Mince Your Meat - Wanton or Yuntun or Wonton or Chou Shou

I realize I haven't done a proper post on wanton even though I have been making it quite often. I used to make it just by mixing minced pork with some soy sauce and pepper, and wrap them in ready-made wrappers. However, I tried the method by Fushia Dunlop and I found it makes it much tastier. You can wrap all of them in one go and freeze them in small portions which can be used anytime you need an addition to your noodles or just by itself. This obviously is the main ingredient in wanton noodles and can be serve in the soup or fried and eaten with mayonnaise. I've included another version of just the wanton in a semi-dry version, without the noodles.

Ingredients for the Wanton - makes about 80 wonton

2-4 packets of 200g wanton wrappers
A 60g piece of fresh ginger, unpeeled
450g finely minced pork
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
2 teaspoon sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
6-8 turns of a black pepper mill
100g cold stock

Steps

1. Crush the ginger and leave it to soak for a few minutes in 100ml of cold water.
2. Mixed the minced meat by stirring in one direction with your chopsticks with the beaten egg, wine, ginger soaking water (without the ginger), sesame oil, salt and pepper. Add the cold stock gradually, making sure it is absorbed before you add in more.
3. Put about 3/4 teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper in the middle of your palm, then just close your fist and bring the sides up together, like a little bundle. That's the easiest method to do it when your wrappers are thawed enough, as they are made with an egg base, so it shall hold well together without the need to seal the sides with water. If you feel a need to, then go ahead. There are other ways of wrapping it, so feel free to google it for videos.
4. Remember to lay each completed one seperately without touching each other, otherwise they will stick together.
   
5. To freeze it, make sure the skin aren't too wet or soft, otherwise chill it up first before freezing. You can use a cling wrap to portion up your portions.

Serving methods:

In wanton soup

Blanch the egg noodles till done, then cook up some stock, add in the wanton and some bak choy, when they are floating up, it is done. Assemble by placing the noodles in a bowl, pour the stock with wanton and vegetables over, and top with sliced char siew.

In a spicy & sour sauce

Cook the wanton in stock as before, in a separate bowl, mix one tablespoon of Chinese vinegar, one tablespoon of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce (haha, there's actually an appreciation group for this on Facebook), 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil and about 3 tablespoon of hot stock. On the side, add 1 tablespoon of hot oil over finely sliced spring onions, and sprinkle on top of the dish to serve.