Shanghainese Style Wontons
Alice Sun•Mar 29, 2024
After visiting the family back home on the East Coast, I got super nostalgic for some of my favorite family recipes so I made a big batch of these Shanghai style wontons I grew up with. Ran to the local 99 Ranch for all the ingredients and found a pack of spinach wontons so of course I had to make these with a mixture of both regular and spinach wonton wrappers. It ended up looking so colorful, which I feel like makes it even tastier! We eat with our eyes after all, right?
Alice Sun (@alicecsun) shares a unique view into her life through the ways she uses food to nurture wellness, cross cultural divides, and bring people together, all through the medium of storytelling.
Instructions
Make wonton filling
Devein the shrimp (½ lb) then chop shrimp very finely until it turns into a paste
Add to a bowl with the ground chicken and pork
Add in the scallions (2), ginger (1 Tbsp), soy sauce (2 Tbsp), oyster sauce (1 Tbsp), vegetable oil (2 Tbsp), and sesame oil (½ tsp)
Mix well, then add in the broth (½ cup) 2 tbsps at a time, making sure to mix vigorously at every step
At the end the filling should naturally hold its shape after getting mixed
Make sure to test the flavor by cooking 1 tbsp of the filling, then tasting and seeing if it needs a little more salt, soy sauce, or ginger
Wrapping wontons
For wrapping, make sure to assemble a station with a bowl of water, wrappers, and a flour covered baking tray
Take a tsp (only a tsp) of filling – it’s better to underwrap than overwrap – add to the middle of the square wrapper, then wet the edges of the wrapper before folding the wrapper over like a letter towards you
Flip the wonton so that the open ends are away from you, like a rectangle, then take the two corners of the unopened ends and pinch them together with a little water
Place the wonton on the flour lined baking sheet and cover with a towel
Continue the process until the sheet is full and you can cook right away or freeze them as is before putting them in a ziploc bag for later
Cooking
To cook, bring a pot of water to boil, add in your wontons and cook until the wontons float
For the soup, add the soy sauce (1 Tbsp), seaweed (1 Tbsp), dried shrimp (1 tsp), scallions (1 tsp), and pepper (1 tsp) to a bowl, then just spoon over the wonton cooking water with the wontons
Enjoy with a drizzle of chili oil on top!