Wonton Soup

Ingredients

• 300 g pork mince
• 150 g raw prawns, roughly chopped
• about 30 wonton wrappers
• 25 g ginger, half grated and half sliced
• 6 spring onions
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1.4 litres good chicken stock
• 200 g pak choi, halved
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Method

1. Infuse the broth

   Simmer the stock with the sliced ginger and the white parts of the spring onions for 20 minutes, then strain. The broth is most of this dish, and a wonton soup made with unseasoned stock tastes of nothing.

   20 min

2. Beat the filling

   Mix the pork, prawns, grated ginger, sliced spring onion greens, soy, sesame oil, wine, cornflour and white pepper, then stir hard in one direction for a full minute until it turns sticky. That stirring is what stops the filling crumbling apart when you bite it.

   2 min

3. Fold

   A teaspoon of filling per wrapper, damp two edges, fold to a triangle pressing the air out, then bring the long corners together and pinch. Keep them under a damp cloth as you work.

4. Poach separately

   Cook the wontons in a separate pan of gently boiling water until they float and turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Boiling them in the broth clouds it with starch.

   4 min

5. Assemble

   Blanch the pak choi in the broth for two minutes, then divide the drained wontons between bowls and ladle the hot broth over. Serve straight away — the wrappers soften quickly once they sit.

   2 min