Cantonese Style Shrimp Wonton 鮮蝦雲吞 + NYC Dumpling Festival 2016
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While I am still recovering from mooncake hangover during last week’s Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, I am already pumped about upcoming National Dumpling Day which falls on 9/26/2016.
To celebrate, I am sharing this wonderful Cantonese-Style Shrimp Wonton Recipe that I have been holding off for special occasions like this. It’s one of Mrs. YR’s favorite dishes so I hope it’ll become yours too.
Dumpling vs Wonton
“What’s the difference between dumpling and wonton” is an age-old question I have been asked a lot. So I’ll take this opportunity to offer my understanding.
So here are two ways to look at this.
One way is to consider dumpling as a general category includes food with filling wrapped in thin layer of dough. In that case, wonton is a type of dumpling. In fact, most Chinese restaurants list wonton under the dumpling section on their menu.
The other way is to strictly compare a traditional Chinese dumpling to a traditional Chinese wonton. Here are some of the differences:
| Dumpling | Wonton | |
| Shape & Folding Method | Taco shape with folds pinched length-wise | Triangular shaped with flat bottom. No folds |
| Skin | Round skin, relatively thicker | square skin, relatively thinner |
| Stuffing | Mostly ground meat with vegetables such as chive and cabbage | Mostly ground meat |
| Cooking Method | Boiled, Steamed, Pan-fried | Mostly boiled, occasionally pan-fried or deep fried (i.g. Crab Rangoon/Cheese Wonton) |
| When to server | Chinese New Year /significant festivals signifying unity as well as year-round | Year-round |
So as you can see that the differences are really minor and the name dumpling is used interchangeably in certain context.
So, hope that clears up the dumpling/wonton confusion and you are now comfortable to enjoy these shrimp wontons on the National Dumpling Day!!
For all the dumpling lovers around NYC, you will also not want to miss the biggest dumpling celebration of the year by attending the 2016 New York Dumpling Festival hosted by Chef One. I had a great time at last year’s Dumpling Festival so I have a really high expectation for this year’s event.
6th Annual Dumpling Festival & 13th Annual Dumpling Eating Contest
This year’s NYC Dumpling Festival marks the 6th year of this annual tradition. Here is what you need to know about the Festival:
The Dumpling Festival is held on Sept 24, 2016 from 12p, – 5pm at:
Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Manhattan’s Lower East Side
The admission is FREE but you definitely want to purchase a tasting ticket ($20) which will get you 4 tastings and entry into raffle draw to win two Delta tickets and One Year worth of dumpling supply from Chef One! All the ticket sales will go to Food Bank of NYC.
This year, the organizer at Chef One will have a number of booths offering a wide variety of dumplings from vegan options (kale and edamame) to brand new flavors such as kung pao chicken dumplings. So you’d better bring your appetite!
Pro tip – please make sure you catch the Annual Dumpling Eating Contest which kicks off around half way into the festival.
Last year, I witnessed the winning contestant devouring 93 dumplings in just 2 minutes and world class act Takeru Kobayashi tearing down 32 dumplings in just 30 seconds so I am pretty sure another furious competition is awaiting.
Molly Schuyler Finishing 93 dumplings in 2 mins during ’15 Dumpling Eating Contest
If you are interested in learning the differences between different kinds of dumplings and making your own dumplings, I also encourage you to sign up for a dumpling making class offered on the day of the festival.
Lastly, if you are on social media, please tag your pictures to #Dumplingfest2016. I’d be thrilled to hear your experience.
More on Cantonese Style Shrimp Wonton Recipe
If NYC is not somewhere you’ll be this fall, then definitely give today’s Shrimp Wonton recipe a shot. It’s, in my opinion, easier to make than the traditional pork chive dumplings and excellent for people who love seafood or simply don’t eat red meat.
The Cantonese style wonton is known for its simple flavor and wrapping method. If you’ve made wonton before, you probably know there are quite a few folding methods (and at least 5 different Chinese names). The folding method introduced in this recipe is not the easiest but it’s totally doable and it makes a really pretty wonton compared to the traditional Cantonese style folding method.
Note on storage. When I make wonton I tend to make a bunch so I can freeze the extra wontons for a future quick meal. If you end up having leftover wrappers, you can also freeze them for up to 1 months but just make sure you wrap them really really well.
Note on wonton soup. These Cantonese Style Shrimp Wontons are typically served in a seafood stock made with dried seafood. To simplify, I included a quick shrimp stock made from the shrimp shell. If you are working with de-shelled shrimp, you can substitute the stock with any seafood or chicken stock of your choice.
One last thing, although it’s not included in the recipe, you can simply add a roll of cooked noodle to the final dish to make the famous Cantonese Style Wonton Noodle soup – it’s just that easy.
Step-by-Step
Cantonese Style Shrimp Wonton 鮮蝦雲吞
Yield: 50 Wontons
Prep Time: 60 mins
Cook Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 65 mins
Make these classic Cantonese-Style Shrimp Wontons following my step-by-step recipe at YiReservation.com
Ingredients:
1 pack Wonton wrappers, around 50
Shrimp Filling:
- 2 lb shell-on medium shrimp (0r 1lb 10oz deshelled)
- 1 egg
- 2tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 1.5 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp white pepper powder
Wonton Soup
- shrimp shell
- salt to taste
- white pepper powder to taste
Directions:
If working with shell-on shrimp, follow this instruction to de-shell, devein the shrimp. Keep the shrimp shell.
Cut each piece of shrimp into 2-3 pieces depending on the size. Transfer to a bowl.
Separate the egg white from egg yolk. Use egg white to marinate the shrimp. Save the egg yolk for later.
Add all the shrimp marinade ingredients to the shrimp and mix in one direction until the ingredients are fully incorporated. About 3 minutes. Cover and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes. 
To make a light and clear seafood soup, combine the shrimp shell from step 1 and 4 cups of water in a pot and bring to boil. Remove as much foam as possible.
Simmer the shrimp shell for at least one hour or up to 3 hours. Drain and use the soup to serve wontons.
Combine the egg yolk with 1tbsp of water to make an egg wash.
To assemble wonton, place one wonton wrapper on your palm in diamond position.
Use a butter knife to place one or two pieces of shrimp on one corner of the wrapper. 
Flip the corner of the wrapper inward to wrap the shrimp and roll the wrapper one more time.
Gently squeeze out any air left inside 
Wet one side of the two corners with egg wash 
Bring the two long corners together to form a “boat” shape.
Repeat these steps until you finish the filling or wonton wrapper. 
Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the wonton for 3 minutes. Gently stir the wonton to prevent from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Serve with shrimp soup from step 3.
Cantonese Style Shrimp Wonton 鮮蝦雲吞
Yield: 50 Wontons
Prep Time: 60 mins
Cook Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 65 mins
Ingredients:
Shrimp Filling:
- 2 lb shell-on medium shrimp (0r 1lb 10oz deshelled)
- 1 egg
- 2tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 1.5 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp white pepper powder
Wonton Soup
- shrimp shell
- salt to taste
- white pepper powder to taste
Directions:
Separate the egg white from egg yolk. Use egg white to marinate the shrimp. Save the egg yolk for later.
Add all the shrimp marinade ingredients to the shrimp and mix in one direction until the ingredients are fully incorporated. About 3 minutes. Cover and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes.
To make a light and clear seafood soup, combine the shrimp shell from step 1 and 4 cups of water in a pot and bring to boil. Remove as much foam as possible.
Simmer the shrimp shell for at least one hour or up to 3 hours. Drain and use the soup to serve wontons.
Combine the egg yolk with 1tbsp of water to make an egg wash.
To assemble wonton, place one wonton wrapper on your palm in diamond position.
Use a butter knife to place one or two pieces of shrimp on one corner of the wrapper.
Flip the corner of the wrapper inward to wrap the shrimp and roll the wrapper one more time.
Gently squeeze out any air left inside
Wet one side of the two corners with egg wash
Bring the two long corners together to form a “boat” shape.
Repeat these steps until you finish the filling or wonton wrapper.
Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the wonton for 3 minutes. Gently stir the wonton to prevent from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Serve with shrimp soup from step 3.
I hope you enjoy this post and please leave a comment if you have any questions.
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Hi! Can we freeze these fore later? If so, how long do we need to boil them for before they’re ready?
Hi Jenn, yes they can be frozen. I’d say between 8- 10mins. Typically I boil until all the wontons are floating on top of the water then continue to boil for 3 more minutes on medium heat. Hope his helps.
Should I freeze wontons before I cook aka boil it or do I need to cook wontons first then freeze, which is better ? How long do they keep in freezer?
Also can I add a bit of ground meat with shrimp in wontons?
Hi, Yi! I am making your recipe (looks so yummy) and I only have half the shrimp. Should I halve the water for the stock?
Thank you,
Laura
Hi Laura, sorry for the late reply. I’d start with half the water. Once it’s almost done you can make some adjustment if the stock is too strong (in that case, add more water). Thanks.
I just tried to make it just now and I love it. I added 1 pork sausage because I have no ground pork and it’s delicious it give more taste and added a bit of egg yolk.. ( my suggestion don’t put all the white egg unless you have much shrimp otherwise it’s too hard to roll and close the wonton wrapper)
Hi Judith, thanks for the feedback and glad that the sausage substitute worked out.
Hi Yi, I just stumbled upon your website and I have always wanted to try shrimp wonton. May I ask whether leaving out the SHAOXING COOKING WINE will make a difference or is there something I can substitute it with that is not alcohol?
Thank you!
hi there, it’s okay if you leave out the cooking wine. The purpose of it is to remove some fishy taste from the seafood and enhance the flavor however it’s not 100% necessary. Unfortunately there isn’t a good non-alcoholic substitute I know of. Enjoy cooking!
Hi Bich, whenever I make wontons with shrimp, I don’t ever use any alcohol and they turn out fine. Sometimes in Chinese recipes that calls for Xiaoshing wine, I sub with Japanese sake because it has a more subtle flavour.
Hello,
Just a comment about the “shapes” of your wontons. You show the “hat form” for these “Cantonese” wontons, even though you show the sort-of Hong-Kong form of Cantonese-style folding in your pics of dishes of the finished wontons. Actually, the Hong Kong style (which IS Cantonese) would be more of a grab-together-pinch-at-the-waist folding of the wonton, where the “outer folds” are just free-floating folds of the wonton skin.
Perhaps you should mention this.
Hi Yi,
Thanks so much for this recipe. I made this one twice and the fish dumpling one too. Both are fabulous. Looking forward to more dumpling recipes (vegerian variations?). I will play with the fillings some more myself and share any findings 🙂
Hi Jing, thanks for checking out my dumpling recipes. Not sure if you already saw but I also shared a veggie dumpling recipe sometime ago. Happy cooking!
Cantonese Style shrimp Wontons is one of my favorite comfort food. Love your little step by step how to photos, really helpful. Happy belated Mid-Autumn Festival. Were you able to find lots of moon cakes in NYC or did you make your own from scratch. Great recipe, sharing everywhere!
thanks Bobbi! I did make mooncakes from scratch this year.
do I use 2 eggs? One for the marinade and one for the egg wash? This looks yummy and I’m out to buy the shrimp with shells on.
Hi Janet, great question. I wasn’t clear enough. You’ll just need egg white for the shrimp filling and use egg yolk to make egg wash. I just updated the instruction. Thanks for checking it out!
Yi, I am drooling over those wontons right now! Thanks for the recipe. Didn’t know there’s a national dumpling day. If I lived closer to NYC I’d definitely check out the festival.
Thanks for stopping by Luis. Let me know how it turned out if you ever got to try this recipe.
Your wontons are perfectly made, I cant make it as beautiful as yours.
Thanks Raymund.
National Dumpling Day?! Glad you alerted us — give us some time to prepare. 🙂 And thanks for the rundown on the difference between dumplings and wontons — have always been confused on that. Anyway, such a nice dish — thanks!
Great to see you John. Let’s celebrate National Dumpling Day together!
I love my wanton skin extra thin, luckily I’m able to get it from JMART Flushing. Will definitely try this recipe. Thank you
Thanks for checking out the recipe LuLu. I agree that the thin skin goes better with these Cantonese style wontons. JMart has a great selection so you are in good hands!
Had some really tasty shrimp wonton in SF when I visited and I remember seeing meat (pork?) inside. Wonder how the meat-less one tastes like.
Hi Joan, some restaurants do put a small amount of ground pork (or pork fat) to make the wontons juicy. It’s not necessary for home cooking but feel free to include some pork if you prefer. Hope this helps.
Loooove these shrimp wontons from Chinatown. Definitely making them soon. The dumpling festival sounds interesting too. Thanks for the post.
Thanks Chris. Hope you make to the Dumpling Festival if you live around NYC.
Great recipe. Thank you: the wontons are truly delicious. What could I add to the shrimp soup to make it more colourful and flavoursome?
Hi Astrida, thanks for checking out the recipe. Traditionally, the Cantonese style wonton soup is flavored with dried seafood (dried squid, dried scallop and etc). But if you don’t have those ingredients handy, You can combine shrimp shell with some other shell fish such as mussels or clams. To make it colorful, you can try adding some fresh garnishes such as green onions or yellow chives seen here. Hope this helps.
You can also use dried anchovies, a.k.a. “ikan bilis” in Malay or Indonesian, and commonly recognized in SE Asia. In the Hong Kong and Southern China sense they are also packaged and sold as “stock fish”.
Oh, and when I make my wonton stock/soup I frequently also throw in the stems of dried shiitake/heong koo/far koo/tung koo mushrooms that I would have saved while preparing various dishes where I used the caps of those dried mushrooms.
Sliced ginger, garlic, or scallions, also go in – as expected – depending on my mood and impulse.
hi there, thanks for introducing me some other ways to make wonton soup. I am very interested in trying the SE Asian flavors you described. Thanks a lot!
Thank you so much for this recipe , l deffinatley will try
Kind regards
Alan
Thanks Alan. please let me know how it turned out!