Happy 2012! Lets make some Won Tons!

Hello all!  I hope you all had a fantastic New Year's Eve and are settled into your new routines.  I'm not off from my holiday yet so the new routine has not been instated yet.  Soon,  too soon.

An old tradition was reinstated this New Year's Eve though and that is New Year's won tons!  An excellent tradition if I do say so myself and one my mom and I used to do every year when I was young.  It had been several years since we made them but we decided to bring them back this year.

Now, yes, these are deep fried.  Steel yourself to the idea early and the fact that yes, it will be messy, and you'll be fine.  It is so worth it.  I highly recommend using an electric frying pan that has a built in temperature dial so the heat will stay constant.  This will make your life so much easier when it comes to frying.

We also made sweet and sour sauce for dipping, but lets start with the won tons.  Here's what you'll need:

1 lb. ground pork
about 6 water chestnuts (canned work fine) chopped
1 bunch green onions chopped (use all of the white and about 1/2 of the greens)
about 2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 inches fresh ginger minced
a couple packs of wonton skins (egg roll skins work too but you have to cut them into quarters)

water for sealing
vegetable oil for frying (1 to 1 1/2 inches deep in the pan) Note: do not use olive oil. 100% veggie works great,  crisco works too.

Mix up the pork, chestnuts, onion, soy sauce and ginger in a large bowl.  Place a wonton skin on a plate and put a small spoonful of the filling onto the center of the skin.

Make sure not to over fill the won tons or they will split open when you fry them.

Dip the tip of your finger in water and run it across two sides of the wrapper:

Then fold the wrapper in half and press to seal.

Place your wontons on a plate and cover them with a damp paper towel.  Keep going until you are out of filling. (This recipe makes a TON of wontons, we had two large bowls full when we finished.)

Now comes the messy part.  Put on an apron and heat your oil to 350 degrees.  Fry the won tons in batches of 6 to 8, turning occasionally until they are golden brown.  This should take about 2 minutes.  Remove them from the oil and drain on paper towels.  When your oil is back up to temperature, start on the next batch.

Make sure to keep your uncooked won tons covered with damp paper towels while you are cooking.  It takes some time and they can dry out pretty fast.

Once you have your won tons fried you need some awesome dipping sauce for them. (Actually you don't, they are delicious by themselves, but they are even better with sauce.)

This sweet and sour sauce recipe is from the mother of a friend of my mom's, passed on to her when she was in school.  Mrs. Hoang, the creator of this sauce and my mom's original won ton making teacher, thank you.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

1/4 c. white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. ketchup

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.    In a small cup, mix 1/4 cup of cold water with 2 Tbsp. corn starch to make a thin paste.  Add about half of the cornstarch mix while stirring the sauce with a whisk.  This will change the color of the sauce and help it thicken.  Continue whisking and boiling until the sauce returns to a translucent red color.

 This is the sauce without any of the corn starch paste added and the cup of the corn starch mix.

 Now we have added half of the corn starch mix.  You can see the color has become lighter and more opaque.

This is what it should look like after a few minutes of boiliong.  It has become translucent and red again.

Based on your own preference of sauce thickness, you can add the rest of the corn starch mix and wait until it boils clear again.

And now you are ready to enjoy!

Happy 2012!  May it be a great year full of fun, family and adventure!  And happy eating :)