Recipe 2: Vegetarian Wonton Soup

This is a recipe best made in several parts. I made the entire soup this afternoon, but it was exhausting and time-consuming. For all maternal chefs, I will begin breaking down my recipes into "napable" portions. For others who do not have to concern themselves with sous-chefs who need constant hugs and bottles, consider each portion to be around one hour.

Therefore, I would create this recipe over the course of a few days. One day, I would make a batch of stock. I would then freeze it in small portions. On another day, I would make the wontons and freeze them on a silpat (more on this idea to follow). Which would mean that on the day you want to eat the soup, you would need to leave yourself about twenty minutes of prep time from start to eating. This is a two-nap prep recipe.

VEGETARIAN WONTON SOUP

Broth:

1 chopped onion OR 1 sliced leek
9 cloves of garlic, chopped
7 scallions (including greens)
4 carrots, chopped
4 slices of ginger
1 pieces of kombu (optional)
1 ½ tbsp soy sauce
1 ½ tbsp mirin
2 tsp salt (more to taste)
1 ½ tsp sesame oil
½ cup of cilantro leaves and stems
7 dried shiitake mushrooms
12 cups water

Saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until beginning to brown. Add the scallions, carrots, and ginger and sauté for a few minutes until soft. Add water as well as the kombu, soy sauce, mirin, salt, sesame oil, cilantro, and shiitakes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer (partially covered) for an hour. Strain, pressing the liquid out of the vegetables. Discard the solids and allow the broth to cool. Freeze this broth or use within two days if you refrigerate it.

Wontons:

1 head of napa cabbage, shredded

2 carrots, peeled and minced

3 scallions, finely chopped

A drizzle of soy sauce

A sprinkle of ground ginger

1 tbsp garlic oil

Wonton wrappers

Combine the cabbage, carrots, and scallions. Heat a wok over high heat and coat with Pam (or oil) as well as the tablespoon on garlic oil. Once the wok is heated, add the cabbage mixture and saute for a moment to coat with oil. Drizzle soy sauce over the cabbage as one would salad dressing--the idea is to coat the cabbage rather than drown it. Sprinkle ground ginger over the mixture and saute until the cabbage is wilted. It will reduce in size by about half. Drain the mixture from the wok discarding the sauce.

It is impossible to describe how to fold wontons without pictures. Ming Tsai has a great cookbook called Blue Ginger that has step-by-steps photos for folding wontons, eggrolls, and sushi. Place a small mound of the filling in the middle of each wrapper and fold accordingly. Place finished wontons on a silpat placed atop a cookie sheet. Alton Brown advocates for using the silpat as a non-stick workspace. Because the silpat can be placed in the freezer, I use it to freeze any food that would stick and tear on a regular sheet of tinfoil. After the wontons have frozen, you can remove them from the silpat and store them in a ziplock bag.

Putting It All Together:

Cover the bottom of a saute pan with a coating of canola oil. Fry the wontons on each side until they are brown. Set aside on paper towels to drain.

Boil and drain a serving of udon noodles (these noodles can be purchased fresh or frozen at a Japanese market). Chop two or three servings of broccoli, snow peas, sprouts, cabbage, carrots, tofu and julienned red pepper. Thaw the frozen stock (I usually take it out of the freezer in the morning if I want to use it at night and leave it in the refrigerator for a slow thaw) and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables and cook for 7 minutes on a slow boil, covered.

Serve by layering noodles and wontons at the bottom of the bowl. Cover with the vegetables and broth. Eat immediately.

Do not cook too many servings of vegetables because the vegetables will continue to cook and soften even after you remove the soup from the heat. Therefore, do not cook the soup before you are ready to eat and do not leave the vegetables sitting in the broth.