Wontons!

I was trying to come up with a cute name for this post, and I thought the Wanton Wonton would be appropriate. Again, knowing that I am a little slow prior to my third cup of coffee, I decided to dictionary.com "wanton". Well! I do not want "sexually lawless or unrestrained" wontons, or wontons "without regard for what is right, just and humane" Yeesh! I thought wanton meant "longing" or something like that. That's what I get for trying to be cute.

NOT sexually unrestrained wontons.

Filling:
1/2 head cabbage
1 carrot, shredded or grated
1/2 onion, diced fine
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp dry mustard (optional)
1 tsp red pepper flake
Really anything you want. Meat would be fine in this but it's not necessary.
One package of wonton skin wrapper sheet things. They have them at every grocery store.

Chop all of your ingredients fairly small.

There may be some mushrooms in there too...

Saute in just a touch of oil until translucent, add soy sauce and spices.

Allow to cool to room temperature.

I'm not going to say that things wont get messy during this process. To help with cleanup, I recommend having a kitchen partner:

Set up your work station: a bowl with some water in it. A fork for crimping the edges. A flat clean surface to work. Your filling. The wonton sheets.

Place a small amount of the filling in the middle of the sheet.

Using your finger, dip it in water and run in along two connecting edges.

Fold the dry edges to meet the wet.

Crimp with a fork to seal.

Its fine to fry it the way it is now if you like, but if you want to be all extra fancy and whatnot, fold the two corners in to meet each other and seal them with just a dab of more water.

Set the finished wonton aside, so he can await his doom in the fryer.

Death row

Fill a wok or large, deep skillet with about a cup of oil. Heat to high. Drop the wontons in a few at a time. How many you cook at once just depends on your skillet size. Make sure you use tongs to flip them over when the bottoms start to become brown and crispy.

Wok it to me! Keep on wokin me, baby! I can't think of any more.

Drain on a paper towel.

Remember, this recipe can be altered to be anything you want! Like crab rangoons? Combine some cream cheese, lump crab, onion, garlic, a touch of soy sauce. Bam! Crab rangoons!

But, these are fried. They aren't healthy! Of course they're not. If you have access to a bamboo steaming box thing, I suggest you try it. Otherwise, here is my tip to make these a little healthier when you fry: make sure your oil is HOT. The hotter the oil, the less is absorbed into the food, therefore the less oil you end up consuming. And always drain on an absorbent surface, like a brown paper bag or paper towel.  Happy wontoning!