Wantons are; along with spring rolls, among the most common elements to be consistently found throughout Chinese/Asian cooking the whole world over (apart from rice that is).

No doubt about it wantons are an elegant and versatile favorite at our house. I don’t know why; but the homemade variety always seems to taste just that much nicer than the fast food variety.

Diversity and Cooking Methods

The huge range and versatility of cooking methods and filling ingredients that can be used in the preparation of wantons is without doubt a key integral factor to the general wide-spread acceptance, popularity and consumption of wantons in one form or another.

For Example – Wantons can be prepared and presented to the diner in a variety of forms resulting from the vast array and selection of recipes and cooking styles to adopt and make your own. Popular methods of preparing wantons include deep-fried, pan-fry, steaming, boiling and oven baking etc.

Serving Considerations – More often than not it is ultimately your intended serving method(s) that will dictate which cooking methods are most appropriate for your current culinary adventure. Some of these include using the wanton as a finger food, dunking finger food, appetizer, side dish or even a main course component such as the ever popular “All you can eat buffet/bistro”.

Cooking Styles – Remember that it is not just the cooking styles or intended serving scenarios that may differ. The ingredients combined to make your wanton stuffing can also be modified considerably and so reflect your own personal, family or guest’s palate preferences. Feel free to substitute to your heart’s content.

Sauces – Because wantons make such a grand appetizer/finger food more often than not an ample selection of wanton dunking sauces are a must. Fortunately; you can use practically any sauce you fancy to fill this roll (dunking/dipping). In fact on those occasions when I’m just not feeling “up to it” I use ketchup, tomato sauce, sour cream, Bar-B-Q sauce or whatever is to hand.

So without further ado let’s get straight into it. First up let’s take a look at the ingredients that are required for this wanton recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 Packet of Square Wanton Wrappers
• 250 Grams (about ½ pound) of Ground Meat (chicken and pork work very well)
• 250 Grams (about ½ pound) of Shrimps
• 6 Water Chestnuts
• 2 Spring Onions
• 1 Egg
• 2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
• 1 Teaspoon of either Corn or Potato Starch
• ½ Teaspoon each of Sugar, Sesame Oil
• Additional Salt and Pepper to Taste

Preparation:

1. Finely chop the onions and water chestnuts
2. Clean and roughly chop the shrimp
3. Separate egg yolk from egg white (albumin) and beat the egg white just prior to filling and folding the wantons
4. Put all ingredients except the egg white and wanton wrappers into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly making sure that all of the ingredients are fully integrated and distributed evenly throughout the mix. Cover and place in refrigerator for 1 hour.
5. To fill and wrap the wantons place a square wanton on a flat surface in front of you. Now place a teaspoon of the filling mix into the center of the wanton wrapper (skin).
6. The next step is to wet all edges of the wanton wrapper with the beaten egg white. This is to ensure that the wanton is sealed and will not fall apart during cooking.
7. Continue this process until all of your wanton wrappers or all of your filling mixture has been used

Cooking:

1. In a deep cast iron frying pan heat up about 2½ centimeters (1 inch) of cooking oil
2. Cook the wantons in batches so as not to overcrowd the frying pan. Fry until the wantons become golden brown. Turn and continue frying until this side also turns golden brown.
3. Remove cooked wantons from the frying pan and place on to paper towels to drain

Serving:

• If serving as an appetizer, side dish or just as finger food snacks place drained wantons onto a platter and serve with dipping sauce (chili, sour cream, ketchup etc.).
• Wantons can also be served in a soup or fried to taste as an accompaniment to a main dish, as part of a Chinese banquet or just as a snack