wrap. Brush the edges with water and gently gather the corners into the center and twist to make a sealed parcel. Squeeze any gaps closed. Set aside.

Pass the soup through a sieve to remove all the bits. Return the soup to the pan and add the red pepper and cabbage. Carefully place each wonton into the soup, fit a lid and simmer for 5 minutes. The wonton’s will float when they’re cooked.

Heat up the noodles with some boiling water. Strain and divide between 2-3 bowls. Ladle in some soup and wontons.

Serve with a sprinkling of spring onions and coriander. Slurp. Feel good.

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