Wonton Soup

Recently I started to think about the foods my family ate when I was a child and even though my little guy is still way too young for solids, it got me to thinking about the foods I could/would make for my family. My mom made wonton soup practically every night when we were kids. Like most moms, she had a day job and then came home to her second job as a full-time mom. I remembered how she quickly folded a couple of wontons and dropped them into a boiling soup pot just in time for dinner. Wonton soup was such a delicious way to start dinner.

If you have never had the pleasure, please do go out and try this. Wontons are little bite-sized dumplings usually filled with a mixture of meat and seafood. (In this case, chicken and shrimp.) The wonton wrapper is made of a thin dough similar to pasta but tastes much lighter. Wontons are often dropped directly into soup or pre-poached into boiling water before being added to a soup. A few minutes in a hot bath and they are transformed from smooth semi-opaque triangles into ruffled, translucent silky bundles.

Although it is an extra step, I prefer to cook them in boiling water first. Some wrappers are a bit starchy and may change the flavour and the consistency of the soup.

Admittedly, making a batch of wontons is a bit of work if you decide to make a full batch... However, if you are making just enough to a pot of soup, then once you make the filling it shouldn't take much longer to wrap a couple of wontons and throw them into a soup.(The filling should keep for about 3-5 days in the refrigerator.)

Alternatively, you can make the entire batch of wontons and freeze them. Once they are made, you can just plop them into a boiling broth and have wonton soup in minutes without having to defrost them first.


Wonton Soup

For the filling:
1/2 lb ground chicken
1/2 lb shrimp, chopped
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced ginger
1/4 c water
salt & pepper to taste

1 package of wonton wrappers

For the soup:
750ml low sodium chicken broth
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp sesame oil

optional: lightly beaten egg

1. Gently mix together the filling except the water. Meanwhile bring to a boil a small pot of water. using a teaspoon, drop a small meatball into the water once the water reaches a rolling boil. When the meatball floats to the top, leave in the water for an additional minute and scoop out onto a plate. Allow to cool. Taste meatball for seasoning and adjust accordingly. (Once you have made this recipe several times, you will find this added step is unnecessary.)

2. Once satisfied with seasonings for the filling, place a teaspoon of the mixture into the center of the wonton wrapper. Dip your finger into a small bowl of water and wet two adjoining sides (in an L-shape). Fold the opposite corner over until the edges meet and gently press the wonton closed, removing any air pockets. You will be left with a triangle shaped wonton. Place the wonton on a large platter and repeat until all the wonton wrappers or meat mixture is finished. Do not overlap the wontons on the platter. If you have additional meat left over, a great way to use them is to make tiny meatballs to add to your soup.

3. If you are not using the wontons immediately, lay the wontons out on a cookie sheet in a single layer and freeze for ten minutes. Then store the wontons in a freezer bag for later use.

For the soup:

1. Bring to a boil the chicken broth and green onions.

2. In another pot, bring water to a boil. One by one drop wontons into the water and stir to ensure the wontons do not stick together. Once the wontons, rise to the surface, scoop out the wontons and move to the pot with the boiling chicken broth. Reduce temperature and simmer for another 2 minutes.

3. If using, stir broth in the pot so that the liquid is squirling about. Gently pour the lightly beaten egg into the broth. After about five seconds, swirl a wooden spoon around the pot until the egg is cooked into whispy strands.

4. Remove from heat and add sesame oil. Serve immediately.

If you are serving this as an appetizer, it easily serves four people with about 5 wontons each. If you are having this as a main, it feeds 2-3 people with 8 to 10 wontons each.

For your own variations, you can experiment with different types of meat - pork or beef, or consider the additional of other seasonings including chili, white pepper, or five spice.
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Cookbooks and Custard

If there is one habit that vexes my husband, it's my passion and love for cookbooks. I love them because not only do they inspire "what's for dinner" but they bring the world out there into my kitchen at home. As I turn the pages of my favourite cookbooks, I am transported to hot, bustling kitchens of New York, the rustic kitchens of the French countryside or the outdoor markets where Chinese cooks seek out the freshest ingredients for dinner that night. A good cookbook is like a good travelogue, returning me to a beloved place and time with just a taste or evoking an image of a faraway and exotic place I have yet to visit.

In an effort to maintain the size of my collection at a manageable level, I have taken to borrowing cookbooks from our library system. I am currently making my way through a fabulous cookbook, “The Gift of Southern Cooking” by Edna Lewis & Scott Peacock. I had heard great things about this cookbook and Southern cooking is something that I am not greatly familiar with here in Canada.

The book is not just a cookbook but a record of a great friendship between Edna and Scott. She, the grandchild of former slaves from Virgina & he, the younger white chef from Alabama, who through their shared passion for the cuisine of their heritage, share this inspired & thoughtful collection of recipes of this region in the way grandmothers pass on recipes to the future generations.

With so many recipes to choose from, I am still experimenting and trying out new things but I thought I would share with you this wonderful and very simple custard recipe plucked from the pages of this cookbook. (While I have changed some of the recipe's instructions, the ingredients remain the same....)

Egg Custard
(adapted from The Gift of Southern Cooking)



Serves 8 (according to the cookbook, though I used 6 large ramekins which warranted a longer cooking time.)

6 eggs
3/4c granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 1/2 c milk
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crack the eggs into a large mixing dish and stir until the yolks are broken. Add sugar, milk and salt and mix until well blended.

Strain the egg mixture through a fine-meshed sieve into a large bowl or pitcher. Stir in nutmeg & vanilla. (The nutmeg floated to the top when I made my custard because I used a rasp to grate my nutmeg. If you have a proper nutmeg grater you probably won't have the same problem I had but if you use a rasp and prefer a more refined appearance, I would add the nutmeg, allow it to infuse the custard for at least ten minutes (if not more) and strain. The flavour is not as pronounced but the custard won't have the same flecks and speckles mine did.)

Place ramekins into a large deep dish baking pan (like a lasagna dish) and carefully pour approximately 1 cup of the egg mixture into each ramekin.

For safety's sake, carefully pull out your oven's baking rack and place the baking dish on top. With a heatproof pitcher, pour enough hot water into the baking dish to reach approximately half way up the ramekin dish. Very carefully, push the baking rack back into the oven. (This technique is called bain marie. It allows the custard to cook very gently through indirect heat.) Bake for approximately 3 - 40 minutes. (The cookbook calls for 20-30 minutes... I checked the custard every 10 minutes starting at 20 minutes, but my cooking time was considerably longer because my ingredients came straight from the refrigerator, and I made 6 servings instead of eight, the custard needed more time to set.)



To remove, carefully pull out the oven rack and lift the baking dish off the rack. Place a clean towel on your kitchen counter and carefully remove the ramekins from the baking dish onto the towel and allow to cool.

This is delicious warm but also quite delicious chilled with a dollop of whipped cream.
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If You Can't Beat'em, Join'em...

While it may be hard to say goodbye to summer, I like autumn for a couple of reasons: the fiery, vibrant colours of the fall leaves, apple-picking, and now, NFL football.

My husband is a big fan of the sport but I always thought of football as something that delayed the start of Sunday evening television. It wasn't interesting to me - a two groups of really big men pushing toward each other while a guy in the back tried to throw a ball before being crushed. But, several years ago I stepped into the light and embraced football as my own. Now I love it. And yes, our Sundays are planned around the games we are going to watch....

For Sunday lunch then, we needed something delicious but relatively easy to put together for our 1pm Patriots v. Jets game. So how about a hearty fall soup accompanied with slices of crisp chewy baguette for dipping? With flecks of brown, green and orange, the soup reminded me of fall colours. The addition of bacon (leave out if you don't like it) adds a nice salty and smokey flavour that makes it such a great hearty soup.

The soup takes about 45 minutes to put together from start to finish but could be even faster if you used canned lentils. It reheats well so it is perfect for lunch the next day and for freezing if you wanted to make a large batch for later.


Lentil & Smokey Bacon Soup

2 c dried mixed split lentils, rinsed well
1 small onion diced
2 large carrot, peeled & sliced into rounds
2 bay leaves
1 liter chicken broth
1 liter water
6 slices of streaky bacon

1. Cook lentils with onions, and carrot with bay leaves, chicken broth, and water. Cook for approximately 20-25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile cook bacon until slightly crisp.
3. Drain bacon. Finely chop and add to soup. Cook another 5 minutes.
4. Using an immersion blender, blend soup until desired consistency.
5. Serve. If reheating, you may have to thin the soup out with a little broth or water.

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