I decided to make a won-ton soup so I could make dumplings but I also wanted one that was a touch less traditional than you normally get. I figured I could make a wonton style hot and sour soup by blending two classic style soups into one.
When I was a child one of my first food memories is making dumplings, gyoza specifically, with my mom. I was barely tall enough to reach the counter but I was able to "help" out. We used these gyoza presses and would make a fair amount each time, cook them off in bamboo steamers. I still make them every once in awhile, but I change the recipes and procedure a bit from the original process.
For this soup I decided to make pork and chicken dumplings. I've put the recipe on a separate page as by itself it's fairly involved. Additionally you can fold them in numerous ways to get different styles of dumplings, but the process is generally the same.
Outside of the "wontons", I broke the soup part of this recipe into a few sections. Firstly the broth. This is probably the most important part of the process and I kept it similar to my hot and sour soup recipe with some slight variation. I kept the egg out of the soup and I added some Sichuan peppercorns for a floral flavor, as well as fermented garlic and ginger. I had been playing around with fermentation and made these, but feel free to use regular garlic and ginger as substitutes. Next is the roasted mushrooms. I just used shiitakes and oyster mushrooms then roasted and glazed them to add a rich flavor by themselves. The final part of the soup before actually putting it together is for the pressed tofu. This is just a simple step of removing the excessive moisture from the tofu so it doesn't soften the flavor of the soup when added. Finally I have the final part of the recipe which is to build the soup using the other pieces.
With a soup like this you can adjust in numerous ways. You can change the broth and dumplings up to keep it vegetarian, you can add any number of vegetables to bulk it out. I decided to keep it fairly simple, though there are a couple of steps going into it, and only have five ingredients in the actual building of the soup.
Enjoy.
Hot & Sour Broth
Ingredients
Chicken Stock 3 qt
Water 2 qt
Garlic, heads smashed 2 ea
Ginger, peeled 3 oz
Galangal* 2 oz
Black Vinegar 1/2 cup
Aji Mirin 1/4 cup, to taste
Soy Sauce 1 cup, to taste
Dried mushrooms 1 cup
Scallion bottoms 1 bunch
Szechuan Peppercorns 2 T
White pepper, ground 3 T, to taste
Fresh mushroom stems (from soup) all
*I added galangal to this as it's similar to ginger and I had it in my pantry. If you don't feel like using galangal just increase the ginger used in the base.
Method of Procedure
Put garlic, ginger, galangal, peppercorns, stems from the fresh mushrooms for the soup, white peppers, and scallion bottoms into a soup pot.
Wrap the dired mushrooms in cheese cloth and add them to the pot.
Cook on medium while stirring until the vegetables begin to soften.
Add vinegar and soy sauce and continue to cook while stirring until the liquid is reduced by half.
Add water and stock then bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for at least 2 hours until the harder roots and mushrooms have softened.
Drain through a chinois and squeeze excess moisture through using the back of a ladle.
Return your liquid to a pot and bring to a simmer.
Add Mirin and water and continue to simmer.
Season to taste with soy, vinegar, and white pepper.
Roasted Mushrooms
Ingredients
Mushrooms
Oyster Mushrooms, stemmed & sliced 1 lb
Shiitakes, stemmed & sliced 1 lb
Sesame Oil 3 T
Chili Oil 2 T
Black Vinegar 1 T
Soy Sauce 1 T
Method of Procedure
Stem your mushrooms and use them to make the broth. Slice the remaining mushrooms.
Working in batches saute your mushrooms on medium high heat using sesame oil until they begin to brown and remove.
Repeat this until all the mushrooms are sauteed.
Heat your pan with chili oil and return your mushrooms to the pan (they should have reduced enough to fit into one large saute pan).
Cook until the mushrooms begin to get darker then deglaze the pan with the remaining ingredients.
Continue to cook on medium until all the liquid has cooked off.
Reserve and cool.
Building The Soup
Ingredients
Dumplings* 3-4 per soup
Scallions* 3 T
Tofu, pressed* 4 oz
Roasted Mushooms 4 oz
Hot & Sour Broth 6 oz
Chili Oil 1-3 tsp, to taste
*these are ingredients for a 8-10 oz bowl of soup. You can add as many or as little as desired.
Method of Procedure
Once you've prepped all your items and steamed your dumplings you can proceed.
In a saute pan heat up your chili oil.
Add your dumplings and saute to warm.
Add tofu, mushrooms, scallions, and broth.
Bring to a simmer for 5-10 minutes and season to taste.
Comments