Pork and Prawn Wonton Noodle Soup
Ingredients:
Kaisun – aka Baked baking soda/Lye water (make in advance)
200g baking soda – baked at 120C for 1 hour, leave to cool and store in an airtight container – you will have lots more for the future. NB you can make a smaller quantity if you want!!
Broth
4 spring onions, trimmed and cut in half
1 inch of fresh ginger finely sliced
1 tsp sesame oil
2 garlic cloves smashed
2 tbsp shaoxing wine (can use white wine or mirin or none if you don’t have any of these)
800ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Egg Noodles and Wonton wrappers
450g bread flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp kaisun (baked baking soda or lye water)
250g of egg and hot water mixture (3 eggs plus enough hot water to make up to a weight of 250g (may not need all of this))
Cornflour to dust
Filling
300g pork mince
200g raw king prawns deveined and minced
3 spring onions – finely sliced
100g Chinese leaf finely chopped (can use napa cabbage/Chinese cabbage/baby gem)
½ inch of ginger- minced
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp shaoxing wine (can use white wine or mirin or none if you don’t have any of these)
2 tsp – cornflour
2 tsp – soy sauce
Pinch of salt
Large pinch of white pepper
water
Spring onions for garnish
Some steamed veg to serve – pak choi
Method:
1. Put the baking soda evenly on a clean baking tray and bake at 120C for 1 hour, leave to cool and store in an airtight container. You have made a lot here, but it will keep in an airtight jar indefinitely, you will have lots more for the future. NB you can make a smaller quantity!!
2. In a large saucepan - make a soup broth by adding ginger, spring onion, sesame oil, salt and pepper and stock cube and topped up with water and let it bubble away and reduce to get intense in flavour (let this come to the boil, then put a lid on and simmer till ready to use). Taste for seasoning.
3. Wonton wrappers and egg noodles - in a food processor place bread flour, eggs, salt and kai sui- pulse till a crumbly texture. Then knead, till it comes into a ball. Cover with cling film or damp tea towel and leave for 10 min.
4. In a bowl add in -chopped up spring onions, chopped up Chinese leaf, chopped up raw prawns, and pork minced, cornflour, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and salt and pepper.
5. Divide the dough into manageable chunks to put through the pasta machine, roughly 6-8 chunks from that dough balls will be easier to roll.
6. Using the pasta machine to roll out with, go from the thickest setting to the thinnest. Use cornflour to stop the pastry sticking together. The dough will change from rough to smooth each time you feed it through the pasta machine when changing the settings to creating a thin pastry. Always remember to dust with cornflour in between each roll. You want the pastry to be about 2mm thick.
7. Make square wrappers and stack and dust each one with cornflour. The rest put through the pasta maker to make noodles and dust well with cornflour. Wrap up well in clingfilm if not using it straight away. Dough yields approx.– 32 wonton wrappers and 4 nests of noodles. Make sure you store these under a damp tea towel if you are not using them straight away.
8. IF, you do not have a pasta machine, then use a rolling pin and then a sharp knife to cut the noodles, they will be thicker than using the noodle/pasta machine attachment.
9. Put in a small tsp of meat mixture in the middle of the square wonton wrapper, dampen the edge of wrapper and fold over or pleat. Keep repeating till all meat mixture is used.
10. Bring a pot of water to the boil and place noodles in and bring to the boil for about 2 minutes (may need to cook them in batches) and lift with a slotted spoon or spider and put in cold water to refresh them. Then put noodles in bowls.
11. Then bring the pot of water to the boil again and put in the wontons in batches, once they float for about 3 minutes, they will be ready.
12. Transfer to bowl and add broth and some steamed vegetables, garnish with spring onions.
