Once a week, my four kids and I pack up the pickup, leave the ranch, and head to the big city to our homeschool co-op, where we have a day of shared learning, fellowship with other students, and—most importantly—a big, honkin’ lunch at Panda Express, which, blessedly, is a three minute drive from the building where our co-op is held. We have to leave our house at 6:45 on co-op day, and I’d be lying if I said that part of my motivation for getting up and out the door wasn’t the fact that I’ll have get to have Panda Express sometime in the next few hours.
I’m very driven by the promise of food.
Also, I live in a small town. It doesn’t take much to excite me.
And drive-thru Asian food really, really, really excites me.
Anyway, I always break away from the co-op a little before lunch to go grab “Panda,” which my girls and I now call it since we’re on a first name basis, and one of the things we always get along with our Broccoli Beef and Beijing Beef and Kung Pao Chicken and Chow Mein Noodles is Cream Cheese Rangoon, which is basically a cream cheese mixture fried inside of wonton wrappers. It’s a delightful little treat and something we can’t get at home…
Or can we?
Well, yes we can!
Here. I’ll prove it to ya.
First, make the cream cheese filling, which is really simple: Into a mixer (or you can use a regular bowl and mix it by hand) add package of straight-from-the-fridge (otherwise known as cold) cream cheese…
Then lop off the ends of a couple of green onions…
And chop them up pretty finely.
Throw the green onions into the mixer with the cream cheese…
Then grab some Sriracha, which is a mysteriously delicious Asian-style hot sauce made here in the good ol’ U.S.A.
I squeezed in a couple of teaspoons (but wound up adding more later). Also, you can leave this out completely if you prefer just straight-up cream cheese. But, and I hate to be cliché here, but I put Sriracha in everything.
Mix it all together, scraping it a couple of times to make sure it’s all combined.
Now measure 1/2 cup of water.
Note: I got this little measuring glass at The Wal Marts, otherwise known as Wal Marts, otherwise known as Walmart, and I love it!
Pour it into a bowl…
Then crack in an egg…
And whisk it all together. This will be the glue that holds the wontons together!
You need to start heating up an inch or two of oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. You don’t want the oil to get too hot, as the wonton wrappers fry (and can burn) so, so quickly. If you have an oil thermometer, shoot for 335-340—I’ve found that 350 can be too high.
Or, if you don’t have a thermometer, just heat the oil, slice a square of a wonton wrapper, and drop it into the oil. It should immediately start to gently sizzle…but if it burns or browns too quickly, you’ll know you need to back up the heat a bit.
Also: Please be careful frying with oil if you have young’uns in the house! I always try to remember to put oil on the backburner of the stove, even now that my kids are bigger. It’s a good habit to get into!
I’ll stop being bossy now.
Now comes the fun part, also known as the challenging part, and it isn’t really that challenging, it just takes a little practice. Open a package of wonton wrappers, take out one, then cover the rest of the package with either plastic wrap or a dish towel. They dry out really quickly, so if you’re not working with them, they need to stay covered.
Grab a small amount of the cream cheese mixture…
…And place it on the bottom corner of the wrapper. Then just dip your finger in the egg wash and run it all around the border of the wrapper.
Tucking the cream cheese inside, roll up the corner of the wonton wrapper until you reach the halfway point.
This is a little difficult to photograph while doing it myself (ha), but basically, you hold the wonton in your hand…
Then bring the two ends together and criss-cross them, using a dab of egg wash to stick them together.
This is the method I prefer using to form wontons, and I learned it from one of my best blogging friends, Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. She has a great video that demonstrates the two ways she likes to form wontons, and it’s really helpful. I prefer this way to the other method, which involves folding it into a triangle before pinching the ends together. I’ve found that the rolling method—the one I use in this post—decreases the likelihood that the wontons will puff up (and/or burst) while frying, which will ruin your day if you’re making wontons.
But that’s just me! Try both ways and see which one you like.
And again, be sure to watch Jaden’s video! She explains things really well.
As I form the wontons and set them down, I tuck the pointed end under so it’s a neat little package.
Then I just kept going…
Until I had a whole bunch. Each time, I covered the assembled wontons with a lightweight dishcloth to make sure they didn’t dry out.
Now you just need to fry them up! I’m just doing one here to demonstrate, but you can do 4 or 5 at a time if you’re feeling sassy.
Once in the oil, they should immediately (gently) sizzle and float to the top.
I manage them with a spatula just a little bit to make sure they’re browning evenly.
And speaking of browning, you really want to take them out of the oil the second you start to notice they’re turning golden. They’ll keep browning for a few seconds after you take them out, and it takes no time at all for the wrappers to burn!
All in all, I’d say the wontons take 45 seconds to cook. Super quick! Don’t take your eyes off of ’em.
Drain the wontons on a paper towel, and keep going until they’re all fried.
Now, you don’t have to get in a huge hurry to serve the wontons—in fact, it’s best to wait a few minutes since the cream cheese mixture can get a little hot—so you can whip up a super easy dipping sauce in the meantime. (Or you can also crack open a jar of ready-made sauces; there are lots of them in the Asian Foods aisle of the supermarket.) I started with a little soy sauce…
Then added a good amount of honey…
Some sherry (rice wine vinegar would be better!)…
A teeny bit of sesame oil (and I mean teeny; a little goes a long way!)
And some more Sriracha.
Then just mix it together!
Or you can keep it super simple and just serve them with some soy sauce. Easy as pie.
Yum. So good! Crispy, light, and a luscious creamy filling.
These little babies are perfect for an Oscar party, a co*cktail party…or just a night of TV by yourself!
You definitely won’t be able to eat just one.
