Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Hong Kong cuisine is mainly influenced by Cantonese cuisine, non-Cantonese Chinese cuisine (especially Teochew, Hakka, Hokkien and the Jiangsu & Zhejiang), the Western world, Japan, and Southeast Asia, due to Hong Kong's past as a British colony and long history of being an international city of commerce. From the roadside stalls to the most upscale restaurants, Hong Kong provides an unlimited variety of food in every class. Complex combinations and international gourmet expertise have given Hong Kong the reputable labels of "Gourmet Paradise" and "World's Fair of Food".

Most As Hong Kong is Cantonese in origin and most Hong Kong Chinese are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cantonese-speaking parts of China, the food is a variant of Cantonese cuisine – almost all home cooking and much of the dine-out fares, from restaurant to bakery, are Cantonese or heavily Cantonese-influenced. As in the parent cuisine, the Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine accepts a wide variety of ingredients, a lighted seasoned taste. Unlike Guangzhou, the uninterrupted contacts Hong Kong has with the West has made it more susceptible to Western influences, and has produced favourites such as egg tarts and Hong Kong-style milk tea.

In addition, other foreign styles of cuisines are also popular in the territory, although almost all offer one of generic Western (authentic, international, or Hong Kong-style), Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines.

With this varied background cooking for my chosen country in “Around the World in 30 days” should have been easy but believe me it was not. I was tempted to change countries!!

I first decided in my chosen theme of Street Food to make Hong Kong-style milk tea and I made it too. Check here but I did not like the tea; it did not taste any different from my regular tea only it was sweeter.

Next I decided to on bubble tea in place of the tapioca sago used our regular sago. the girls did not like it so I decided to make” Wonton Soup” another delicious street food.

So let’s enjoy “Wonton Soup” I do not know how the wontons tasted as they had long disappeared and Hubby and I had to be content with just soup!

Wonton Soup

Recipe Source: Vegetarian Chinese Cooking by Kaushi Bhatia

Preparation time: 30 minutes.

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Cooking time: 20 minutes.

Serves 4 (approx 16 wontons)

For the wonton wrappings:

• 1 cup refined flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• A little water

For wonton filling:

• ½ carrot, cut in juliennes
• 8 French beans, chopped fine
• ½ cup cabbage, minced
• ¼ cup onions, minced
•  ½ cup capsicum (I used red, yellow)
• A pinch ajinomoto (I did not use)
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp soya sauce
• 1½ tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

For the soup:

• 9 cups water
• 4-5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp ginger, crushed
• ½ tsp oil
• ½ cup onions, minced
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp ajinomoto( I did not use)
• Salt to taste
• ½ cup minced carrots
• ¼ cup cabbage, minced
• ¼ cup finely chopped spring onion tops

Method:

To prepare wonton wrappings without eggs:

• Sift flour and salt.
•  Rub oil until flour resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add water little by little and prepare a stiff dough, kneading thoroughly.
• Cover with moist napkin and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll out as thinly as possible on a floured board.
• Sprinkle a little flour on both sides of the rolled out portions.
• Cut them into 4 inch squares with a sharp knife.
• Keep covered under the moist napkin till needed.

To prepare the filling:

•  Heat the oil and add the carrot, French beans, cabbage, capsicum, onions, ajinomoto(if using), sugar, pepper, soya sauce and salt.
• Stir fry over a high flame for about 3 minutes.
•  Remove to a dish and cool.
• Divide into 16 portions.

To assemble the wontons:

• You can make any shape you want but here is what I did
• Place a portion of filling on  corner of each wrapping.
• Fold the wrapper so that the filling in and the wonton looks like a triangle.
• Fold it so that the filling is sealed but maintain the triangle shape.
• Wet one edge and stick the sides. Like a chef’s hat!! Set aside again under the moist napkin.

Now prepare the soup:

• Heat oil and fry the ginger and garlic add onions and stir . Your onions will stick to the bottom of the pan  so stir and you need not fry them completely.
• Add  water , soya sauce, pepper, sugar, ajinomoto (if using), salt and the prepared wontons. 
• Cook, uncovered over flame for 5 minutes, by which time the wontons will float to the surface.
• Add the carrots, cabbage and simmer for 1 min.
• Sprinkle with spring onion tops.
• Serve hot!!

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

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