Sunday, July 1, 2012

Crab Rangoon

Tasty, hot, sweet, salty. Cream cheese. Crab. Wanton skins. Fried. What's not to like. Let's get to it.

Ingredients

  • 4 oz. cream cheese
  • 4 oz fresh crab meat, or imitation crab, dried and flaked
  • 1/2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 tsp Sriracha rooster sauce
  • 1 green onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large garlic clove, peeled, and mashed
  • Approx 20 wanton wrappers (square)
  • 1 small bowl of water
  • Oil for deep frying

Directions

  1. Combine cream cheese, crab, soy sauce, Worcestershire, sriracha, green onion, and garlic in a small bowl. Mix well.
  2. Feel free to add more soy or Sriracha if you like a saltier or spicier rangoon.
  3. Lay out one or two wanton wrappers on a cutting board. Cover remaining wrappers with a damp paper towel and work with only one or two wrappers at a time to avoid drying. (Dry wrappers neither fold nor dry well.)
  4. Place one teaspoon of the crab and cream cheese mixture in the center of each wrapper. With two fingertips, moisten all four sides of the wrapper, then fold in half to form a triangular rangoon. Press the edges together well.
  5. Do not overfill your rangoon! They will leak and make you sad.
  6. Set completed rangoons under another damp paper towel until all the rangoon are finished, to avoid drying.
  7. Heat oil in a deep pan, wok, or deep fryer, to approx 365 degrees. 
  8. Carefully add the rangoon to oil. Do not overfill - allow enough room for the rangoon to cook separately and fully.
  9. Cook until light golden brown, approximately three minutes. If using a pan or wok, turn the rangoon over after 90 seconds. Remove from the oil with tongs or a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Serve warm with sweet and sour sauce or sweet chili sauce.

Results

Metal skewers make good mixing and flipping instruments, especially if you're using a deep fryer.
What's not to like?? A few words to the wise - don't undercook these suckers. They will be limp, and hard to eat. But it's hard to overcook them, so if you're unsure, leave them in a bonus 30 seconds.

Also, be sure to seal all your edges carefully! You'll know right away if you have a leak by the little floating cream cheese noodles that start coagulating on your rangoon.

If you remove your wounded rangoon before the cream cheese has time to burn, you can have a perfectly delicious inside-out rangoon experience
Crab Rangoon are the perfect party finger food, but like any fried food, they're best served hot and fresh. If you do have to make them in advance, keep them hot in the over at 200 degrees until it's time to serve.

Sweet chili sauce is really the way to go with these. You can find it at any Asian supermarket. It's hot, it's sweet, it's excellent. Just like these puppies. Om.

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