Fried Won Tons American Style Food

FRIED WONTON STRIPS

Steps:

• Pour about 1-1/2 to 2 inches of oil into a deep, heavy-bottomed pot. Heat to 360 degrees F, clipping a candy thermometer to the side of the pot to regulate the temperature.
• While the oil is heating, cut as many wonton wrappers as you would like to serve into 3/4-inch wide strips. Keep wontons covered with a towel while you finish heating the oil.
• Line a baking sheet or cooling rack with a double layer of paper towels. Set aside.
• When the oil reaches temperature, carefully add a handful of wonton strips to the pot. They will immediately puff up. Fry for 1-2 minutes, using a spider strainer or slotted spoon to move them around in the pot. When they're golden brown on all sides, drain them with the spider or slotted spoon and transfer them to the paper towel-lined baking sheet to cool.
• Let the oil return to 360 degrees F between each batch of wonton strips. (The temperature will drop about 10 degrees to 350 when the wontons are added.)
• Serve crispy wonton strips with duck sauce and/or Chinese mustard for dipping. Or, enjoy them with your favorite soups and salads.

FRIED WON TONS (AMERICAN STYLE)

Steps:

• Several hours before you want to fry the won tons, brown the beef. Then add the onions, jalapenos,and garlic. Add the salt and pepper. Let simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Allow the ground beef mixture to come to room temperature.
• Prepare all of the ingredients that you will need to assemble the won tons. You will want your wrappers, your ground beef mixture, a small bowl of water for dampening the wrappers, a small spoon or teaspoon.
• Take one wrapper and fill it with the desired amount of filling taking care not to overfill; if you put too much filling in your wrapper, your wrapper will not seal properly.
• Moisten the edges of the wrapper and overlap them to create a little "envelope". There are other ways to fold won tons, but I find this is the easiest for me.
• Place each assembled won ton on a tray lined with parchment paper; for each new layer, put down a new piece of parchment. The won tons shouldn't stick to one another before they are fried.
• Continue assembling the won tons until you either run out of filling or run out of wrappers. Usually I run out of wrappers before I run out of filling~I just use whatever filling is left for another recipe.
• When your peanut oil has reached at 350 degrees, you will place around twenty to twenty-five won tons for each frying. When the won tons float to the top and they are golden brown, you know they are ready to eat.

AIR FRYER PORK WONTONS

Steps:

• Make the wontons: Preheat an air fryer to 325˚ F. Mix the pork, scallion, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, garlic, ginger and sugar in a medium bowl until well combined.
• Spread out the wonton wrappers on a work surface. Scoop 1 teaspoonful of the pork mixture into the center of each wrapper. Moisten the edges; fold in half to make a triangle. Fold in the two lower points to look like an open envelope; seal with a dab of water. Brush both sides with sesame oil.
• Add the wontons to the air fryer basket. Cook, flipping halfway through, until golden, 10 minutes.
• Make the dipping sauce: Whisk the soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds and scallion in a small bowl. Serve with the wontons.

FRIED CRAB WONTONS

Steps:

• Combine in a food processor the ginger, shallots, carrot, green onion, cilantro, peanut oil and lemon juice. Pulse until fine. Put vegetable mixture in a mixing bowl, add the mayonnaise and the crabmeat and season with salt and pepper. Be careful not to mash the crabmeat, you want that texture when you bite into the wonton.
• Lay a wonton wrapper on a flat surface and brush with the beaten egg white. Drop 1 tablespoon of the crab filling onto the center of the wrapper. Fold the wonton in half, corner to corner, to form a triangle. Press around the filling to knock out any air bubbles, then press the seam together to seal so the filling doesn't seep out. You can leave them this shape or continue on by brushing the 2 side points with beaten egg white. Lay your index finger in the center so you have something to press up against, then fold the 2 sides into the center, slightly overlapping, and press the dough against your finger with your thumb to form a tight seal. Lightly dust the filled wontons with cornstarch to keep them from sticking together and place them on a cookie sheet. (When these are folded they look like Pope hats.)
• Heat 2 to 3 inches of oil in a deep heavy saucepan to 370 degrees F on a deep-fry thermometer. Add a few of the wontons to the oil and cook, turning them 3 or 4 times to get them nicely browned all over. Carefully lift them out of the pan with a slotted spoon and onto a paper towel-lined platter to drain. Keep going to cook all of the wontons.
• Stir together the dipping sauce and serve with the wontons.

FRIED WONTONS

Steps:

• Combine all filling ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
• Place 1 teaspoon filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper. Brush the edges with a little bit of water and fold the wonton over the filling to create a triangle.
• Using your fingers, form the wrapper over the filling and press any air out.

FRIED WONTONS

Steps:

• To make the filling, in a bowl, combine the pork, shrimp, scallion, garlic, cornstarch, sugar, salt, and pepper and use chopsticks or a fork to mix well.
• To fill the wontons, work in batches of 6 to 8 wonton skins. Place them on a work surface, such as large cutting board, inverted baking sheet, or tray. Using 2 teaspoons or demitasse spoons, place a scant teaspoon of filling (about the size of a 1/2-inch marble) in the center of a wonton skin. Dip a pastry brush in water and lightly brush the entire edge of the skin. Pick up a corner of the wonton skin and fold it over, enclosing the filling and forming a triangle. Press the edges of the triangle firmly with your finger to seal. Make sure that there are no air bubbles, or the wontons will bob around in the hot oil, and that the edges are well sealed, or the wontons will split open when they hit the hot oil. Place the finished wonton on a large plate or tray. Repeat until all the filling is used up.
• Put a wire rack on a baking sheet and place the sheet next to the stove. Pour oil to a depth of 1 1/2 inches into a wok or 5-quart Dutch oven and heat over medium-high heat to 350°F on a deep-frying thermometer. (If you don't have a thermometer, stand a dry bamboo chopstick in the oil; if small bubbles immediately gather on the surface around the chopstick, the oil is ready.)
• Working in batches of 4 to 6, slide the wontons into the hot oil and fry, turning once, for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Using a skimmer, transfer to the rack to drain.
• Arrange the wontons on a platter. Serve hot as finger food along with the sauce for dipping.

FRIED WONTON STRIPS

Steps:

• Cut wonton wrappers into strips about 1/2-inch by 3 inches long. NOTE: egg roll wrappers can be used, but cut them in half first before cutting the strips.
• NOTE: canola oil, vegetable oil, or corn oil can be used if desired. Peanut oil is recommended due to the high flash point (since you will probably dribble some oil as you scoop out the fried wontons).
• Heat 1 inch of oil in a deep pan on medium-high to 360 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, try dropping a single strip in to see if it crisps up quickly. If it does, then it's hot enough.
• NOTE: the strips cook very quickly. If the oil is hot enough, they will be done in as soon as 15 seconds, so don't walk away!
• Fry the strips in batches, spreading them out so they don't stick. Flip them over with a slotted spoon if both sides aren't browning evenly. Remove when they turn golden brown.
• Drain on paper towel-lined plate.
• Sprinkle with salt if desired. This is absolutely NOT a traditional way to prepare the wonton strips, but it's tasty.