Pancit Molo (Soup)

The original Filipino-Chinese version of Wonton Soup

It is called Pancit even if it doesn’t have any noodles in it because it uses egg noodles dough but not extruded as noodles. It is rolled out and cut as for dumpling wrappers.  Molo is a place in the province of Iloilo in the Philippines where it was popularized.  It is another Chinese influenced dish. 

This is a soup dish and not the regular dry noodle dish as in Pancit. It is time consuming to prepare if everything is done from scratch especially the wrappers, which I made just for this book. 

However, one can use the store-bought Wonton wrappers, which would be more convenient and would not make much difference in taste.  As a matter of fact it is very similar to the Chinese Wonton soup popular in the States and maybe they were the same at the start. It is also similar or the same as the Dumplings or Potstickers.

But just for the experience and/or stress relief, I found it really relaxing and therapeutic to knead and roll the dough. 

Making this was not without frustrations and aggravation but at the end I found satisfaction when all was rolled out. They were not perfectly squared but I felt the meat filling wouldn’t care.  I floured each wrapper and stacked them for use later after I was done with the filling. I was disgusted and disappointed to see the wrappers were stuck together again like the original dough and was impossible to separate. My mistake was I did not sprinkle the layers with cornstarch. I continued the operation, re-kneaded the dough and rolled them out again.  I was rewarded for its success.  It was very good. 

It is actually a complete meal by itself.  You won’t need anything else.

You can also make Dumplings (find recipe here) or potstickers with this same recipe. 

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Filling:

• 1 cup ground pork
• ½ cup cooked, flaked chicken (optional)
• 3 TBS chopped green onion
• ½ cup shelled shrimp, minced
• 1 clove garlic
• ¼ cup chopped water chestnuts
• Soy sauce to taste
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of black pepper

Combine all ingredients.  Divide the mixture into two and wrap one half of the mixture by teaspoonful in Pancit molo wrappers or Wonton wrappers.  Set the remaining half aside for the broth.

To make the wrappers: 

• 2 cups flour
• ¼ tsp. salt
• Yolks of 3 eggs

Sift together flour and salt.  Add the yolks of 3 eggs and knead until the dough becomes very smooth and fine.  Roll out on a floured board to about the thickness of cardboard. Make a 3” x 3” square then cut in half diagonally to make triangles.

Broth:

• 2 cans Chicken broth
• water as needed
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ medium onion, chopped
• 3 TBS chopped green onion

Sauté garlic and onions. When slightly brown, add remaining half of the stuffing mixture.  Cook for 5 minutes stirring well.  Add the chicken broth.  Boil then drop the stuffed wrappers. Season with salt and pepper.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add water if it is too thick. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.  A dash of MSG.