February Supper Club: Won Tons - Part 2. Fill, Wrap, Fry

Next up on the won ton odyssey was the filling.

The filling was actually incredibly easy. If spending all day playing with kitchen toys doesn’t sound appealing to you, just buy won ton skins at the grocery story and the whole process will actually be very easy and fairly quick.

I took my recipe from a Chinese cookbook I received as a Christmas gift:
Encyclopedia of Chinese Food and Cooking
I used Won tons 1 recipe.

1 Egg
½ ground pork
1 tablespoon scallion
8 water chestnuts
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
12 won ton skins

(I skipped the water chestnuts, added 5 spice powder, and a little hit of chili sauce. I also doubled the recipe)


- Beat egg

- Mix All ingredients well

- Fill each Won ton skin with 1 tsp of pork mixture
Shape each into a cap to make won tons by drawing the four corners together and seal by pressing gently at juncture.

I had fun creating different ways to fold the won tons. G helped too , creating some sausage-esque won tons.

- Boil 2 qts of water, add won tons, bring to boil and cook 5 minutes. Drain won tons in colander, run cold water over won tons to cool. Cooked wontons can be frozen or left in refrigerator for a few days.

To deep fry, I busted out another new toy—my mini deep fryer. I filled the deep fryer with peanut oil and plunged the suckers in for a few minutes each until they reached a toasty color. The mini deep fryer is super convenient, but it is compact and the room inside is limited. I had to turn some of the won tons to get a more even color. If you don’t have a deep fryer, I think you could just as easily fill a giant pot with oil and scoop out with a strainer. You would just need a thermometer to know when you’d reached the proper temperature. Once fried, I just placed them on paper towels as they came out to soak up excess oil.

We served them with dipping sauces. We mixed up soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and hoisin, but they would be good with any one of those on it’s own.

I have to say I was actually pretty impressed with my first attempt at making these guys from scratch. Next time, I’ll try to get the dough even thinner, as a few came out a wee bit doughy in spots. As well, I would try to make the won tons smaller, because they puff up and expand A LOT during the cooking phase. On the whole though, they were SUPER tasty. Go me!