What you need:
- 1/2
pound of artificial crab meat
- 1/2 package (4 oz.) of cream cheese
- 1 scallion
- 1 tsp of sugar
- a pinch of salt
- about 20 won ton skins
- oil for frying (I use canola)
- Lots of paper towels
Dice up the crab meat and scallion
very fine and mix with softened cream cheese, or if,
unlike me, you have a food processor, throw those things
in and turn them into a paste. Heat about 1/2 inch of
oil up to 350 degrees. While that's warming up, assemble
the rangoons: set out a wrapper, run a wet finger along
the edges to wet them (sort of like an envelope flap,
but all the way around), put about 1/2 tbsp of crab
mix in the center, draw two corners together and press
the edges down to make a tightly sealed triangle. (Press
outward from the center to avoid trapping too much air
inside, but do not press the filling toward the edges.) Then
wet the ends of the two long "points" and
bring them together across the middle so they look like
little nurse's caps. Repeat.
When the oil is hot, put the rangoons
in with the folded side upward. This is important -
you want the thinner side to cook first, otherwise as
the air inside the rangoon expands it can weaken the
wrapper, allowing the cooking oil inside. When one side
is golden brown - which takes maybe a minute - turn
it over, cook until that side is golden brown, and then
place the rangoon on paper towels and blot with more
paper towels to drain off the oil.
You can, of course, fold the rangoons
in other ways. I've seen them as simple triangles, and
of course the fancy pinwheels you see in restaurants.
I haven't bothered with the pinwheel shape, as 1) that
takes up too much space in a bento box, and 2) I can't
imagine how they fry that without the filling turning
into gunk.
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