Fried Wontons

While skimming through Nina Simonds' Classic Chinese Cuisine I stumbled upon a recipe for Fried wontons. I have always loved fresh dumplings and I had some experience with making steamed dumplings before. I Had never made fried dumplings before so I was excited to begin working.

The ingredients

I started by shelling and deveining the shrimp, which was then minced and mixed with minced water chestnuts, ground pork, and wonton seasonings: soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, ginger and scallions. 

Wonton mixture

I put about a teaspoon in each wonton wrapper and twisted them into dumpling shape. 

While forming the wontons, I was heating about six cups of oil in a Dutch oven. (The recipe says to use a wok, but we don't have one.)  The cookbook says to heat the oil to 350, but we don't have a thermometer, so I waited until the oil started to wink at me, and then tested with a scrap wonton wrapper.

Once they looked brown and crispy, I drained them on paper towels.

Then I made a dipping sauce of ketchup, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, thickened with corn starch.

The finished wontons were delicious!