#ewew cooks Fried Crispy Wantans

After a slew of easy peasy recipes, since my cooking principle is always fast, fresh and simple, I'm going to share one today that's not as easy.  Even though this one needs a bit more effort, the end result is more than worth it I assure you...it's my homemade Fried Crispy Wantans.

I've made this many times at home and it's also among one of my 'repertoire' of dishes that I'd usually prepare to bring back to Ipoh (during my Chinese New Year "balik kampong" ritual).  But, today, I'm making it as a gesture of thanks to my thoughtful neighbour's children (visiting from US and Australia) who brought gifts of chocolates and other goodies.  

So, let's get cracking at making my wantan filling that has just 6 ingredients, shall we?

Ingredients:

1 packet square wantan skins
350g medium-sized prawns (about 20 prawns)
150g chicken fillet (about 6 strips)
5 dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked till soften)
1 small jicama (or "sengkuang")
1/2 a medium carrot
2 stalks spring onions
Beaten egg & cornflour
Salt & white pepper

Preparation:

Basically, you need to chop up all the ingredients finely.  Dice finely the carrots, jicama, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and chicken.  [#Note: Omit the spring onions if you have young ones who don't like them.  If I had my way, I'd love to add some chopped coriander as well but then I'll end up being the only one eating them >.<]  As for the prawns, I prefer not to dice them finely but to cut each prawn into 3 - 4 pcs (depending on the size of the prawn) as I like to bite into a sizeable chunk of it when I bite into a fried wantan.  [#Tip: There's no hard and fast rule as to the exact proportion of these ingredients to one another, so don't stress as each ingredient can be more or less.]

Next, just mix all the chopped up ingredients evenly.  I seasoned my amount of mixture with 1 1/4 tsp salt (or more if you want it more salty) and 1/2 tsp white pepper.  [#Tip: If you're serving this for a party, you can make this ahead of time until this point and put it back into the fridge for use later (you can even prepare these days ahead and store them in the freezer).]

When you're ready to do the frying, take your pre-prepared wantan filling from the fridge and add some beaten egg and cornflour to the mixture.  The purpose of this is just to combine the ingredients together.  I used half an egg and 1 1/2 tbsp of cornflour (for the amount of filling I had).  Use just enough egg to bind the mixture together (the end result shouldn't be wet).  If too wet, just add more cornflour.

Mix everything together evenly.  You're now ready to assemble your wantans!  I will show you 3 ways to fold the wantans.  You can choose any one of the three ways that's easiest to you.

Method:

1)  Fold them into triangles.  Put a teaspoonful of the filling in the centre and dab a bit of water and press down to seal both sides.  This is probably the easiest of the three ways.

2)  Roll them up in a cylinder shape.  Put a spoonful of the mixture in the centre and fold 1/3 of the wantan skin over the mixture.  Seal the end with a bit of water and roll the balance over.  This is probably the fastest to make.

3)  Make them into the actual wantan shape.  This last one looks more like the wantan shape you'd get when you dine outside.  Follow step 1 but bring both edges of the triangle to meet in the centre and seal it with a dab of water.  This one looks the most professional but also the hardest and most time consuming one to make out of the three ways.  So, safe this one for when you want to impress at a dinner party (haha!).

My one packet wantan skin yielded about 55 wantans...and there was still slightly less than half of the filling left.  Into the freezer the balance goes....for use on another day :)

Now, it's time to fry up these babies!  Make sure you fry them in medium-low heat to ensure the filling is cooked as the wantan skins brown pretty fast.  Take the wantans out once they achieve that nice golden colour and drain them on paper towels.

triangle-shaped fried wantans

cylinder-shaped fried wantans

actual wantan-shaped fried wantans

All that's left to do is to plate them up (nicely), take some (requisite) photos for my blog.....and then eat! ;D

I would make the triangle-shaped Fried Crispy Wantans if I decide to serve it as a starter in a western-type meal, drizzled with either Japanese mayo or cocktail sauce.

These cylinder-shaped Fried Crispy Wantans are the ones I usually make for our own dinner as they're the fastest to assemble.

And, finally, I would choose to make these more presentable looking Fried Crispy Wantans coz they look like what a wantan should look like when I want a bit more finesse for a dinner party or if it's made to be given to someone.

Oh, these ones are for my neighbours ;)

Whatever the occasion...be it a home meal, cocktail or dinner party, these Fried Crispy Wantans will be popular with just about anybody...young, old or the middle-aged.  Who can resist these little crispy morsels of delight.....I know I can't! :D