Szechuan Wontons in Chili Oil红油抄手

The classic Szechuan snack is my favorite wontons. It is perfect for a breakfast, lunch or dinner. These slippery suckers are lip smacking. Wear a bib or take your white shirt off for these while you are shoveling these into your mouth.

There are perhaps a dozen of ways to wrap the fillings – but I care for the “Lucky Yuan Bao” 元宝 fold (like Tortellini.). The Italians perhaps got the fold from the Chinese. Now we are borrowing back their stuffed-noodle fold.

Yields 45 wontons,

Wrappers

I think you can buy the wonton wrappers from any Asia markets in the US. In Singapore, they are available at NYUC or Cold Storage. One package comes with either 50 or 100 wrappers.

Make fillings

• 250g           ground pork
• 125g           minced shrimp (shrimp needs to be peeled)
• 1/2 teaspoon    salt
• 1 teaspoon      corn flour 生粉
• 1 tablespoon    light soy sauce 生抽

Make the sauce

• 2        spring onions, minced
• 10g      garlic, minced
• 20g      roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
• 1 cup   Szechuan Chili Oil (click here for recipe)

Method

1. Peel and minced the shrimp.
2. In a large bowl, combine ground pork, minced shrimp, salt, corn flour and light soy sauce and mix well.
3. Now let’s wrap – the Italians may get the tortellini fold from the Chinese. Now we’re borrowing back their stuffed-noodle fold. So just take out one wrapper, add a half tablespoon of fillings. Fold it into half size from the middle, press the two sides of the wrapper together to seal.
4. Dab a little water on the two corners, then fold one side toward the center. Fold the other side to the center.
5. Press the two ends together to seal. The filled center will plump up like a belly with the edges framing it like a golden ingot (lucky Yuan Bao,元宝).
6. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in 6-8 wontons and cook for 5 minutes till they float on the water.
7. In the meantime, prepare a serving bowl, combine a tablespoon of chili oil, 1/2 teaspoons of minced spring onion, garlic and roasted peanuts with a tablespoon of boiled water from the pot. Mix well.
8. Drain the wonton and add them in the bowl. Gently toss till the wontons are well-coated.

Tips:

1. If you are serving these to guests with different levels of heat tolerance, pass the chili oil at the table instead. That way, everyone can get the dose they want.