Wantons For Dinner
Chinese food is so ubiquitous! I feel like everywhere you go in the world, there is a fast food or takeout Chinese style restaurant. Here in Trinidad, it is very popular and they are on literally every street. Since the corona quarantine though and restaurants being closed, it has been hard to come by our favourite dishes. We had a huge hankering for some Wantons so we decided to make some ourselves at home. Now, I haven't done this before so I found this great recipe for beef wantons by WhoaVegan (2020) that can be found here. They were essentially making this with "fake" beef but I took the same recipe and used normal real ground beef instead.
Recipe and Ingredients
-1 pack of wanton wraps
-1 pack of ground beef
-2 tbsp sesame oil
-1 tbsp soy sauce
-1 tbsp onion powder
-1 tbsp garlic powder
-1 cup of chopped green onions
-1 tsp corn starch
This recipe was used from WhoaVegan (2020).
Preparing The Beef
To the ground beef, I added the green onions, the soy sauce, sesame oil, corn starch and seasoning powders. I was thinking about mixing everything in with a fork but for some reason, I remembered Jamie Oliver saying something about getting involved with the food and mixing in seasonings with the hands is more superior to anything else when it comes to meat so I did! Everything was mixed in until totally combined.
Folding The Wantons
Luckily you can find wanton skins in every grocery here! It makes everything much easier than having to fiddle around with dough for hours. So basically, what you do to fold the wanton is place a generous but conservative amount of beef filling in the middle of the square of the skin. Next dip your fingers in water and wet to of the edges as shown in the picture. Then, fold the edges over so that you form a triangle, allowing the most edges do the work of sticking together.
Next, take to two lower corners of the triangle and, after wetting them as well, bring them together to form the distinct wanton shape. Make sure to use enough water as the points of contact may become loosened during frying which you do not want! Do this for the rest of the wantons for a many as you wish. We did a dozen. Look how cool they look! Like a fleet ready for frying up!
Fry Time!
Once your're done with your folding, fry them up in a nice deep pot with oil at medium heat. Just make sure, as always to ensure that the oil is heated to the right temperature. WhoaVegan (2020) mentioned how to know to sure, by placing a piece of the wanton skin in the oil. If it floats back up with bubbles, it is ready and vice versa! Fry those beauties until golden brown and let it cool a little before taking a bite. Not that I learned this the hard way or anything!
Satisfaction
I was completely satisfied and amazed at how this came out! They were so crispy and delicious and the taste was much like you get in the Chinese restaurants, except it felt like there was something missing. I think it was MSG or monosodium glutamate that gives that extra umami chinese taste. Maybe next time I shall try this theory out. This means that I can also try to make Hong Kong Wantons for another blog! Stay tuned for that and thanks for reading, Cheers!
REFERENCES:
WhoaVegan. 2020. “ASMR in the Kitchen: Making Lightlife Ground ‘Beef’ Fried Wontons Recipe.” YouTube Video. YouTube. 