It’s easy learning how to make wontons. The first thing you need to do when making wontons is familiarize yourself with how these bite-sized treats are made.
Knowing how to make these doesn’t require a whole lot of training. Practice makes perfect and really, it’s easy! You also need to decide what type of wonton recipe you wish to prepare. Do you want to make a classic wonton soup recipe or would you like to start off with baked ones or fried ones? You can even steam them if you have a bamboo steamer and you want a softer texture.
Once you have found a good recipe for your wonton filling, you can assemble your wontons and discover how to make wontons and how easy it is! The wrappers need to be totally thawed before you attempt to separate them, else they might stick together and break.
It is a good idea to cover up any wonton wrappers you are not using yet or any assembled wontons with a clean damp towel to stop them from drying out. If you are making a hundred wontons at a time (and you might be, since they freeze so well) then you will want to keep the prepared ones fresh while you work on getting the rest completed.
How to Make Wontons: Making the Soup for Wonton Soup
Wonton soup is traditionally made with chicken bouillon but you can use another type of soup if you want to. Try beef bouillon if you are making vegetable wontons or even vegetable bouillon if you are making beef or pork wontons. Don’t worry about the soup flavor clashing with the wonton flavor if you are using different meats.
After all, authentic wonton soup features pork and shrimp wontons in a chicken bouillon, and that is three different meats right there! Wonton soup is clear not creamy, so you can appreciate the appearance and flavor of the wontons better, so pick out whichever clear soup you prefer and use that.
Wonton Soup Additions
This type of soup is basically wontons cooked in soup, although some recipes will tell you boil the wontons in water and then use a slotted spoon to transfer them into the soup.
As well as the wontons and the soup though, what else should you add, and what are some good ways to garnish that soup?
A lot of home cooks like to add cilantro leaves or sliced green onion (scallions) to theirs, to give it a vibrant splash of green and to add a fresh look.
Cilantro and green onions are aromatic and would suit the flavor of most wonton soup recipes.
Shredded napa cabbage, sesame seeds and sesame oil are more ideas. If you do not expel the air from your dumplings and some open and leak during the cooking, you will have extra texture in your wonton soup from that!
Take a look at this cute photo! The little boy in the photo is making Chinese dumplings, which are something else you might want to experiment with if you are learning how to make wontons.
Kids love helping out in the kitchen and teaching them to fill dumpling skins or jiaozi wrappers (or even make the dough with you) is educational as well as fun for them.
They will also enjoy eating the delicious Chinese dumplings when they are ready.
If you are planning to make a large batch of wontons, it is always worth enlisting the help of the younger members of the family, whether that might be weighing out ingredients, stirring, separating wonton wrappers or filling the wontons or dumplings.