Crispy Wontons and Firecracker Shrimp

I had really hoped to make a fun food item for April Fool’s Day, something that looks like something else, like my taco. I had all kinds of ideas from the simple (a pizza cookie) to the fun (a panna cotta and mango mousse deviled egg) to the extreme (a dessert sushi roll with mango juice “fish eggs” to test my molecular gastronomy skills). But with everything going in my family right now, there just wasn’t time. So instead I’ll just give you a couple of fun looking food items. The firecracker shrimp (here’s Jaden’s recipe) look just like little firecrackers. And for some strange reasons, wontons look (to me) like a woman in a kimono with a hood folding her arms, weird huh? Anyway, a great thing about both of these is you can make a lot in advance and freeze them, then just drop them in hot oil frozen and they’re ready in minutes. But make sure to freeze them on a cookie sheet (not touching) and only put them in ziploc bags after they’re frozen so they don’t stick.

These are great for dinner parties as an appetizer or side dish, especially if you have several dipping sauces to choose from, people love figuring out which sauce is their favorite. I also use them as the main dish with an asian slaw on the side. They are deep fried so that takes away some of the nutritional value, but we deep fry an average of once a month (actually it’s three times in a month because I filter and reuse the oil twice, but then don’t deep fry for three more months). I definitely wouldn’t recommend eating this everyday, but they’re so delicious you have to try them! You may notice the recipe is very similar to my eggrolls, and it goes great with the sauce from that post. You can easily substitute ground beef, chicken or pork for the turkey.

Crispy Wontons
makes about 60

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp minced garlic
2 TBS Aloha Shoyu
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 carrots grated
2 cups shredded napa cabbage
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp mirin
1 TBS Aloha Shoyu
60 wonton wrappers
a little cornstarch and water to make a paste for sealing wrappers

Instructions
Mix the first six ingredients in a bowl, let it sit while you prepare your veggies. I use a food processor to grate the cabbage and carrots and mix them together.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the meat mixture. Fry it, stirring until it’s cooked through. Add the veggies, mirin and shoyu. Mix well and transfer to a bowl.

(See my laughable attempt at visual instructions below) 1. Place a tsp of filling in the center of a wrapper. 2. Brush edges with cornstarch paste and 3. fold into triangle, press edges to seal. 4. fold bottom points onto eachother and seal with more sornstarch paste.

Heat a couple inches of vegetable oil in a pot on high. Carefully lower wontons in with tongs, let cook for 2 minutes or until golden (a little longer if frozen). Remove with tongs and drain on a wire rack over paper towels.