Wonton Soup
Plump pork and shrimp wontons with silky wrappers in a clear, clean broth. Store-bought wrappers, homemade filling, restaurant results.
Good wonton soup is a study in restraint. The broth should be clear and clean, the wrappers barely there, and the filling springy enough to have a slight bounce against the teeth. Nothing in it is heavy.
The two things home cooks usually get wrong are both fixable in a sentence. First, boil the wontons in plain water, not in the soup — starch from the wrappers is what turns restaurant-clear broth into cloudy sludge. Second, stir the filling in one direction until it is sticky. A minute of vigorous mixing changes the protein structure of the pork and gives you the bouncy texture that separates a proper wonton from a meatball in a wrapper.
Buy the wrappers. Hong Kong style wonton wrappers are thin, cheap, and available refrigerated at most Asian markets — making them yourself adds an hour and improves almost nothing.
Instructions
- 1
Mix the filling: pork, shrimp, ginger, half the scallions, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, white pepper, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Stir hard in one direction for a full minute until it turns sticky and paste-like — that texture is what makes the filling bouncy instead of crumbly.
- 2
Chill the filling 20 minutes.
- 3
Place a wrapper on your palm, add a rounded teaspoon of filling in the center, wet two adjoining edges, and fold into a triangle, pressing out all the air. Bring the two long corners together and pinch. Keep finished wontons under a damp towel.
- 4
Bring a large pot of water to a boil — cook the wontons in plain water, not in the broth, so the soup stays clear.
- 5
Boil the wontons in batches for 4 to 5 minutes, until they float and the wrappers turn translucent.
- 6
Meanwhile bring the broth to a simmer, season to taste, and blanch the bok choy in it for 2 minutes.
- 7
Divide the wontons among bowls, ladle over the hot broth and bok choy, and top with the remaining scallions.
Cook’s Notes
- Cook the wontons in separate water. Boiling them in the broth releases starch and turns a clear soup cloudy and gluey.
- Stir the filling in one direction until it is genuinely tacky. This develops the myosin in the pork and is the difference between a springy filling and a loose, crumbly one.
- Press the air out as you fold. Trapped air expands in boiling water and bursts the wrapper.
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