What's for Supper?

What did you have for supper last night?

We had a family favorite….homemade crispy  fried wontons.  It’s so easy.  A little time consuming, but if the kids lend a hand, it goes quickly.  Tonight I had no help, but I have a TV in the kitchen so while I folded the wontons I watched a show.

I wish I could find my original recipe that I clipped from Better Home and Gardens magazine years and years ago.  Now, I just wing it.

Take out a package of wonton wrappers. You’ll find these in the produce aisle of your store right next to the eggroll wrappers.  It helps if you have these sit on the counter for an hour or so to come to room temperature before you start. It makes them easier to separate.  You’ll want a good clear spot on your counter or table to make your wontons. You can also line cookie sheets with wax paper if you like and lay the wontons on those to get them out of your way if necessary.

In a small cup or bowl, mix 2 Tablespoons of flour or cornstarch with enough water to make a runny paste. You will use this to glue your wontons shut.

Chop very  finely : one can of water chestnuts, a few fresh mushrooms and green onions. Dump all that into a bowl, add one pound of ground pork, a couple Tablespoons of cooking sherry ( I only had white wine and it works fine…and you can skip it altogether if you desire), a teaspoon of garlic  and a couple Tablespoons of your favorite soy sauce. Mix it all together – your hands will work best.

Place a clump of the raw mixture, about 2 teaspoons in the center of a wrapper.  With a pastry brush (or your finger), apply a line of flour water to 2 edges of the wrapper and fold it over to make a triangle.  Press shut.  Repeat.

The only thing that can go wrong here is for the wontons to stick together or to your counter.  The wrappers tear easily.  My problem is that since I no longer have the original recipe I often come up with either too much stuffing or too little. This time I was going to run out of stuffing. So about half way through the process, I shredded cabbage and mixed that in.  They were more like egg rolls. We all liked them, but I should have shredded the cabbage really, really finely instead of just kinda-finely.

Now, just fry them in hot grease. I used lard in a cast iron skillet, but Crisco in an electric deepfryer works just as well. Do it however you normally deep fry.

They don’t take long  to cook through. When it’s brown on one side turn it over. Cut one in half to see that the pork is not pink and away you go. If you have a small family, these freeze nicely. Just line a container with wax paper, place the wontons in a single layer – not touching each other – top with wax paper and lay more wontons… You can cook them directly from the freezer and they are yummy. When the kids were little, I could put some in the freezer. Last night they were all devoured. We like to dip ours in sweet and sour sauce. I either serve them with a stir fry  and rice, or like last night – with  fried rice.