Wonton Egg Drop Soup
Two cozy soups in one.
Greetings and happy new year! Eight days in and the Christmas tree and lights are still up, which makes the dark early mornings transitioning back to “normal life” slightly more enjoyable. However, I plan on scrubbing the house of all holiday decor this weekend and start transitioning into Lunar New Year (January 29th) with lanterns, budding branches, and bowls of oranges everywhere. I’m actually traveling for Lunar New Year this year and spending the first few days of it in New York City and there’s a bunch of fun events planned if you’re in town.
Lunar New Year in NYC!
Today Show! I’ll be on the Today Show on Jan. 28 making Cho Family Dumplings and my Black Sesame Blueberry Tang Yuan from Chinese Enough if you want to tune in! This will be my third time on the show, but this time I’m bringing my mom with me as my backstage plus one, which is exciting because she has been a Today Show super fan for as long as I’ve been alive!
Book Talk at Yu & Me Books! Then later that evening (Jan. 28 7-8pm) I’ll be at Yu & Me Books for a book talk with my friend Ewa Ko! We’re both from Cleveland and Chinese restaurant families and I’m excited to see where our overlap and conversation takes us! She was also one of my very first internet friends turned real friends many years ago! You can RSVP for free or purchase a book/ticket here! Hope to spend LNY Eve with some of you!
NY Cookbook Club! On Feb. 1 (12-2pm)
will be hosting an epic Chinese Enough Cookbook Club at Farm to People where 100 people are going to cook recipes from my book! It is going to be the most insane LNY feast! Tickets are available to her paid subscribers on Jan. 17 and then open to all on Jan. 18, so make sure to mark your calendars! I’ll share a reminder!
2025: The Year of the Snake and Stocking Up
The time between new year #1 and new year #2 feels incredibly short this time and being out of town for some of it doesn’t help, but it won’t stop me from celebrating the year of the snake with gusto! We’re going to be hosting an intimate pre-Lunar New Year dinner party instead of a 60 person house party like last year, so it should be pretty low key but still feel special.
This week I’ve been filling up bags with frozen potstickers, wontons, and spring rolls… oh and breakfast sandwiches (which somehow shocked the internet when I share them a few days ago). We just got a deep freezer and our friends just had a baby so I felt compelled to get into mass food production mode and start stocking up the freezer. I’ll save some dumplings and spring rolls to for our LNY dinner so that’s 2 less dishes to worry about.
There’s something about the new year that makes us feel like we need to purge. How many of you reorganized your pantries recently? Well, for me it’s a balance of purge and restock, and evaluating how I might have over-consumed or potentially wasted in the year or months prior. My weekly grocery lists and meal mapping has really helped me be more mindful when it comes to not over buying and in turn wasting food. I’ve shared my grocery lists a few times on here but let me know if you’re interested into a more in depth overview of how I think about food shopping and meal planning.
I felt pretty good on how I utilized our limited freezer space the last year and I’m going in with confidence that we won’t become freezer hoarders now that we have a chest freezer and there won’t be food at the bottom of it that’s been in there for years. Fingers-crossed! So far, the dumplings have been calling to me and at this rate I need to make more of them to keep up with how much we’re eating and sharing them.
Frozen dumplings and spring rolls are absolute meal savers in this house. Obviously it takes some work upfront, but find a free block of time and put on your favorite comfort show and the time goes by quick. These plump shrimp wontons are especially versatile. Boil them straight from frozen (NEVER DEFROST FROZEN DUMPLINGS) and simply toss in soy and chili oil and call that dinner. Or make a wonton soup… orrrr even better make a wonton egg drop soup for an even more robust meal. Because when you can’t pick between two cozy soups, why not make both?
Wonton egg drop soup is a hybrid I was first introduced to in San Francisco. If you’ve seen it on a menu elsewhere please let me know! In some restaurants the wontons come deep fried and you add them into the egg drop soup for a delightful textural contrast, like croutons. I was about to go that approach for this recipe but I just couldn’t get myself to deep fry anything so early in the new year. I’ll change my tune as LNY rolls around I’m sure.
The wontons are cooked directly in the broth, which is made with a homemade shrimp stock using aromatics and the shells and heads from the shrimp used in making the filling. It’s delicious but I provided alternative broth options that are less homemade but just as good. The light dusting of cornstarch on the wontons will start to thicken the soup but the addition of an actual cornstarch slurry (water and cornstarch) will continue to thicken the soup until its the perfect silky texture for wispy trails of egg whites. My mom has always made egg drop soup by dropping in full eggs one at a time while slowly stirring the soup. This method will give you strands and clouds of egg whites and jammy yolks. I love fishing out a poached egg as a special treat just for me.
Enjoy this soup that is the best of both worlds!
Wonton Egg Drop Soup
Serves 4 (makes 32 wontons)
For the wontons:
2 lbs shell-on and head-on shrimp (or 1 1/4 lbs peeled shrimp)
4 to 5 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 White pepper
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
32 medium thick wonton wrappers
Shrimp Stock:
3/4 lb shrimp shells and heads
3” piece of ginger, cut into 1/4” thick slices
4 garlic cloves, smashed
For the soup:
8 cups shrimp stock (see recipe note for alternatives)
1 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp White pepper
6 mini Bok choy bulbs, cut in half
3 tbsp cornstarch
5 large eggs
Make the filling: Peel the shrimp, save the shells for your stock. Finely chop the shrimp into a thick paste and transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Add green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, white pepper, and cornstarch and mix until well combined.
Wrap the wontons: Fill a small bowl with water for wrapping the dumplings. Place a heaping teaspoon (about 1 1/2 tsp) of filling on the center of the wrapper. Dab your finger in the water and then on the wrapper around the filling. Gather the edges of the wrapper together and pinch to seal. Place the wontons on a parchment lined quarter baking sheet or plate. Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers.
If freezing the wontons: place the baking sheet in the freezer, uncovered, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours. Place in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
If making shrimp stock for soup: in a pot combine the shrimp shells and heads, ginger, garlic, and 10 cups of water. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and continue to simmer until the stock is rich and orange, 30 to 45 minutes. Reduce the heat as needed. Allow the stock to cool until warm and then strain the stock through a mesh sieve and into glass containers or into another pot if making the soup right away. You should have about 8 cups of stock (a little less is fine, it will just taste more concentrated). Store the stock in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Make the soup: Add the shrimp stock and bouillon and season with salt and white pepper. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add the bok choy and wontons, stirring as you add them so they don’t stick to the bottom, and boil until the wontons start to float to the top, 4 to 5 minutes. In a small cup, mix cornstarch with 1/4 cup water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the soup while gently stirring and allow the soup to thicken, a few moments. Crack the eggs into a small bowl and gently pour them into the soup while stirring, creaking wisps of egg whites and allowing the yolks to cook for about a minute. Turn off the heat and serve up the soup!
Recipe note: if you’re not making your own stock for the soup, you can substitute with your favorite chicken, vegetable stock, or a mixture of water and bouillon. For the latter, bring to a simmer 9 cups of water, 1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder, 3” piece of ginger (cut into 1/4” thick slices) and 4 garlic cloves (smashed). Simmer for about 30 minutes to extract the flavor from the ginger and garlic (you can discard them or leave in the soup if you want to eat them). Season and prepare the soup per the recipe above.
Wonton egg drop soup is commonly on menus in New York. Just had it the other night!
This recipe is incredible. I am going to devote a Sunday afternoon to fill my freezer with them. I adore your Substack.