In the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen, we helped Karen to make few hundreds of wonton for the community meal. Karen decided to serve Chinese dish during the Chinese New Year event. We were told that the community meal crowd applauded when it was announced during the previous meal.

Karen made the wonton using chicken as some of the people at the community meal do not take pork. Karen used organic chicken broth to make the soup and added bak choy and mushroom to complete the soup.

Ingredients

This is the ingredients for 6 servings.

Ingredients for the wonton:

• 1/2 lb ground chicken (you may substitute with pork or turkey)
• 2 green onions, minced
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts (canned or fresh), minced
• 1 tablespoon minced/grated ginger root
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons constarch
• 1 12oz package wonton wrapper
• egg white or water for sticking (if wrapper is too dry or has too much flour on it)

Ingredients for the soup:

• 1 litre chicken broth
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup bak choy or napa cabbage, shredded
• 1 cup snap peas or snow peas, trimmed & sliced (optional)

Instructions

Add egg white to the ground meat.

Add green onion, water chestnuts, ginger, sesame oil, pepper to the mixture.

Add soy sauce to the mixture.

Add cornstarch to the mixture.

Mix well with hand, your best utensil.

Use 1 scant teaspoon of filling for each wonton wrapper; place in the center of the wonton. Moisten edges of wrapper with beaten egg or water if the wrapper is too dry and wont stick. Gather edges together in a bundle, pinching firmly to seal.If you happen to be in a Chinese restaurant and seen some kitchen staff at work, they can use one hand to pinch and seal the wonton, amazing!

Set the finished wonton aside on a cookie sheet or tray, lined with parchment paper or dusted with corn starch.Wontons can be frozen, on the tray, for 30 minutes and then packed into heavy plastic bags for freezing. Use within 6 months.

Heat a large pot of water to boiling, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to boil again. Add wontons. The number of wontons will depend on the size of the pot. Only cook as many as can be done in a single layer. Cover pot and bring to boil again. Cook wontons for 4 to 6 minutes or until they rise to the surface of the water.Remove wontons with a strainer or slotted spoon. Drain. Set aside. If cooking ahead, remove wontons to ice water bath to stop cooking then drain and set aside.

Heat chicken broth to boiling. Add vegetables, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add wontons, bring to boil again to heat through, then serve.