Wontons and Fried Rice

This Wonton recipe is from my friend Julie's cooking blog, Real (Good) Cooking.  To learn how Julie and I are almost related, check out the guest post she did for me back in December. 

 

I have been wanting to try Julie's Wonton recipe for awhile, but I have to admit, I was a little intimidated. I mean, I have never made wontons or anything like that myself, and I have never even thought of purchasing tofu before! Fortunately, she blogged about the recipe and added some great step-by-step pictures. Funny how pictures work, isn't it? I immediately added the wonton recipe to this week's menu plan, and look how great they turned out!

 

 

Note: this recipe makes 30-40 wontons, way more than my family could eat in one sitting, so I froze some uncooked wontons to fry up on leftover night.

 

printable recipe

Wontons 

 

3/4 lb. lean ground beef  (or if you're feeling frisky, use chopped, raw shrimp)
1/2 package tofu (firm works best)
3-4 scallions, chopped
1/2-3/4 cup chopped bean sprouts
1/4 tsp. each of salt, pepper, garlic powder

2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 package wonton wrappers (found in the produce section by the tofu and refrigerated salad dressing)
canola oil

 

Place the raw ground beef, tofu (cut into chunks), scallions, sprouts, seasonings, and soy sauce in a large bowl and mix with (clean) hands.

 

Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of large pot over medium heat.

 

 

To assemble the wontons: Spoon a small lump of the filling onto the middle of each wrapper.

 

Using your finger dipped in water, wet the edges of the wrapper and fold in half to make a triangle shape. Make sure they are sealed all the way around. If you get a hole in the wrapper, tear off a small piece in the corner to patch it.

Once you have several wontons prepared, gently put one in the oil. You know the oil is ready when the wonton starts to bubble and sizzle. Once the oil is ready, cook 4-5 wontons at a time. Cook until golden brown (3-4 minutes on each side). 

 

Watch your oil carefully. If it starts to sizzle a lot and the wontons are browning quickly, turn down the heat. If the wontons brown too quickly, the filling will not be cooked. You probably want to cut open the first couple right away to make sure the filling is cooking through all the way.
 

 

Put wontons on paper towel lined plate to cool.

Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce
apricot jam
soy sauce
 

Heat jam in microwave in 30 second intervals until runny enough to push through a fine mesh strainer. Strain out the chunks and add soy sauce to taste (a couple of Tbsp soy sauce per cup of jam).

 

Fried Rice

serves 3-4

1 cup rice

sesame oil (or canola oil)

4 scallions (green onions), chopped

2 eggs

soy sauce, powdered ginger, and pepper, to taste

Cook the rice and let cool for a few minutes.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat (be conservative if you use sesame oil, it has a strong flavor).

Add the onions and saute for a minute.

Dump in the rice. I do have a way with words, don't I?

Add some soy sauce, ginger and pepper.

Cook and stir for a few minutes until heated through.

Push rice to the side, add eggs and scramble.

Mix scrambled egg into rice, cook and stir for a minute or two more and serve alongside Fried Wontons or Thai Honey Peanut Chicken.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 12.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken and Fried Rice

I am always looking for new ways to serve chicken and rice so I was thrilled to come across this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen portion of The Pioneer Woman. So tasty and easy, with ingredients I already had on hand, this meal was definitely a winner!

printable recipe

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

serves 3-4

1 lb chicken breast, cut in chunks

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 Tbsp peanut butter

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp sriracha, or a few drops of tabasco

Mix ingredients and marinate chicken for 2-3 hours.

Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done.

If the sauce starts to dry up before the chicken is cooked through, turn the heat down to medium so the sauce doesn't burn before the chicken is done.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds (I forgot to do that before I took the picture-doh!) and serve with fried rice.

Fried Rice

serves 3-4

1 cup rice

sesame oil (or canola oil)

4 scallions (green onions), chopped

2 eggs

soy sauce, powdered ginger, and pepper, to taste

Cook the rice and let cool for a few minutes.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat (be conservative if you use sesame oil, it has a strong flavor).

Add the onions and saute for a minute.

Dump in the rice. I do have a way with words, don't I?

Add some soy sauce, ginger and pepper.

Cook and stir for a few minutes until heated through.

Push rice to the side, add eggs and scramble.

Mix scrambled egg into rice, cook and stir for a minute or two more and serve alongside Thai Honey Peanut Chicken.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 7. 

 

Beef with Snow Peas

I love this recipe. It is fast, easy, and delicious. I'm kicking myself for sending the leftovers with my hubby for lunch instead of keeping them for myself. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe. If you haven't yet discovered Pioneer Woman, you need to don't. You will never want to return to my little blog again. She really is that amazing.

Let's cook, shall we?

Beef with Snow Peas

printable recipe

Ingredients

• 1-½ pound Flank Steak, Trimmed Of Fat And Sliced Very Thin Against The Grain, or use pre-sliced stir-fry meat from the butcher as I did.
• ½ cups Low Sodium Soy Sauce (I used regular, turned out great but I didn't need the extra salt at the end)
• 3 Tablespoons Sherry Or Cooking Sherry
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
• 1 Tablespoon Minced Fresh Ginger
• 8 ounces, weight Fresh Snow Peas, Ends Trimmed
• 5 whole Scallions, Cut Into Half-inch Pieces On The Diagonal
• Salt As Needed (use Sparingly)
• 3 Tablespoons Peanut Or Olive Oil
• Crushed Red Pepper, For Sprinkling
• Jasmine Or Long Grain Rice, Cooked According To Package

In a bowl, combine soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, cornstarch and ginger.

Mix stir-fry meat into soy sauce mixture.

Trim the ends off snow peas. 

Slice five scallions (green onions) diagonally and set aside. 

Heat oil in a wok or skillet (I used my cast-iron skillet) over high heat. Add snow peas and stir for 45 seconds. Remove the snow peas and place half the meat mixture (leaving sauce in bowl) and half the scallions into the skillet. Let sit for a minute before flipping the meat. This will give it a nice brown color. Turn meat and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Resist the urge to stir, you can do it!

Remove first batch of meat and set aside. Place remaining meat (but not the sauce) and scallions into pan and let sit for a minute. Turn meat then add first batch of meat and sauce and stir for thirty seconds then turn off heat. 

The original recipe says to taste it and add salt as needed at this point, but I think this is only if you use low-sodium soy sauce. I used regular and it didn't need any more salt.

Serve over rice (jasmine rice would probably be best but use what you have) and sprinkle with crushed red pepper. Enjoy!

This recipe is featured in Meal Plan: November 15-21.