NYC: Making Wontons

Yesterday, it was too hot to do anything aside from:

1. Run out to Xian Famous Foods for takeout
2. Stay inside with air conditioning on full blast and make wontons for dinner

After picking up lunch at Xian Famous Foods, I stopped at Sunrise Mart to buy ingredients for wontons. It’s been a loong time since I did any real cooking (assembling avocado salads don't count)...nearly six months! Wontons are one of my favourite things to make because they're so easy, and you can make a bazillion at a time. They freeze very well for those lazy nights.

Ok, wonton prep! I don’t use a set recipe...just have basic ideas from watching my grandma cook. Here are the ingredients with estimations:

1lb ground pork
1 bunch chives, chopped
A lot of ginger, minced
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
Shoyu
Rice Vinegar
Oyster Sauce
Sesame Oil

50 Wonton Wrappers

Mix the first four ingredients together in a big bowl. And then add about a tablespoon each of the latter four ingredients. Mix evenly, get a spoonful of the pork mixture and pan-fry a "sample" to taste. Adjust sauces accordingly.

Then get everything set in place. Put the wonton wrappers on a plate and place a damp towel on top to keep them from drying out. Fill a small bowl with water and set on the side. Then a little spoonful of the pork mixture. Dip your finger in the water, and wet two adjacent edges of the wrapper and fold over into a triangle. Then gather the two pointy ends, wet one of them and fold one over another to make this nurse cap/boat-like creations.

Repeat, repeat, till you have them all done. I had some leftover pork after making 50 wontons, so I pan-fried the leftovers and poured it over a hot bowl of rice. SO DELICIOUS like that.

Now. Cooking time! Some people like to deep fry them, but Monsieur P wasn’t so hot on the idea of bubbling vats of oil in his kitchen. We have no venting! So I did the boil-fry method, which is actually my favourite way to eat dumplings. Get a big deep pan. Oil over just to coat the bottom lightly. Place all the wontons in the pan, fat-side down. Fill the pan an inch deep with water. Cover and turn on the stove. Cook for about 5 minutes till all the water cooks down. Then remove the cover, and when the bottoms of the wontons get crispy, flip them over so that you get the other side crispy too!

They should slide off the pan and onto a plate easily. Now you can eat! For dipping sauce I minced a bunch of ginger and mixed it with black vinegar. Shoyu and ponzu sauce also works well :) We ate about 15 dumplings each...that is about "normal" I think, heehee.