I love crabmeat wontons. Love them. Every time we go to the local Chinese food restaurant, I have to order them. They are expensive, but oh so delicious. And yes before you ask, I realize that they are not authentic Chinese food, so it might be a little silly to be posting this in my {Celebrate China} series. But they are definitely American-Chinese food, so I'm going with it :-) I found several recipes online that looked like they'd work, but I also have a friend who is originally from the Philippines that cooks up some awesome, mouth-watering crab wontons. When I asked him for his recipe, he offered to come over and show me how to do it. Isn't he the sweetest? You'll find the recipe and method at the bottom of the post!
Crab Wontons
Ingredients:
a few stalks of green onion, washed and cut in small pieces
4-6 oz crab meat (or imitation crab meat), chopped
3 pkgs of cream cheese, softened
80 wonton wrappers
cooking oil for the deep fryer or pan
(If you want to add a bit of Maryland to your wontons, try adding 1/2-1 teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning to the filling also.)
To make the filling:
Living on the east coast, I choose locally caught and picked crabmeat. We try to eat local seafood whenever we can, especially when it comes to crab. Claw meat was just fine for this recipe (and it was cheaper - no need to buy the expensive stuff), but I had to sift through to pick out all the shells first. After that, combine the crab, green onion, and cream cheese together in a bowl for the filling. Make sure it's combined well, and then it's time to start filling the wontons.
To make the wontons:
(I used pre-made wonton wrappers from the Asian food market. They are good quality and fry up very well - perfectly crusty but not too tough.) Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper, then fold opposite corners together to make a triangle with the wrapper and then pinch tightly. You do not need to use water to seal the wrappers well. Push the two open ends up toward the pinched corners to mimic flower petals, and fold together. I didn't take enough pictures to show this process, but it really doesn't matter how you fold the wontons and they do not need to be sealed tightly closed. Because they are fried, the wonton wrappers fry into place immediately and the filling stays inside. Don't worry about your filling falling out, it just won't. Repeat this process for each wonton until your filling is gone or you've used all the wrappers. We had several helpers, hence all the teaspoons in the filling. The wrappers filled much more quickly this way!
To fry the wontons:
If you are using a deep fryer, you'll want to fill it with oil and heat it up sometime while you are making the wontons (I used a Grand Pappy and it was perfect - I highly suggest this purchase!!). We fried batches of 10 wontons at a time, but you'll need to do it based on the size of your frying area. It takes only a few minutes, if that, for each batch. It may be helpful to turn the wontons over with tongs while frying to make sure they are evenly fried. Once they start browning, pull them out immediately and put them on a plate covered with paper towels to cool. I used Helen Chen's Asian Spider Strainer to pull them out. Repeat this process with all of the wontons and then be prepared for crab wonton heaven! My whole family gobbled these up and are already asking for more. Looks like I'm going to be making many more crab wontons in the future!
What's your favorite way to make wontons? I'd love to give some other recipes a try!
Yummy! Thanks for sharing!
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