Even though we are only on post #4, you may have noticed that we mostly do healthy food around here....unless we are invited to a party! We decided to celebrate Labor Day with a big fat dose of unhealthy but delicious!!!
This recipe is pretty involved, so plan ahead if you are going to attempt it. We made approximately 120 won tons. This was a good amount for a fairly large party but they do go fast so plan for that too!
What you will need:
2 packages of round won ton wrappers (you can use square but my wrapping instructions are for round)
2.5 lbs of beef (we used tri tip but just about any cut besides top round or London broil will work....chuck, sirloin, etc)
2 large onions diced
Shredded melty cheese (jack is the best. We used a Mexican blend that had jack in it)
Salt and pepper to taste.
Frying oil. Vegetable, peanut or corn oil
What you do:
First freeze the meat partially (about an hour in the freezer. This makes it much easier to slice thin)
Once your meat is firm but not fully frozen, slice it very thin and then slice it the other way to make it fine cut but not ground.
Dice your onions so that they are very small.
Season and cook your meat pretty much all the way.
Caramelize the onions in a separate pan. We also seasoned the onions so the flavor is even.
Combine the meat & onions in one pan or large bowl and let it cool while you set up your wrapping station.
Once everything is cool enough to handle comfortably, place a small amount of cheese on the middle of a won ton wrapper and then place a small spoonful of your meat / onion mixture on top of the cheese. Be careful you don't over-stuff, as they will be difficult to wrap if you do. Wet the edges of the won ton wrapper and fold it in half. Pleat and press one side to the other. I'll do a video soon of proper wrapping techinque, but for now just do a search on YouTube for gyoza wrapping.
You may find that some of your first attempts are less than beautiful, but by the end you should have some nice looking ones. When deep frying it doesn't matter as much if they are beautiful, since they will get bubbly and crisp anyway. If you make regular Chinese dumplings that you will steam, you should take a little more care, but for this...it doesn't matter as much.
If you are serving your won tons right away, go ahead and heat up your frying oil, as soon as all your won tons are wrapped. It took me about 2 hours to wrap them all....put on a movie or something to entertain yourself or get a friend to help...
We made these the night before the party, so we placed our sheets of won tons in the freezer for about 40 minutes (so they don't stick to each other), and then put them into a big freezer bag and froze them until they were ready to be used.
When you are ready to fry, make sure you get your oil hot enough and then fry them up in batches until they are hot all the way through, and brown and crispy on the outside!
We had some left over macaroni and cheese in the freezer from another dinner....so we breaded that up (dip first in a scrambled egg and then coat well with bread crumbs) and tossed it in too! The Mac and cheese was a huge hit as well!
I made a dipping sauce for everything of sour cream and Frank's hot sauce mixed together. It was a good blend of favors and textures.
Enjoy!
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