Gosh ! Time really flies and we are into the last 2 weeks of 2015. This has been a great and eventful year for me though kind of stressful too. But nevertheless, it has been a year of great achievements and in the new year to come, I do hope that there can be more time to be able to do what I enjoy doing, that is cooking, baking, blogging and of course, the online cookies store !
I actually cooked this dumpling soup recently as the weather has pretty cooling nowadays and that somehow made me crave for hot soupy stuffs most of the time. Now people may ask what’s the difference between dumpling and wanton ! I would think dumplings traditionally consist of black fungus and bamboo shoot on top of minced prawns and meat while wanton is purely a combination of minced meat and prawns only.
But somehow I realised the dumplings soup found locally have evolved to suit the local taste, that is somewhat very similar to wantons. And also, black fungus and bamboo shoot aren’t exactly my favourites as well, so I am more than happy to prepare these dumplings that comes without these two too.
Now you can prepare these dumplings way ahead of time and freeze them well. As and when you need to cook this dumpling soup, all you gotta do is to prepare the soup broth, add in the dumplings and all is good. And this is exactly what I did !
And here’s a tip if you are storing these dumplings in freezer. Try to arrange them in such a way that they do not touch each other by having a parchment or baking paper in between them. Otherwise, you might find the dumplings sticking to each other and the dumpling skin might just tear off when you try to separate them.
The shrimp flavoured noodles that I’ve gotten from PurelyFresh is really a good fit with the prawn dumplings and the anchovy soup base.
Enjoy !!
- 200g minced meat
- 130g minced prawn meat
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp shaoxing wine
- 20 pcs water chestnuts, diced
- 3 stalks of spring onions, diced
- 15-20 pcs of dumplings skin
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 tsp corn flour
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1.5 litres water
- 100g anchovies
- 1 large onion, cut into quarters
- 1 tbsp shaoxing wing
- 1 tsp light soya sauce
- ½ tsp chicken powder
- dash of pepper
- 1 bunch of shrimp flavoured noodles
- Some choy sum vegetables
Combine all the ingredients for the dumplings and mix well. Wrap 1 tbsp of the filling in the dumpling skin and seal the edges with some water. You can prepare the dumplings way ahead and freeze them if not using immediately. Line parchment/baking paper in between the dumplings whilst storing them.
Prepare the anchovies by washing them under running water to remove the excess salt. Prepare the soup broth by boiling the water with the anchovies and onion. When the soup starts to boil, add in the shaoxing wine and lower the heat. Allow the soup to simmer for a further 10 minutes.
OPTIONAL: If you have some ready cooked stock that has been prepared earlier and chilled, you can always add one piece of it to the soup stock, like what I have done. (Usually it will appear jelly-liked after it has been chilled.)
After the jelly-alike stock from previous step has dissolved in the soup, drain away all the ingredients in the soup.
Add in the light soya sauce, chicken powder and pepper and stir to combine.
Add in the shrimp flavoured noodles to the soup broth and cook till soft. Drain the noodles and allow cold running water to run through the noodles thoroughly. Set aside.
Add the dumplings from Step 1 to the soup broth.
Add in the choy sum vegetables to the soup broth and stir till the vegetables are cooked.
Add the soup, dumplings and vegetables to the noodles set aside from Step 6. Dish and serve hot immediately.
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