So, I bought a package of wonton wrappers at the grocery store. At Sprouts, where I bought them, they were in the section with the bean sprouts, lettuce and mushrooms.
I bought them because I couldn't get crab rangoon with actual crab in Tucson. I wanted to make my own version, with tons of lump crab, lots of flavor, and make it healthy (duh!). Well, what I learned is that you can typically have flavor or healthy, but not both.
My first attempt saw me folding all 4 corners of the wonton wrappers up into little origami squares, spraying them with cooking spray and baking them in the oven. And it was, in a word: disaster. In 2 words: not delicious, 3 words: a real flop, and 4 words: not my best work. So, I tried again, abandoning the healthy baking method in favor of delicious hot oil.
Here is what you'll need:
- wonton wrappers (12 or so of the 3"x3")
- cream cheese (or neufchatel, whatever floats your boat), 3 oz. at room temperature
- 3 oz lump crab meat (I got the good stuff from the fridge section, but canned works too!)
- mayonnaise, 2 Tbs.
- green onions, 2 chopped
- sriracha, 1 tsp.(to taste)
- Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp.
- Old Bay (optional), 1 tsp.
- vegetable oil, 1 c. heated to about 350 degrees in a small saucepan (if you don't have a thermometer, sprinkle a drop of water in the oil to see if it spits back at you).
- a little dish of water to seal the wonton wrappers
Mix the cream cheese, crab, mayonnaise, onion, sriracha, Worcestershire, old bay together in a bowl. Spoon a teaspoon full onto the center of the wonton wrapper, then fold it in half to that the wrapper forms a triangle. Seal the edges of the wrapper with water, making sure it's sealed well, without any air pockets inside. Once you have sealed all the wrappers up, place them into the hot oil 2 at a time, watch them closely and flip them over halfway through cooking so that they brown evenly on each side. I'd say it was about 45 seconds per side, give or take. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. It took about 10 minutes to fry the whole batch. You can do it faster in a bigger pan with more oil, but I feel like it's a waste of oil for me, personally.
From here, you can eat them all by themselves if you'd like or with some sweet and sour sauce. But I whipped up a quick sauce from stuff in my fridge:
Whisk in a bowl:
1/4 c. rice vinegar
2 T. water
2 T. ketchup
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. brown sugar
sriracha to taste
Once you're done, sit in front of the TV and snack mindlessly, or, you know, share with a friend and supplement with a salad if that's what floats your boat!
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| They ended up looking a little something like this! |
