Boy, have we come a long way since 2008. Some of you have been with us since we got married and we’re about to celebrate our Five-year Anniversary! Since then, we’ve definitely moved away from doing as many restaurant reviews (though worthy ones will still appear) and focused strongly on the recipes. It seemed that’s what you, our readers wanted. As we continually look to improve I sometimes backtrack to important recipes like this one where I feel compelled to improve the content. I originally posted this basic wonton recipe on October 29, 2008 and all I wrote was this:

“The traditional basic wonton is made with a pork filling and I decided to do just that, nothing fancy or inventive, just a good basic wonton.”

Basic Wontons title pic

…and of course the recipe followed, which I left basically unchanged (just a little wording adjustments and changed pics). I still use this exact same recipe all the time. It’s a classic. I wanted to update the old photos as I often do and more importantly, I needed to add a video to better illustrate how to fold a wonton. The video is so much better than words in this case!

Without further a-do, here’s how to fold a wonton (full recipe below):

While I’m at it, I have a couple more tips…

1. While I love making dumpling skins, I usually buy wonton skins because they have to be really thin. This is my favorite brand (and it’s the most natural, no artificial coloring):

wonton skins

2. For when a little leaner filling is desired, I’ve substituted with ground turkey several times, in the exact same quantity. Nothing else needs to change and it’s great! A very experienced pork wonton eater may know the difference, but I think many will not, especially if you use dipping sauces.

3. Lastly, I forgot to mention last time that wontons can be eaten as is, with or without a dipping sauce, in soups, or fried. I’m planning some future posts to embellish.

Basic Wontons
~about 55 wontons

  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 package wonton wrappers (available at Asian grocery stores)

1. In a large bowl, mix together pork, scallions, egg, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

wonton filling

2. Set up your wonton making station: You need a little bowl with water (this is for you to dip your finger in) and a wet paper towel to lay over the wonton wrappers (to keep them moist).

water dip bowl wonton skins covered

3. Lay a wonton wrapper flat and put roughly 1 1/2 teaspoon of filling on it, a little below center.

step 2 put pork on wrapper

4. Let’s call upper left point 1, upper right point 2, lower left point 3, lower right point 4. Dab your finger in the water bowl and run it across the top of the wonton wrapper, from point 1 to point 2. Bring the bottom of the wrapper to meet the top and stick together: point 3 meets point 1 and point 4 meets point 2.

step 3 wet wrapper and fold in half

5. So now you have point 1/3 and point 2/3. Let’s call the bottom A on the left and B on the right. Fold it in half one more time so that 1/3 meets A and 2/3 meets B.

step 4 fold again

6. Now hold it so that A and B are closer to you and the numbered points are right behind and all point are facing up ( I hope this is making sense to you.) Curl it together so that point A meets point B. Dab a little water on point A and stick point B to it. Hopefully, this is what you get:

step 5 finish wonton

7. Repeat until you’ve used up all the pork filling. You probably won’t eat all of this right away, so lay it in a tupperware container with wax paper in between layers, and store in the freezer.

Basic Wontons (before coking)

8. When you’re ready to eat you just boil them. Boiling fresh ones will take roughly 3 minutes and boiling from frozen will take about 5 minutes. Usually they float when they are done.

Basic Wonton

posted by jessica at 07:55 AM Filed under Chinese, Recipes, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.