Taste & Create: Wonton Soup

Wow this month has been busy. I hope everyone had a great Holiday!! I sure did, and lookie here, I managed to just barely get in my submission for this month's Taste & Create event. This time I was paired up with Happy Cook of My Kitchen Treasures. I had one more vacation day yesterday, so I was able to choose a recipe that is more of a weekend day project, Wonton Soup! It's not a hard recipe, really, but making all the little wontons and making stock is not a weekday night kind of deal. However, the freezer is now stocked up with lots of delicious little chicken wontons and several tubs of chicken stock, a staple.

These wontons were sooo good. I followed Happy Cook's recipe pretty much word for word, except instead of bundle shapes, I made little hats, because when I tried the bundles, they seemed like they were going to tear. They have a nice healthy dose of ginger in them, so if you are a ginger fan like me, you will love these.





For the soup I used homemade stock, made from the bones of the chicken leg quarters I used for the stuffing of the wontons, and some backs and necks. I added garlic and salt and pepper and more soy sauce to my soup, but other than that it was Happy Cook's recipe. It's a lighter flavored soup that lets the wontons shine. Mine seemed a little oily...I think it's because I put too much skin in when I made the stock? Anyway...on to the recipes!!

Soup
1 to 2 Tbsp oil
1 onion chopped fine
1 small piece of ginger grated
3 garlic cloves, grated
2 to 3 chiles
about 6 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions for a few minutes. Add the chiles, ginger, garlic and soy sauce and cook anther minute or so. Add the stock and Cook for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. Ladle into bowls over cooked wontons. Serve hot. Garnish with green onions and cilantro.

Wontons
1 packet of store bought wonton wrappers
Meat from 4 chicken leg quarters (I bought the skin on, bone-in ones, and used the bones for my stock)
1 big piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
3 to 4 chiles or according to your taste
2 Tbsp of soy sauce or to your taste
4 Tbsp finley chopped spring onions
2 Tbsp cilantro leaves
1 Tbsp corn flour

Grind all ingredients together into a fine paste in a food processor.

Place a Tbsp of filling in the middle of each wrapper, brush the sides of the wrapper with water and press the corners together, then press the 4 seams together to form little hat-like shapes. Set aside however many wontons you want for your soup (I used 4 per bowl), then freeze the rest on cookie sheets for about an hour before transferring them to a large freezer bag. Heat water in a big pot with salt and a bit of oil and when the water is boiling add the prepared wontons and cook for few minutes, drain them and put them in bowls for soup.