Wontons

Wontons are quite versatile. You can serve them in soup, dry, or over egg noodles. These are traditionally made with ground pork but I find ground turkey better it them.

Ingredients
- Wonton skins - buy the square ones the round ones tend to be too thick to make a nice wanton
- 1 lb ground pork or turkey
- 1/2" piece of ginger, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 water chestnuts, peeled; or equivalent jacama, cooked, and minced (optional but gives it a nice crunch)
- 2" carrot chunk, diced (optional)
- 2 dried Shitake mushrooms, re-hydrated, small dice 
- 1 egg
- To taste: salt, sesame oil, onion flakes, soy sauce, cilantro, green onions, fish sauce (optional but recommended) 

Method

Leave the wonton skins in its package until you're ready to use them. If they are frozen, you can defrost them beforehand. If your package is already opened, be sure to keep the skins under a damp cloth until you're ready to use them. This prevents them from drying out and becoming brittle.

You can soak the mushrooms in water overnight, or you can pour boiling water over them to soak them (takes about 1-2 hrs to rehydrate).


Mix all the ingredients except for the skins together. After mixing, take a small pat of meat mixture and place it in 1 piece of skin.

You can make triangular wontons by wetting the edges with water or egg wash and folding over to form a triangle.

An easier way to make them would be to just place the meat in the middle of the skin then folding up all the edges to make a 'package'. Wetting the sides for this version is not necessary.

Cooked wontons

 Drop the wontons one at a time in boiling water. They are done when they float. Just skim them off the surface of the water.







Soup for wontons


To pork or chicken stock, add salt, onion and garlic powder, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry), fish sauce and/or soy sauce, green onions and cilantro to taste. Serve over wontons.

For dry wontons

Serve cooked wontons over a mixture of black vinegar, chili oil or sriracha sauce, sesame oil and sprinkled with green onions and/or cilantro.


For fried wontons

Fry the triangular version in hot oil until golden brown.

Where to buy: You can get all the ingredients at any Asian grocer. If you don't have one most regular supermarkets including Walmart and Super Target carry chili oil, sriracha sauce and sesame oil. Wonton skins do tend to be a little harder to get at a regular store, depending on your location. You can also get it from amazon but they cheapest option is the Asian grocer.