Chilli Oil Wantons
I remember making wantons once in my grandma’s house, for the reunion lunch the day before Chinese New Year. There’s something soothing about making wantons with family, therapeutic almost. Maybe it’s the gentle folds, or maybe it’s the excitement in me slowly bubbling up knowing good food is coming my way.
You can make a lot of wantons in advance and freeze them for later. Trust us, one batch disappears very quickly within a week. This is honestly a great winter recipe, but we love wantons, and think they’re perfect throughout the year.
These wantons are light and versatile, and we eat it by itself with chilli oil and bean paste (see below), or add them to a bowl of hot noodles. Either way, they’re equally delicious. I guess you could say, our love for wantons.. weigh wan ton. (sorry I inherited the dad joke gene, but pls keep reading)
Recipe
Ingredients
- Shanghai Wanton pastry
- 250g minced pork
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp oil
- 2 tbsp cilantro
- 1.5 tbsp shao xing cooking wine
- salt and pepper to taste
- dash of soy sauce
Ingredients for sauce
- 1 tbsp Spicy Bean Paste
- 1.5 tbsp chili oil
- Pinch of white pepper
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp cilantro
- 1 tbsp black rice vinegar
Method
- Mix all the ingredients together (except the wanton pastry of course) until well combined.
- Spoon out a little bit of the mixture onto your pastry skin and then wet the edges with water.
- Fold the wanton skin to wrap it up. You might want to put some flour on the surface that you’re working on otherwise the wantons will happily stick like glue to whatever you place it on and will get all hole-y when you try to pluck them off.
- Boil for 5–6 minutes in water, and serve!
