Western Chinese Food (Part 2)
What the heck is a Rangoon anyway? After a little research, I found that it is the old capital of Burma, a moderately large (for the region) country to the West of Thailand. Not Chinese at all! So, Americanized Chinese food is not even giving credit to the right country. I wonder if American restaurants sell tacos in China. If not, they should, with a heaping side of poutine.
As stated in my previous post, Chinese people do not eat much dairy, almost zero cheese, and few, if any, fried foods. Somehow, by some glorious miracle predicted by a clairvoyant cookie, fried cheese and crab wontons made their way into the beginning of the Chinese takeout menu. These are a takeout staple, super easy to eat and fun to make.
The wontons are so fun to work with. Feel free to experiment with your own folding designs or filling recipes. I still want to create a turkey dinner wonton, with turkey, dressing, mashed potato, peas, gravy, and a splash of cranberry sauce. The possibilities are endless…
Crab Rangoon
- 16 oz can of lump crab meat
- 8 oz package of cream cheese
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 2 cloves of garlic, pressed and minced
- 1 teaspoon of minced ginger root
- 3 scallions, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon of of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of white sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1 medium egg
- 40 wonton wraps
- vegetable oil for frying
Drain your crab and pick through for loose shells. You don’t want your crispy crunch to shatter your jaws. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and whisk through until smooth. Heat vegetable oil to a medium temperature, about 375°. While the oil is heating, place exactly one small dollop of your mixture onto the wonton wrap. Fold up the sides until a small x is formed, pinching the sides as they connect to seal the edges where they meet. The mixture should be sticky enough, but you should keep a small bowl of water to keep your hands moist so the seal stays in place. Fry wontons in groups of 6-8 until golden brown and reserve on paper towels for draining. Do not crowd the pan or fryer! Roll six, fry six, rinse repeat until they are all gone. Serve hot and crispy with your favorite sweet chili or hot mustard sauce.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (PER SERVING):
CRAB RANGOON
Servings: 16
Food energy: 746kcal Saturated fatty acids: 23.33g Monounsaturated fatty acids: 11.09g Polyunsaturated fatty acids: 4.20g Total fat: 38.62g Calories from fat: 347 Cholesterol: 275mg Carbohydrate, by difference: 46.36g Total dietary fiber: 1.33g Protein: 38.42g Total lipid (fat): 44.96g Water: 196.09g Ash: 5.74g Total sugars: 4.06g Calcium: 273mg Iron: 3.60mg Magnesium: 74mg Phosphorus: 504mg Potassium: 579mg Sodium: 1389mg Zinc: 6.29mg Copper: 1.23mg Manganese: 0.58mg Selenium: 81.66μg Vitamin C: 4.80mg Thiamin: 0.43mg Riboflavin: 0.56mg Niacin: 7.76mg Pantothenic acid: 2.07mg Vitamin B6: 0.28mg Folate, total: 144μg Folic acid: 48μg Food folate: 95μg Folate: 178μg dietary folate equivalents Vitamin B12: 4.82μg Vitamin A: 1602IU Vitamin A RAE: 433μg retinol activity equivalents Retinol: 424μg Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol): 3.30mg Vitamin K (phylloquinone): 7.05μg Alpha-carotene: -- Beta-carotene: 111μg Beta-cryptoxanthin: 1μg Lycopene: -- Lutein+zeazanthin: 28μg Percent refuse: --
I love wanton soup. Instead of frying could you boil the wanton for soup. By the way do you know that the Chinese, before acquiring a favored trade nation with the U.S, consumed an average of 2100 calories a day but now consume an average of 3600 caloeies a day. Just as in gasoline their increased consumption increases the cost. So food costs will rise. More importantly fertilizer prices will go up. You may want to check on a company in Canada which is the largest producer of Potash worldwide. Chinese soils is so depleted that they import much of their food and have turned to supplementing their soil to avoid dependency. I intend to research the Canadian company. If you are interested, let me know I believe the stock is less than a dollar but not sure.
You sure can. Crab Rangoon soup does sound good with some seafood stock as a base. Nice catch about the fertilizer. PotashCorp from Saskatchewan seems like a sustainable company and a great long-term investment.
This is a very interesting article about the fast food surge in China. A new KFC or Pizza Hut (owned by YUM) opens in China every day and owns +42% of the fast food market share as of 2009. It looks like they are even trying to steal the egg rolls and crab rangoons that we “stole” from them.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/252667-fast-food-culture-grows-in-china