Fried Wontons

One of our first assignments was to make fried wontons. The filling was made for the wontons with ground pork and finely chopped or shredded mushroom, napa cabbage, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, and ginger. Coarsely chopped cilantro, oyster sauce, sesame oil and soy sauce were also used with salt and pepper to taste.

Finely chopped mushrooms

Weighing out the mushrooms

Finely shredded napa cabbage

The filling was cooked in a saute pan, browning the pork first, straining out the fat, adding the vegetables to the pan, and then re-adding the pork.

Cooked and ready to fill!

The wontons were folded into a triangle, then the two loose ends were pinched together with egg wash as a binder.

Ready to deep fry

The wontons were fried until golden brown, with teriyaki sauce as an accompaniment.

Final plating

Prep: No problems with prep. Most of the time used in making the wontons was from chopping all the ingredients.

Presentation: I relied on a simple presentation with a row of 5 wontons with 2 drizzles of teriyaki sauce. I might add more color to the plate by adding sambal or green onion to the dish if I were to plate this again.

Taste: The filling was well seasoned and cooked nicely. The wontons were fried to an ideal golden brown.

Overall: I think this was a successful "small bite" dish. It's a versatile dish since there are many ways you can adjust it for the future, by using different fillings, and folding the wontons in different ways. I usually fold wontons in the "Taiwanese" style (hua lian bian shi) so learning a new technique to fold was useful. In general, I think this folding style works better for frying since it holds up better in the hot oil and keeps more of a symmetrical shape.