Okay, so he isn’t exactly a paragon of Chinese cuisine, but he generally has a pretty good head for foodstuffs, and he’s about as close to New Orlean’s own as a yank can get. I didn’t really plan on making an Emeril recipe, it was just the first one we found that made a lick of damn sense. Oyster sauce and a packet of onion soup mix? Eff you Sandra Lee.
This was a very pleasant surprise and soundly outdid our favorite local place. It isn’t rocket science, but it is a good bit time consuming what with all the folding and wrapping. We moved quicker towards the end but 36 wontons still took some doing. Heather helped a bunch, folded most of the ‘tons and mixed up the stuffing.
The only mod I made was adding a quarter tsp of cayenne to the oil at the beginning and about two tsp soy sauce at the end, also cayenne in the stuffing for lack of pepper flakes. Oh, also we used turkey instead of pork. I know I know, but it totally works here I promise.
Heather and I have been on a health kick lately (hence the lack of posts) and the fast wet cooking makes for happy poultry, even something as lean as turkey. The single egg-yolk goes a long way for that creamy goodness and the flavor of the garlic, onions, and ginger dominates.
As for rolling the dough, we found a couple different suggestions but settled on what I thought looked like little tri-corner hats. Wet two edges, fold in half to make an isosceles, then bring all the points together up top and squeeze. They were quick and easy, plus the dough gets so wrinkly when it cooks, too much effort would just yield weird wrinkly balls of a slightly different shape. The only thing you have to worry about is getting the air out when you half it. Any bubbles you leave behind will swell up and break your seal making for a loose waterlogged dumpling.
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