Wonton Soup Recipe (Pangsit Kuah)

Chinese food has been blended into Indonesian food for centuries. Wonton or we call it pangsit (read: punk-seet) is one of them. Wonton soup (pangsit kuah) or deep fried wonton (pangsit goreng) can be found at many street food stalls in every corner of the country. As Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, chicken, shrimp or fish filling is more popular than pork. However some places with no halal sign sell pangsit with pork filling such as the Pecinan (Chinatown) area.

I love making pangsit kuah (read: punk-seet quu-ahh) when the weather outside is pretty chill. Back to street food story, pangsit kuah can be served in a separately small bowl to company mie ayam (chicken noodles) and the name would change into mie ayam spesial which means special chicken noodles.

While many Chinese Indonesian recipes include pork fat but in this case I like using homemade chicken oil. Enjoy this pangsit kuah with saus sambal cap jempol or belibis*.

Wonton Soup
Pangsit Kuah

Ingredients:
250 grams (9-oz) boneless and skinless chicken thigh
250 grams (9-oz) deveined and peeled white shrimp, roughly chopped
2-centimeter (0.8-inch) ginger, scrapped
8 sprigs Chinese chives (can be substituted for 6 green onions)
1/2 teaspoon each of sesame oil and chicken oil
1 egg
seasalt to taste
ground white pepper to taste

Chicken Broth:
1.5 L (6-quarts) water
454 grams (1-lb) chicken bones (some markets sell bags of chicken bones with skins, take the skins off for chicken oil), throughly washed and smacked
3 leeks, cut into 1-inch length
2 sprigs Chinese celeries
150 grams (5-oz) jicama (can be substituted for carrots), quartered
1 teaspoon dried shrimp (ebi)
3 teaspoon white peppercorn, crushed
seasalt to taste

Method:
Chicken Broth
In a stockpot, bring the water to a boil. Add slapped chicken bones and other ingredients for chicken broth. Reduce the heat to low-medium, continue to simmer to 2 hours. Meanwhile, you can skim the scum off from the surfaces until the stock is clear. Never use a high heat to make a broth. It will make your broth dirty.

Pangsit Filling:
In a food processor, process ginger, chicken, sesame oil, chicken oil, egg, white pepper and seasalt until well-blended. Transfer into a bowl, combine with chopped shrimp and sliced Chinese chives.

Place a wonton wrapper on the flat surface and add about a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of the wrapper. Fold into a half and re-fold the top empty sheet. Flip over and dap one of the corner with water. Attach the two corners together. Or you can always make your own shape as long as you secure the filling 🙂

Serving Suggestion:
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop some pangsit into the pot. Stir gently so that the pangsit will not stick together, once the pangsit are floats removed from the boiling waterUsing a strainer, transfer boiled pangsit to a serving bowl. Ladle chicken broth over the serving bowl, garnish with slices of green onion or Chinese chives, chopped Chinese celery and few drops of sesame oil, serve immediately.

*Saus sambal refers to a bottle of Indonesian chili sauce. There are 4 popular brands among Indonesians, ABC, Belibis, Cap Jempol, and Indofood. I prefer have the cap jempol. It’s hotter and less sweet compare to ABC. In Winnipeg, ABC and Indofood are more available to be bought.