Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Cooking Time :3-4 minutes for each batch deep fried + 20 minutes
Serving : 4-6 members
Description
Chicken wontons . The first time I got to read this dishes name on a menu card in a Chinese restaurant in Coimbatore , was not sure about how to pronounce the word wonton . I remember it was a chicken wanton soup . Wanting a clear soup , very hesitantly pronounced the word wonton and checked if it was a clear soup , then ordered the soup . Even till date I go through this difficulty of not being sure of a million words on how to be pronounced . But I never give up and make sure to learn the exact pronunciation of the word . Every passing day there is at least one new thing to be learnt isn’t it . The deep fried wanton also was introduced to me from the same restaurant Kowloon in Coimbatore . Ever since that first mouthful bite , this in one of my favourite dishes . Those days of no Internet and google left me in despair to experiment for a perfect recipe of home made wontons . But every try I failed with the texture of the wonton skin and the folding part . Days of no google left us in plain experimenting of trial and error . Thanks to World Wide google network that anything and everything is just a finger touch away . My first try .. i was so very nervous but it was the talk of the table . From then on , it’s a staple at home . Only that no one ever gets enough of them .
Wanton wrapper ingredients
ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| egg | 1 |
| salt | 3/4teaspoon |
| plain flour /maida | 2 cups + extra as needed |
| water | 1/4cup +extra as needed |
Method for wanton wrappers
- Lightly beat the egg with the salt. Add the water
- Sift the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and water mixture and combine.
- Add as much of the extra water as necessary to form a dough.
- Form the dough into a ball and knead for approximately 5 minutes, or until it forms a smooth, workable dough.
- Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out until very thin and cut into 9 cm squares.
- Pasta machines are brilliant for rolling this out, or just use a rolling pin.
Ingredients for the filling
Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Spring Onions | 5 tablespoons chopped |
| Carrot | 1 thinly sliced |
| Beans | 5 thinly chopped |
| Cabbage | 1/4 cup shredded |
| garlic | 1 clove crushed |
| pepper powder | to taste |
| Cooked shredded chicken | 1 cup , ( cook boneless chicken cubes with salt to taste and enough water ,evaporate the water to dry . then blitz in a food processor ) |
| light soy sauce | 1 tablespoon |
MethodFor filling
- Add the carrots , beans and cabbage to hot boiling salted water .
- Cover and switch of the flame and set aside for 5 minutes .
- Drain and Mix all ingredients together,taste and adjust and set aside .
How to assemble and deep fry
- Cut wanton wrappers into equal shaped squares. Place a tablespoon of chicken filling in the Center of the square .
- Spread egg white on the two adjacent edges of the wanton wrappers . Fold the square into a triangle so that the egg white helps the edges of the triangle to stick together .
- Dot with egg white on one side of the long side of the corners . Take the two sides of the long corners and bring them together with the edged corner underneath the other corner .
- The edge should curl up to form a boat – like shape . Do the same with all the filling and wonton wrappers .
- Heat up the oil in a frying pan or wok at medium heat. Fry the wonton until golden brown. Watch the heat carefully.
- Keep turning them to cook them all the way through. Will take about 30 seconds not more . Drain and serve hot along with sweet and sour sauce .
Ingredients Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Red chilly powder | 1 1/2 tablespoon |
| salt | a pinch |
| sugar | 3 tablespoons |
| vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| water | 2 tablespoon |
Method
- Put all ingredients together in a small bowl and microwave it until the sugar is dissolved.
- Stir to prevent the sugar from crystalizing on the bottom. It should take about a minute or so depending on your microwave.
Notes
- I added some tomato sauce , red chilli sauce and thai sweet sauce to the filling . But this filling did have a change in colour on the wontons once fried only where the filling was . So better to keep the filling simple and white in colour .
- The authentic filling is usually made with raw meat ground and then mixed with garlic , spring onion and soya sauce , I was not confident if the raw meat might cook so I used cooked meat .
- Vegetarians can substitute with thinly sliced mixed vegetables for the filling .
- Be very careful while deep frying making sure you do not brown the wontons too much .
- In case I have ready made wonton wrappers in stock I do use them instead which is really handy and easy but nothing comes close to home made wanton wrappers .
- Be careful about microwaving sugary mixtures too long because the sugar gets extremely hot and can crack a bowl due to thermal expansion of the area where the sugar is.
