🇭🇰 Hong Kong and 🇨🇳 China · Guangzhou (Guangdong), carried to Hong Kong in the 1930s
Wonton noodle soupHong Kong wonton noodle soup
Thin, springy egg noodles and a few small shrimp-and-pork wontons in a clear, savory broth built on pork bones, dried flounder and shrimp shells (home recipes often use chicken stock), topped with blanched greens.
Origin and history
According to the Michelin Guide Hong Kong, wonton noodles appeared in Guangzhou in the Tongzhi era of the Qing, when Hunanese migrants opened a noodle house there that served wontons with noodles. In the 1920s cooks added egg to the wrapper and shrimp to the filling, producing the Cantonese wonton. Many Guangzhou people moved to Hong Kong in the 1930s and brought the dish with them; the guide names Min Yuan Noodle House in Central as an early shop.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 1 tsp neutral oil, for browning the shrimp shells
- 12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined; keep every shell
- 1 L4 cups good chicken stock, unsalted or lightly salted; a pork-bone stock is the traditional alternative
- 500 ml2 cups water
- 1 tsp dried flounder powder (da di yu fen), split in two: half for the soup, half for the filling; ground dried flounder or a pinch of dried shrimp powder can stand in
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce, split: 2 tsp for the soup, 1 tsp for the filling
- 1/4 tsp white pepper, split between soup and filling
- 3/8 tsp fine salt, split between soup and filling
- 115 g4 oz freshly ground pork, a little fat is good
- 1 scallion, minced
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil, plus a little more for serving
- 2 tsp oyster sauce
- 24 square wonton wrappers, about 8 cm / 3 in; the thin, yellow, egg-based kind
- 2 heads (225 g)2 heads (8 oz) baby bok choy or choy sum, leaves separated; Chinese yellow chives are the classic topping
- 170 g6 oz fresh thin egg wonton noodles
- Chinese red vinegar, to serve
Method
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1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over high heat. Add the shrimp shells and stir for about 2 minutes, until they are spotted with brown and smell toasty.
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2. Pour in the stock and water, add 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and bring to a boil. Take the pot off the heat, stir in half the flounder powder and let it steep for 15 minutes.
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3. Strain the soup into a clean pot, pressing on the shells. Stir in 2 teaspoons of the soy sauce and 1/8 teaspoon of the pepper, cover and keep it hot.
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4. Cut each peeled shrimp in half across. Stir the ground pork vigorously in one direction in a bowl for about 5 minutes, until it turns sticky, pale and pulls away from the bowl.
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5. Mix in the scallion, wine, sesame oil, oyster sauce, the remaining soy sauce, flounder powder, the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and the remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper.
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6. Put a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wrapper and press half a shrimp onto it. Gather the corners over the filling and pinch just above it, leaving the top loose like a little goldfish tail. Set on a floured tray under a damp cloth and repeat to make 24.
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7. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the greens for about 1 minute until tender and bright, lift them out and set aside.
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8. In the same water cook the noodles for the time on the packet, usually under a minute, until springy. Drain, rinse in cold water so the noodles stay firm, and divide among the bowls.
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9. Return the water to a boil and cook the wontons for about 4 minutes, until they float and the wrappers are translucent. Lift them out with a slotted spoon into the bowls and add the greens.
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10. Bring the soup back to a boil, ladle it over each bowl and serve at once, with red vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil at the table.
Notes
- The soup here is the home shortcut: stock plus browned shrimp shells and dried flounder. A noodle shop builds it from pork bones, dried flounder, shrimp roe and shells, dried soybean sprouts and rock sugar, and some simmer it for hours with Jinhua ham.
- The shop filling is about half shrimp and half pork, fatty and lean, with toasted sesame powder, shrimp roe and ground flounder for savor. This version uses mostly pork with a shrimp on top, which is easier to wrap; for the shop style, chop the shrimp and mix it with an equal weight of pork.
- Cook the noodles apart from the soup and rinse them, so they stay springy and the broth stays clear.
- Wontons can be shaped a day ahead and refrigerated, or frozen on a tray and bagged; cook frozen wontons straight from the freezer for about 6 minutes.
- Traditional noodles are made with egg and pressed with a long bamboo pole; fresh thin egg noodles from an Asian grocer are the closest substitute. Do not overcook the wontons or the shrimp turns tough.
- Wonton soup without noodles has its own page; this one is ordered and named for the noodles.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, Hong Kong-Style Wonton Noodle Soup, Michelin Guide Hong Kong, Trace the Roots: Wonton Noodles, and Michelin Guide, Mak Man Kee wonton recipe.
At the festivals
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