Sopa Wonton Mexicalense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot
• •Fine-mesh strainer for clarifying the broth
• •Cast iron comal for toasting the dried chiles
• •Spider or slotted spoon for lifting wontons
• •Sheet pan dusted with cornstarch for holding the folded wontons
• •Small heatproof jar for the chile oil

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the chicken broth

   Place the chicken in a large stockpot. Cover with the cold water. Add the halved onion, halved garlic, smashed ginger, the root ends of the two green onions, and the salt. Bring slowly to a low simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. This is a clear broth, not a heavy one. The Cantonese cooks of La Chinesca taught Mexicali this technique a hundred years ago and the discipline is the same: cold water, slow heat, skim, never boil hard.

2. 2

   Simmer the broth

   Reduce heat until the surface barely trembles. You should see one or two bubbles rise every few seconds, no more. Cook uncovered for one hour and fifteen minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot. Discard the solids or pull the chicken meat for tacos tomorrow. Taste the broth. It should taste of chicken and ginger, with the salt sitting just behind the flavor. Adjust if it tastes shy.

   If the broth boils hard, the fat emulsifies into the liquid and the soup turns cloudy. Cloudy is for caldo de pollo. Sopa wonton is supposed to be clear, almost amber. No me vengas con atajos.
3. 3

   Make the chile oil de Mexicali

   While the broth simmers, prepare the chile oil. Toast the chile de arbol and chile japones on a dry comal over medium heat for thirty seconds per side, until they puff and turn fragrant. Watch them. They are thin and they burn fast. Crumble the toasted chiles roughly with your hands and place them in a small heatproof jar with the chiltepin, sesame seeds, smashed garlic, and salt. Heat the oil in a small saucepan to about 300F, until it shimmers but does not smoke. Pour the hot oil over the chile mixture. It will sizzle violently. Let it cool. This is the chile oil that defines a Mexicali wonton bowl. Set it aside.

4. 4

   Mix the wonton filling

   In a bowl, combine the ground pork, minced green onions, grated ginger, grated garlic, soy sauce, Maggi sauce, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, and half of the beaten egg. Reserve the other half for sealing. Stir vigorously in one direction with a wooden spoon for about two minutes, until the mixture turns slightly tacky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This is how the wonton holds together when it cooks. A loose filling falls apart in the broth.

5. 5

   Fold the wontons

   Set up your station: a stack of wonton wrappers under a damp cloth so they do not dry out, the bowl of filling, the reserved beaten egg, and a sheet pan dusted with cornstarch. Place a wrapper in your palm with one corner pointing toward you. Spoon a teaspoon of filling into the center. Brush two adjacent edges with beaten egg. Fold the wrapper into a triangle and press the edges to seal, pushing out any air. Bring the two long corners of the triangle together below the filling, dab with egg, and pinch to seal into the classic wonton shape. Lay each finished wonton on the cornstarched pan. Repeat until the filling is gone. You should have around forty wontons.

   The senoras at Cafe Nueva Asia in La Chinesca fold a hundred of these in the time it takes you to fold ten. Speed comes with practice. Your first batch will look uneven. They will still taste right.
6. 6

   Cook the bok choy

   Bring the strained broth back to a low simmer. Drop in the bok choy leaves and cook for two minutes, until the green parts wilt and the white stems turn translucent at the edges. Lift them out with a spider or slotted spoon and divide among six warm bowls. Keep the broth simmering.

7. 7

   Cook the wontons

   Drop the wontons into the simmering broth in batches of fifteen or twenty. Do not crowd the pot. Stir gently once so they do not stick to the bottom. They cook fast. When they float to the surface and the wrappers turn translucent at the edges, about three to four minutes, they are ready. Lift them out with a spider and place them in the bowls on top of the bok choy.

8. 8

   Ladle and finish at the table

   Ladle the hot broth over the wontons until each bowl is generously filled. Scatter the sliced green onions across the top. Set the chile oil de Mexicali, the lime wedges, the soy sauce, and the Maggi at the table. Each diner builds their own bowl: a spoonful of chile oil for heat, a squeeze of lime for brightness, a few drops of soy or Maggi if they want more depth. The lime is the Mexicali signature. No Cantonese cook in Guangdong would put lime on wonton soup. In Mexicali they have for a hundred years. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The broth has to be clear. That means a slow simmer with lazy bubbles, never a hard boil. If you boil it, the fat emulsifies and the soup turns cloudy. Cloudy is for caldo de pollo. Sopa wonton is amber and clean.
• •Do not buy lean ground pork. The wonton needs the fat in the shoulder for flavor and texture. La manteca es el sabor, even inside a wrapper.
• •Square wonton wrappers from a Chinese grocery are correct. The thinner the better. Do not use round dumpling skins or eggroll wrappers. Mexicali has Chinese grocers who have been stocking the right wrappers since before the freeway was built. If you live where you cannot find them, a good Asian market will have them.
• •The Maggi sauce is not optional and it is not a substitute. Maggi has been on the table at every cafe chino in Mexicali for as long as anyone remembers. It is part of the recipe.
• •The chile oil keeps in a clean jar in the refrigerator for a month. Make a double batch. You will use it on eggs, on rice, on tacos.

Advance Preparation

• •The broth can be made two days ahead and refrigerated. Skim the layer of fat off the top before reheating, or leave a thin layer for richness.
• •The wontons can be folded a few hours ahead and held on the cornstarched pan in the refrigerator. For longer storage, freeze them in a single layer on the pan, then transfer to a zip-top bag. Cook them straight from frozen, adding a minute to the cooking time.
• •The chile oil de Mexicali keeps in a clean jar in the refrigerator for one month. The flavor deepens after the first day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 440g)