Shanghai Recipes

Pork & Bok Choy/Chives Wontons

Prep 2-3 Hours | Cook 5-10 Minutes

shanghai wontons cover

Ingredients (Yield = 75-80 Wontons)

  • 1 lb Ground Pork
  • 1 lb Bok Choy/Chives
  • 1 Pack of 60-Sheet, Square-shaped, 3” Thin Shanghai-style Dumpling Wrappers
  • 2-3 Tbsp Shaoxing Cooking Wine
  • 2 Tbsp Thin Soy Sauce
  • 1-1.5 Tbsp Sugar
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Black/White Pepper
  • 1/2-1 tsp Sesame Oil
  • 1 Egg
  • (Optional) Garlic Powder
  • (Optional) Diced Ginger

Preparation:

  1. Prep the Ingredients:
    • Ground pork: Do nothing with it, for now.
    • Vegetables:
      • If you use Bok Choy: wash and dry the stalks, dice them, and chop them up very finely. It gets very watery, so be sure to squeeze the juice out of the chopped bok choy (or else the juice can seep through the wrappers later).
      • If you use Chives: wash, dry, and chop them up very finely. Chives do not get as watery (or at all), so no need to squeeze the juice out.
      • *Feel free to mix and match bok choy and chives, as long as it adds up to 1 lb.
    • Wrappers: thaw them in the fridge, since they are usually bought frozen.
    • Egg: crack the egg and whisk it up. Set aside for now.

      shanghai wonton ingredients
  2. Get a medium-sized Mixing Bowl, and Combine the Ingredients:
    • Dump the ground pork and chopped vegetables into the bowl.
    • Add in the cooking wine, soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil and white/black pepper. Mix well with the pork and vegetables.
      • *The measurements given are rough estimates, so feel free to use reasonable eyeballing–the goal is to create a mixture that is soft and mildly damp.
      • *I do mixing by hand, so try putting on food grade rubber gloves and do so!
      • *Do not add too much salt since the soy sauce will add enough “brininess.” For stronger flavors, add a bit of garlic powder and very finely diced ginger.
      • *If the mixture is too dry/has low adhesion, add in egg mixture to the extent you see fit.
    • Put the mixture in the fridge for 15 minutes.
    • *In the image below: the mixture on the left is good; the mixture on the right is a bit wet, but still has good adhesion.

      shanghai wonton fillings comparison
  3. Making/Folding the Wontons (Most time-consuming but fun part)
    • Take out the thawed wrappers and get a small dish with water. We will dab water on the wrappers to seal their edges.
    • Fold each wonton by following the steps in the image below!

      shanghai wontons folding

      A nicely folded wonton should look like a sycee/yuanbao. The surface should be smooth and round. The ones with creases down the middle are a bit less ideal (appearance wise), since it means that you either put a bit too much filling or pressed against the wrappers too hard while folding (but who cares–they are probably bigger and you get more food!)

      shanghai wonton
  4. Cooking Them
    • Place a pot of water on medium-high heat. When it boils, drop wontons in and let them cook.
    • When the water boils again, pour a glass of cold water into the pot.
    • When the water boils again, the wontons are ready!

      shanghai wontons 2

Here are two ways to enjoy the wontons:

  • Dip the wontons in vinegar/soy sauce/dumpling sauce (at the store), OR
  • In broth (1 Cup of chicken stock/water + 2 tsp of soy sauce + white pepper + chopped scallions)