Today I'm going to show you how my dearest Grandma 奶奶 taught me to wrap a wonton. On wonton making day my 奶奶 would always round up all us kids to help her. First we would make homemade wonton wrappers.
The nifty pasta maker (I bought one recently and it's still unchanged after all this time!) would be clamped firmly to our dining table. Us kids would fight for the chance to turn the crank on the pasta maker and watch the dough roll through again and again until at last it magically rolled out in thin shiny supple sheets. Grams 奶奶 would then cut the dough sheets into squares with her big chopper knife and then she would have our extra (and small) hands to help wrap up plump snowy row after row of wontons. It's easy once you done it once or twice.
There are other methods to wrap wonton but they all revolve around the most important rule of wonton wrapping: wrap it up snug and tight so that the wonton doesn't fall apart during boiling! For myself, the wrapping I always use is the same one dearest grandma taught me all those years ago.
Wonton wrappers are made of flour and water, worked into smooth supple, thin but still sturdy square wrappers. There are also yellow square wrappers that are known as HK wonton wrappers or cantonese wonton wrappers. These are made with egg and are far more thin and delicate and are meant specifically for HK/Cantonese style wonton so not for our purposes here.
To wrap the wonton lay one wrapper on a clean dry surface and scoop approx. 1 heaping tbsp of filling onto the middle. Keep in mind that some wonton wrappers are larger than others so the amount of filling should be adjusted. You want a plump, not obese, not skinny, wonton.
Have a small saucer of water ready. Dip finger into water and mark a wet line along the edges on three sides. If you squint you can see the wet marks in the photo above. This water is to help seal the wonton closed.
Fold the wrapper in half and press to seal the top middle point where the two sides meet.
Now seal all three sides together by pressing top and sides gently but firmly together. Be sure to push air out before sealing the two sides.
Now for the wonton fold! In reality it's just a turn or two but this spot is where most folks get a bit muddled in the beginning. No fear, here is the wonton fold in slow motion!
At the highest point of the filling fold again.
Once you have the lengthwise fold it's time to fold again but crosswise this time. Except as you fold crosswise you're going to bump into the big bump that is the filling. That's okay, it's supposed to be there!
As you try to fold crosswise you'll see the classic wonton shape appear. The wonton shape is there and you're almost done, you've just got to make sure the wonton stays in this folded shape. To do this you're gonna use the two corner edges of wonton skin closest to you. You can see my index finger on one of those corners in the photo above.
Remember that saucer of water? Well, we're going to need it again. Dip finger in water and dab on one of those two corner edges. Then take the other corner edge and put it over the wetted corner edge and press to seal tight. You can see my thumb pressing to seal the two corners in above photo. Once you're sure that it has sealed and will stay sealed your wonton is wrapped!
Here is the final wrapped wonton in all its classical yet humble glory. I love the shape of wontons as well as the taste, the silky skin around the generous pocket of deliciously satisfying and tasty filling. I love that it's a meal in one. In fact I love it so much that I can eat twice as much as I usually do if the food is wrapped inside a wonton!
Maybe that's just Grandma's love coming at me, I don't know for sure, but I also think that there's a bit of magic in wontons themselves as eating them makes me so happy. Wontons: comfort for the heart and the tummy :)
Check out our Vegetarian Plant Based Wonton recipe for some wholesome veggie goodness. And for easy instructions on how to cook the wontons. Or if you're a confirmed carnivore we've got you there as well, just head over to our recipe for Chinese Jiaozi Dumpling which can easily be converted to yummilicious meat and veggie filled wonton, just switch from jiaozi wrapper (round and thicker) to wonton wrapper (thinner and square), follow our wonton wrapping guide here and Bob's your uncle!
0 comments:
Post a Comment