Less Oil Fried Cream Cheese Wontons

As much as I love fried food, making it at home can be quite a challenge. How so? First it's the smell and aftermath cleaning, then there's tremendous amount of oil involved. 

So to remedy the hard work after frying anything at home, I've decided to use half the amount of oil this time with deeper pot instead. But it only works for frying food that are thinner or flatter shaped. If I'm going to fry big meatballs or thicker cut of chicken, using less oil might not give you the best texture in the end.

Less oil fried cream cheese wontons - 

Ingredients (about 10 big or 20 medium small ones)?

• 10 big or 20 medium small wonton wrappers
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 string scallion
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• Some preferred frying oil
• Some powdered sugar (optional)

How?

Destem and chop the scallion. We only need one string here, not the entire stalk. The scallion is used for final decoration and a tiny bit aroma pop. Line a big plate with paper towel.

Have a medium bowl ready and mix in softened cream cheese. Also add in white section of the chopped scallion, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of onion powder. Mix till evenly blended.

Have a wonton wrapping station ready. I like to have a small bowl of drinkable water, some paper towel standing by, and a plate for wontons.

Scoop the cream cheese filling to the center of wonton wrapper. About 1 tablespoon for big wonton wrapper, use smaller amount for small wrapper. Wet the edge of all four sides with drinkable water then fold and seal to triangular shaped wonton.

Repeat till all the cream cheese filling is gone. It's better to have leftover wonton wrappers than cream cheese filling. If only a few wrappers left, perhaps cut them into strips and fry in oil in the end. You'll have something crunchy for salad later on. Or just dust with powdered sugar and enjoy as a simple snack.

Once all the wontons are ready, pour in some oil to the pot and switch to medium to medium high heat. Only need to pour enough oil till about half inch high.

Wait till the temperature rises. You can test it out by dipping the edge of the wonton and see if it starts to sizzle. If so, the oil is ready and go ahead to transfer the wontons over.

Don't overcrowd the pot, make sure all the wontons have enough room without overlapping one another. Fry in batches if needed.

Once the bottom appears golden brown, flip to the other side and fry till golden brown again. Remove to the plate lined with paper towel. The paper towel will help absorbing excess oil.

When ready to serve, transfer the wontons to the serving plate and dust some powered sugar on top. Garnish with chopped scallion greens. 

Some prefer to serve the cream cheese wontons with sweet chili sauce. That works too, but I personally like the powered sugar for a gentle sweetness boost. It's like a slightly sweet yet savory snack in the end.

If somehow you can't finish all the fried wontons and you had to store them in the fridge, I would suggest simply eat the leftover without reheating the wontons. The wrappers actually stay crunchy even after storing in the fridge, no need to risk loosing that bite trying to bring up the temperature again. 

A very important end note, even though we already use less oil and deeper pot to fry the wontons, the occasional hot oil splashing might still occur. One way to prevent that is to really make sure no water drips into the hot oil.

Also when frying the wontons, some might start to puff up in the center. When that happens, don't move the wonton or don't even attempt to flip it because any extra movement might cause the wonton to break. And when wonton breaks, the fillings will be in direct contact with hot oil, that's when the serious oil splashing happens.

I had like a couple of wontons broke during the process, and all I can say is that I'm glad I use deeper pot to do the job. The tall side at least blocked half of the hot oil from landing on me.

Extended reading:

• Seared corn and seaweed fritters
• Salted seaweed flavored Chinese yam fries

Chinese Wood Ear Mushroom Salad / Cold Dressed Wood Ear

It's hard to translate Chinese dishes to English sometimes. So I was Googling the often used English name for this common Chinese cold dish, and "Chinese wood ear mushroom salad" was the one that popped out all the time.

Perhaps to westerners calling such dish salad makes sense? I was actually kind of in shock, because a "salad" to me should be something with more ingredients. At least not the simple looking wood ear dish I have here. Then I searched further, Din Tai Fung uses "cold dressed wood ear mushrooms," which sounds much more reasonable in my head. Unfortunately if I Google it using Din Tai Fung's version, basically nothing came up.

I guess for easy-searching purpose, I'll still have to put the title Chinese wood ear mushroom salad up there for now.

Chinese wood ear mushroom salad / cold dressed wood ear - 

Ingredients?

• 2 handful fresh wood ear
• 1 tablespoon goji berries
• 1 red chili
• Some cilantro
• Some young ginger
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce paste
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

How?

Use small fresh wood ear if you can find it, it's called 雲耳 in Chinese. I used the dried version from China's Heilongjiang province instead. Just soak them in lukewarm water and the wood ear will puff up soon after.

Remember to rinse the wood ear a few times before the actual cooking process.

Fill a small pot with some water and add two slices of young ginger. Bring to a boil then add in wood ear. Bring to a boil again and cook for one minute. Drain and soak the wood ear in icy cold water. 

Once temperature completely drops, drain well and shake-off any remaining water. Also pick-out the ginger slices. Set the wood ear aside or store in the fridge while prepping the sauce.

To make the sauce, mix together 1 tablespoon of soy sauce paste, 1 tablespoon of black vinegar, 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil, a pinch of scraped and julienned young ginger, and 1 tablespoon of goji berries.

Stir the sauce till evenly blended and almost all the sugar has been dissolved. Add in cold wood ear and mix till evenly blended again. Plate and garnish with some cilantro leaves.

The cilantro leaves here not just for decoration, we actually do that pop of aroma to brighten up this wood ear dish.

You can always adjust the seasonings according to your preference. Some like it sour and some prefer a sweeter taste. Some even add lemon juice for a light fruity acidity touch. 

Other recipes using wood ear:

• Vietnamese steamed egg meatloaf
• Pork strips wood ear and cilantro stir-fry