Sunday, November 21, 2010

Pork Wontons with Garlic Sauce


Yummy!
     This Wonton recipe is a very nice appetizer to start an evening with.  The garlic sauce is very light and not too deep with soy or garlic flavor.  The wonton stuffing has a dash of lime to brighten the flavor.
     I usually don't buy many ground meats.  I am used to making my own as well as making sausage too.  For this recipe, you will need a "Chinese meat grinder."  A Chinese meat grinder is simply a sharp Chinese cleaver.  If you have no cleaver then a chef knife will work just as well.
     To fine chop meats quickly by hand, first you should slice the meat thin.  Then cut the meat in strips.  After the meat is cut into strips, slice across the strips to dice the meat.  Finally, keep your fingers away from the blade and quick chop with short strokes, till you have finely minced meat.
     This does save money too.  Instead of buying a larger portion than what I needed of ground pork at a store, I bought a cheap pork blade steak.  I needed a little bit of pork steak later this weekend for a German recipe anyway.  I trimmed a small piece of pork for that recipe and then trimmed the fat and bone from the rest of the pork steak.  I chopped the trimmed lean meat by hand for this recipe at a cost of about 50 cents.  I saved the bone and froze it till later for when I make a meat stock.
     In many old fashioned Chinese restaurants, if you order a ground meat item, you can hear the cleavers chopping quickly in the kitchen.  Fresh finely chopped pork is so much better than ground pork that was made several days before.
     Pork Wonton Recipe:  Finely mince about 4 ounces of lean pork trimmings.
     Place the minced pork into a mixing bowl. 
     Add 1/3 of a minced green onion.
     Add 1 minced garlic clove.
     Add 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger.
     Add sea salt and white pepper.
     Add a pinch of five spice powder.
     Add a small squeeze of lime juice.
     Add a few drops of soy sauce.
     Place a small spoonful of the pork stuffing on a square wonton wrapper.
     Brush the edges of the wonton wrapper with egg wash.
     Place a second wonton wrapper over the pork stuffing.
     Press the border edges of the two wonton wrappers together to form a square ravioli shape.
     Dab a little egg wash on one corner of the wonton square and fold the opposite corner over, so the two corners meet.
     Pinch the two corners together to form this shape of wonton.
     Set the wontons aside.
     Garlic Sauce Recipe:  Heat a saute pan over medium high heat. 
     Add a small splash of soy oil.
     Add a small splash of sesame oil.
     Add 6 minced garlic cloves.
     Add 1 teaspoon of minced ginger.
     Add 1 pinch of crushed dried Thai Pepper.
     Add about 4 mushrooms that are sliced into quarters.
     Add a few red bell pepper strips.
     Add splash of sweet rice wine or sherry wine.
     Add a splash of vegetable broth.
     Add sea salt and white pepper.
     Add a pinch of five spice powder.
     Add a dash of soy sauce.
     Bring the sauce to a boil.
     Mix a few spoonfuls of cornstarch with a splash of cold water in a cup to form a slurry.
     Add just enough of the cornstarch and water slurry to thicken the sauce to a medium thin consistency.  
     Add a green onion that is cut into large bite size pieces.  Set he sauce aside, till the wontons are cooked.
     Pork Wontons with Garlic Sauce:  Boil about 8 to 10 cups of water in a sauce pot over medium high heat.
     Add the pork wontons.
     Stir the wontons gently, so they do not stick to the pot.
     When the wontons float in the boiling water for one minute, then they are done cooking.
     Reheat the garlic sauce over medium high heat.
     Set the wontons on a plate.
     Pour the garlic sauce over the wontons.
     This is a very tasty light appetizer or entree!  The wonton stuffing is not like those lousy pre made frozen grocery store wontons that taste like they were made sometime in the last century.  The pork stuffing tastes very fresh and light.  The garlic sauce has just a little bit of zest from the crushed Thai chile pepper.  The flavor of the mushrooms adds a little bit of depth.  These are some delicious wontons!  ...   Shawna

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