Wontons!

I love wontons. I always have. But I've never really thought about making them at home. Until now, that is. For some reason, I was thinking last week about an appetizer I had while I was home in Savannah last summer. I was eating at a place called Bar.Food, and ordered an appetizer called something like Southern BBQ Wontons. Basically, the appetizer was pulled pork BBQ in a wonton wrapper. Whoever came up with it is a genius!

I had some leftover cooked pork from last week, so I decided to see how close I could get. I minced up some sweet onion and garlic and sauteed it in some butter in a little skillet. I also minced the leftover pork and threw it in with the veggies. I added a splash of orange juice. I don't know why. It was sitting there, and it seemed like a good idea. After that cooked for a few minutes, I added a few glugs of BBQ sauce. Nothing fancy- just something I had in the ice box. I believe it was Jack Daniels brand. After that cooked a few minutes more, I took it off the heat to cool a little.

I took a little wonton wrapper and put about a teaspoon of the BBQ mixture in the middle of it. Then I dampened the edges and folded it like a triangle, pressing well to seal all the edges. Here's what it looked like after I shallow fried it in vegetable oil:



I had another filling idea, so I mixed it up before I started frying the BBQ wontons.

I love crab rangoon. I've never had it at a place where I didn't like it. How can crab and cream cheese be bad?? I figured I would try to see what it would taste like if I tried to make it at home.

I took about 3 ounces of softened cream cheese and mixed it in a bowl with about a teaspoon of lemon zest, about half a teaspoon of very finely minced garlic, salt, pepper and minced fake crab meat. I would rather use real crab, but where I live, it's expensive and of questionable origin, so I usually buy the fake stuff. Lastly, I added one chopped scallion. I put a teaspoon on a wonton wrapper, and folded it the same way I did the BBQ wontons. Here's what it looked like after it's bath in the hot oil...



I'm not sure why I never did this before. These turned out great, and they'd be a perfect party appetizer. We had quite a few left, and tonight I put them on my pizza stone in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, and they were just as crispy as they were last night when I first fried them. I can't wait to experiment with new fillings! I'm thinking spinach/feta wontons, egg roll wontons...... :)