Pork Won Ton

Look at my hands busying away there. Proper little chef, me. I’d been meaning to have a go at making won ton for ages but kept putting it off, thinking it would be fiddly. But it was suprisingly easy. Yes, the wrappers did tear a couple of times but that doesn’t matter really, this recipe makes loads. It is courtesy of my friend Sheo.

Ingredients
Makes about 40

A packet of won ton wrappers

450g minced pork
300g or so of Chinese greens – pak choi/bok choi is what I used.
100g chinese chives (although I just used ordinary chives, not having an Asian supermarket handy. You could also use spring onions (scallions)).
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
1 tablespoon rice wine (I didn’t have this so used red wine vinegar, which worked fine)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornflour or superfine flour

The Cooking

Okay, finely chop the pak choi or whatever greens you’re using, sprinkle them with salt and set them aside for 30 minutes or so. This is to draw the water out of them.

Meanwhile, chop up the minced pork even more, you want it really well minced. Once the greens have sat with the salt for a bit, squeeze them really firmly over the sink to get all the water out. I was surprised how much there was.

Now mix together all the ingredients apart from the wrappers and put about a teaspoon-sized lump in the middle of a won ton wrapper. Wet the edges of the wrapper with your finger (that’s what I’m doing in the above photo) and then draw the edges together and make it into a little purse shape, twisting the top slightly thusly:

That’s it, just keep repeating this until you’ve run out of the mixture. Keep the made-up wontons covered so that they don’t dry out.

You can cook these one of two ways: you can fry and steam them or you can boil them and make wonton soup. Boiling is probably easier but I steamed and fried them to be eaten as a starter.

Heat some oil in a non-stick pan and when hot, add the wonton parcels with the twists upright. Fry them for a couple of minutes and then thow in a cupful of water and put a lid on the pan. Leave it to steam for 4-6 minutes, by which time the water will proably have been absorbed and it will be cooked. Serve straight away with some dippy sauce like soy sauce or sweet chilli sauce or whatever you fancy. Very nice.