Hot, spicy, hearty – a perfect meal for this frigid Alaska weather.

Nothing beats hot soup on a cold day. What about after a hike on a cold day? Yup. Hot, hearty soup. Jack upped the ante on this soup by floating my homemade moose wontons in his hot and sour soup – beef broth, lots of hot spices paired with freshly squeezed lime juice and a dash of sesame oil. “Ooooh, Andy!” (Calm yourself Aunt Bee.) This spicy fusion warmed the heart, then the soul, and then traveled from the top of my head to the tips of my chilled toes.

A couple of weeks ago, I experimented with making my own wonton wrappers. The egg noodle recipe I used for my pasta worked extraordinarily well for the little dumplings. Instead of slicing the noodles into strands, I left them in three inch sheets which I cut into squares. Having already made the seasoned ground moose, I did nothing more than gather the dough around portions of meat and voila! – wontons. A big batch kept in the freezer allows us to throw a few into simmering soups. After a few minutes of cooking, wonton soup’s on!

Alaska Moose Wonton Soup

Ingredients

• 2/3 lb ground moose (any ground meat will work)
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp chives, chopped small
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 1 tsp dried ginger
• 1 garlic clove, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or 1/2 tsp of your favorite spice mix like Jack’s
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 package wonton wrappers or homemade pasta cut into 3” squares

Directions

1. Quickly sauté ground meat, careful to just cook through
2. Place meat in a bowl
3. Mix next eight ingredients into cooked meat
4. Place about a tablespoon of the meat mixture onto the center of a wonton wrapper
5. Gather all the edges up to make a bag shape
6. Gently squeeze together the closure or the neck of the wonton
7. Place on a baking sheet if you are planning to freeze the wontons and place the baking sheet in the freezer until the wontons are frozen solid. Then store the frozen product in a zip top bag in the freezer until you want to use them.
8. To cook, place wontons in simmering soup for 3 minutes. If frozen, cook for 4 minutes.