2 Chinese Soups

Chinese cuisine is my favorite! When I was expecting my oldest son, I craved it day and night. I did crave it terribly during each of my pregnancies but for my first one, I was living in Paris. Actually it wasn't only chinese, I craved anything from asian countries. Each evening, coming back from the office, I would embarrass myself eating with my fingers a vietnamese stuffed (and fried!) chicken wing. Do you know how the metro in Paris is jammed with people at 5:30 PM? Well I would stand in the crowded metro and open my greasy bag of stuffed chicken wings and voraciously eat it while its aroma filled the train, making 95% of the people present look at me either with a disgusted grin or drooling. I didn't care! I just couldn't bare the idea to wait till I was home to eat them. I think if I ever have waited, I would have been in the same state as a drug addict in withdrawal. I ruined a good dozen of elegant outfits with the dripping fat from those delicious stuffed chicken wings. But I didn't limit my taste buds to the vietnamese junk fook from a parlor on the corner of a street. Chinese restaurants in Paris are very different in their cooking style than chinese restaurant here in Montreal's china town. It's lighter, less fatty, more delicate and a real pleasure to the eyes. I used to treat myself in one of them at least twice a week. Oh boy was I in heaven! I made thousands of trial recipes in hope to recreate the delicate and flavourfull parisian chinese restaurant dishes and while sometimes I obtained a good enough result, I generally failed. BUT !!! In the process, I ended up with these two delicious chinese soups! I arrived to these pleasing results playing with different recipes for chinese soups either found in cookbooks or on the web. After fiddling for months, finally I came up with satisfaying recipes. The great thing is, I don't need anymore to run to a restaurant when I crave something chinese. Chineese Meatball Soup This soup can be a light first course if you omit the noodles, or a meal in itself if you use them. Any asiatic dired noodles can be used (udon, ramen, rice noodles...) Personnally, I make it with fresh chineese wheat noodles. For the meatballs 500 grams (1 lb) ground pork 1 egg 2 tablespoons rice flour or cornstarch 2 tablespoons soya sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger For the broth 8 cups chicken broth 1/2 a cup (125 ml) dried chinese mushrooms, rehydrated in 1/2 cup very hot water 1 cup fresh sugar snap peas 2 spring onions, white part only, sliced (reserve the green parts, you'll need them to garnish) 10 nice cilantro leaves (do not chop them, leave them whole) If you wish, you can use chinese greens such as bok-choi, chinese mustard or simply baby spinach. Add them at the same time as the spring onions and sugar snap peas (which become optional in this case by the way) just before your broth is ready. Make the meatballs Cover a baking sheet with aluminium foil. Pre-heat oven at 350 F. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients with your hand. Once all well incorporated, give a few stirs with your hand again in one same direction. Oddly this seems to make the meat mixture firmer. Drop the meat mixture by the teaspoon on the baking sheet. Don't try to shape in balls, the mixture is too soft and sticky. Cook in the pre-heated oven 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Make the broth

Before making the broth, if you intend to use noodles, cook them following the package directions. For chinese wheat noodles, just cook in boiling salted water, drain and rinse well (to eliminate the sticky starch) with running hot water.

Put the broth in a pot and add the chineese mushrooms, water and all. Bring to a boil.

When boiling, add the spring onions, the snap peas and/or any green if you decide to use them. Allow to return to boil and cook only 1 minute (or less if you like your snap peas really crunchy.) Turn off the heat and add the cilantro leaves and the cooked meatballs.

To serve, put some noodles (if you use them) in bowls. Add the broth with its trimmings. Offer soya sauce and sliced green parts of the spring onions on the table.

Wonton Soup

500 g ground pork or chicken or turkey (or 250 g ground meat and 250 g finely chopped shrimps)
4 dried chinese mushrooms, re-hydrated and finely chopped
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 (1/2 an inch) piece of grated fresh ginger
1/2 a small clove garlic finely grated
2 teaspoons soya sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
White pepper to taste
1 pound wonton wrappers
3 quarts chicken broth
Sliced spring onions for garnish

In a blowl, mix the 9 first ingredients together.

Lay few wonton wrappers on a work surface. Have a little bowl of water nearby. Keep the rest of the wrappers in a plastic bag so they don't dry.

Put about 1 teaspoon of the meat mixture in the middle of each wrapper. Moisten all the 4 edges with a finger dipped in water.

Form the wontons as in the images bellow.

Keep the formed wontons under plastic wrap in a plater while you work.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

In a different pot, bring the chicken broth to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer.

Blanch the wontons in the pot of boiling water (without crowding, a little at a time) until they float to the surface. With a slotted spoon, take them off the water and put them in the simmering broth.

When all the wontons are in the broth, brink back to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Serve with spring oinion slices and have soya sauce on the table.

Notes about the wonton soup:
* If you don't have chinese dried mushrooms, just omit. It's good without them too.
* Ground chicken or turkey will make the wontons drier in taste but the soup will be less fat.
* The soup can be frozen. Defrost in micro-wave and finish re-heating gently on the stove.
* Some people don't like the garlic flavour in this chineese soup. Omit it if you wish, but if you use it, make sure you use a tiny bit. I can be overwhelming here.

Bon appétit !