Steamed wontons in broth (comfort food)

Mmm, steamed wontons! I have a bit of a cold, I think, and I didn't really feel like making anything tonight... but since this is comfort food for me, I made a reluctant exception. I'm glad I did!

The ingredients on these are a little funny, because I'm almost always changing them up depending on what I do or don't have available in my kitchen. It's MUCH better with fresh ginger, but my Asian grocer didn't have any that looked good enough for me, so I went with powdered ginger instead. *If you use powdered ginger, just a few pinches will do depending on how much you like the taste. **Sometimes I make them with beef instead of pork, but it tends to get a little greasy, and they need a poke with the chopstick before adding to the broth to drain the extra grease from them, if you do. The broth, also, depends on your own taste. You could add a little sugar or honey to sweeten it, and the chili sauce isn't necessary -- but it's tasty! Realistically, I never measure these ingredients out, so below are ALL estimates, and can be adjusted according to your own personal taste. Experiment, and have fun!

Supplies & ingredients:

A package of wonton "Shanghai style" wrappers, anywhere from 20-60 (depending on if you're making the whole batch at once, or just enough for one or two people)

Filling:
1 lb. pork (you can substitute with beef**)
1 to 1.5 cups chopped or shredded cabbage
1 tsp. more or less of fresh ginger (you can substitute with ground ginger*)
1 tbsp. chopped cilantro
1 tbsp. chopped garlic (optional)

Broth:
1 to 2 cups water
1/4 to 3/4 cup soy sauce
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 to 1.5 tbsp. sesame oil
Chili garlic sauce, to taste (optional)

Additional cilantro, green onion for garnish (optional)

Bowl for mixing
Steamer basket (in a pinch, you can probably use a metal strainer, but I wouldn't recommend this! I've done it before, though.)
Knife for chopping
Spoon for stirring


Soundtrack:

American Idol on the TV

Chop or shred the cabbage until its relatively fine. I made mine a little chunkier, but that's because I really LOVE the taste of cabbage! Add into a large bowl with the pork, and mix with a wooden spoon until its thoroughly combined together. Add the cilantro, and continue to mix.

Add the sesame oil and ground OR fresh ginger (one or the other). This will help to make it easier to mix, and it should become a little bit sticky. Your going to be making little pork balls as the wonton filling, so you want all of the ingredients to stick together well.

Roll the pork mixture into tiny little balls. They should probably be about the size of a shooter marble... (does anyone really remember shooter marbles?), or one of those bouncing balls you buy for 25-cents in the grocery store.

Wet the wonton wrappers along the edge, and immediately begin to pin up the edges. First you're going to make a little triangle...

...then pinch the other two edges together at the top. If it doesn't seem to be sticking, you probably need to make the edges a little wetter. You can wet your fingers and squeeze the tips together to help them stick.

This may or may not be the "correct" way to do it, but this is how I use my steamer. I boil a pot of water, and just prop it on top. Sometimes its easier to remove the wontons if you layer the bottom of the steamer with something, I've used everything from lettuce to wax paper.

When the water begins to boil, add the wontons to the steamer. Mine held 16 wontons, pretty squished together. Put the lid on, turn the heat down a little (just high enough to keep a slight rolling boil), and let them steam away!

Bring the water for the broth to a boil, and add the bouillon cube. Once it has dissolved, add the soy sauce, peanut oil, and chili sauce. Set the heat to low, just enough to keep it warm, but definitely not boiling.

The wontons should probably steam for about 10-15 minutes, and you can check on them by poking a little hole in the wonton and checking the color and consistency of the pork ball inside. Once they are done, put them in a bowl, pour the broth over them almost to cover, garnish with a piece of cilantro (if you're feeling fancy) and a few slices of green onion. Enjoy, yum!

I made 16 wontons, enough (some may say more than enough) for two. I saved the rest for another day, probably using less than half of the mixture. You can also make all of the wontons, and freeze those that you don't need (making it a LOT easier the next time you have a taste for them... just throw them in the steamer!).

Here is my first attempt at pricing the dish per serving, so it may be a little bit off... but I think this was about $1/serving. It's difficult to estimate, because I've had the ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili sauce in my fridge and cabinet for a while, and don't use very much of it in the recipe. I'm going to assume that it's cheaper for you to just buy the fresh ginger (if you don't have powdered already), and it's going to taste better too! Cabbage is also quite cheap, as is cilantro, and I got the pork at the Asian market for about two dollars. Basically, this is a really cheap dish to make, and it doesn't taste cheap at all! And, with this recipe, you will have MORE than enough to save for another day.

Now... off to lie around complaining about feeling kind of gross and icky. Goodnight, ya'll!