The Very Versatile Wonton!

Did you know....there are a million ways to use wonton wrappers?  Well...maybe not a million...but quite a few!

On our cooking with Stacy and Tatum day we started off making Wonton Soup...

Stacy shared a great recipe from one of her favorite cook books...

Our girlies got right to it and made the filling for the wontons...

Here's the recipe if you want to follow along:

• 6 oz pork, not too lean and roughly chopped
• 2 oz peeled prawns finely chopped (we left this out because my girlies have a possible shrimp allergy - that's a story for another day...we added a bit more pork)
• 1 t light brown sugar
• 1 T Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1 t finely chopped scallions - the recipe calls them 'spring onions' - much prettier huh?
• 1 t finely chopped fresh root ginger
• 24 ready-made wonton wrappers
• 3 Cups stock 
• 1 T soy sauce
• Finely chopped spring onions 

 A couple great things about this soup...1.)you can double the ingredients for the wontons, freeze the extras and have them in the freezer for another day...2.)once you get the wontons done all you have to do is heat your broth and throw them in...3.)  Ok three is more than a couple! ...you can add other things to the soup if you want - like those funny mini corns that Tom Hanks ate in Big...

or thinly sliced carrots...or those little dancing mushrooms from Disney's Fantasia...

 After watching this you may not want to eat these darling things...but if you do make sure you let them dance around your plate like I do at the Chinese restaurant - it drives my girlies crazy!

...add what ever you would like!

So mix up the first seven ingredients and let that stand for 25 - 30 minutes.

You will notice as you are preparing this that your kitchen will begin to smell much like a Chinese kitchen might...fresh ginger...soy sauce...everything blends so nicely and just smells yummy.

While the girlies were working...Stacy and I were drinking tea and thinking....

We never miss an opportunity to share a cup of tea....

What else could we do with those wonton wrappers???  Hmmmm....

So we whipped up a bowl of crab filling and had the girlies fill and fry some of the wontons - for an appetizer of course!

They were delicious, here's what we did...

Mix together -

1 can crab meat
2 T mayonnaise
2 T Parmesan cheese
2 t garlic (freshly chopped or in the jar from the store)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Then just put a dollop in each wonton wrapper, fold it up and fry in hot oil til slightly browned.

Here are Tatum and Lane hard at work making the crab wontons.

Now that the pork mixture has set a bit and all it's wonderful flavors have mixed - you are ready to make those wontons.

Forming the wontons isn't hard - I have some pictures below where me made yet another form of wontons...dessert wontons!

After you have formed all of your wontons put the broth in a large pot and add any other ingredients that you want to include.  Bring the broth to a boil, add the wontons and cook for 10 - 15 minutes.  Don't cook this too hard or the wontons will open up - just sayin'.  Season with the remaining soy sauce and spring onions (I feel so fancy saying 'spring onions').

Get out some pretty bowls and you are ready to enjoy your Wonton Soup...

This was just the yummiest, most soothing soup... perfect for an overcast winter day!

We sat right down and ate it up!  We did save a bowl for Papa and some for Brian!

It was really this good!!!!!!!!!

The next day still on a wonton high we decided to make a dessert wonton.

So simple....a little dab of Nutella in the middle of your wonton wrapper...

then wet the edges and fold it into a triangle...

wet the opposite corners and curl them around and press...

the two corners overlap and Voila!  a dessert wonton!

Don't be nervous because the wonton package has the directions also.

We fried them up and dusted them (well liberally sprinkled them) with powdered sugar...

not quite a restaurant presentation, but we were anxious to try them...scrumptious!

I think you could just keep going from here...you could easily make a vegetarian wonton and use vegetable broth for the soup...what about cream cheese and pepper jelly in a fried wonton...or maybe blueberry filling for a dessert wonton...and then you could dip them in things....the possibilities are endless........

So, get out to the store and pick up some wonton wrappers and have at it...just let me know what new things you come up with!

xoxo     Elizabeth

PS  There is some question about the proper spelling of wonton...and since I used the word so liberally here I thought it might warrant some looking into...

Dictionary.com says it can be spelled either way  won ton or wonton, the spell check on this blog wants it to be spelled won ton and the cook book above and the wrapper package both say wonton...

As they say...."To each his own."