Sichuan Wontons, plus 20 Recipe Ideas for Chinese New Year

As a kid, I looked forward to Chinese New Year for just one reason: cash, dressed in red evelopes. Like other kids in my extended family, I didn’t get much of an allowance, much less Christmas or birthday money. So Chinese New Year income, about $200 to $300 if you have a large family within a 50-mile radius, was junk food and cassette money for an entire year.

The younger me was much less interested in all the food that came with Chinese New Year. My parents normally went out for dim sum at least 2 to 3 times a month, so going out for dim sum and long banquet dinners for a week straight just seemed tedious at best, torture by the 7th night.

I would never have guessed that as an adult, I would actually look forward to the orgy of food at New Year’s. When my parents still lived in Boston, I rode the bus every year to spend at least a long weekend there, and eating meal at the same restaurants I dreaded 10 years before. During my two years in China, I braved exhorbitant plane fares and a crippling blizzard just to spend Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. You rarely receive red envelopes as a grown-up, but the 5 or 6 dim sum outings, banquets with roast duck and fish and suckling pig, and lavish homemade meals more than makes up for it.

Taking money out of the picture really does allow you to focus on the more important things in life.

Alas, this year I’m not in Hong Kong. Or Boston. My parents are retired and living in southern China. The times when I don’t have family nearby, I still like to make a lot of food over the two week period just to celebrate in my own little way. Like noodles, or turnip cake, or red-cooked pork. And especially dumplings, because it’s not too hard to churn out a hundred in an afternoon and save any extras for the end of the New Year period.

This year I decided to start off CNY with Sichuan wontons instead of my usual dumplings. The name in Mandarin, chao shou, literally means “crossed hands”.  The wontons themselves are folded in a way in which the tips cross each other like arms.

In Sichuan, I’ve seen the wontons folded two ways. In the first one, you start by folding the wrapper into a triangle and then crossing the tips (“arms”) over the belly of the wonton. The second method, the “boat” method is to fold the wrapper into a rectangle; then, crunching the belly a little, you overlap the bottom edges of the two sides, as shown in the photo above. The second method is trickier at first, but more impressive once you get the hang of it.

Unlike with Cantonese wontons, which usually goes into a soup with noodles or bok choy, you boil the wontons and drizzle a chili oil mixture over them. I adore this sauce: chili oil (store-bought or homemade), dark or balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, Sichuan pepper, and garlic, just mixed together.  It’s spicy and numbing and tart and sweet. And you can easily make a big batch to share with family and friends, should they happen to stop by.

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Sichuan Wontons

Serves 4 to 6 as appetizers

• ½ pound ground pork
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ package wonton skins

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon chili oil
• 2 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar or good-quality balsamic vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper

1. In a large bowl, combine the pork, sesame oil, salt, and pepper and mix until everything is well-incorporated. The filling should be sticky and slightly wet.

2. Crack the egg into a small bowl and beat lightly with a fork. This egg wash will be used for sealing the wonton wrappers.

3. Angle a wonton wrapper so that it faces you like a diamond. With a pastry brush, spread a thin layer of egg wash along the top two edges of the wrapper. (Keep the extra wrappers covered with a barely damp towel until ready to use, to prevent them from drying out.) Place one heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper.

• a. One easy way to wrap is to form a triangle by folding the bottom tip to the top tip and pinching out as much air as possible. Add a dab of egg wash to the inside of the left tip, fold it over the right tip to overlap (as shown in the picture above) and press together.
• b. For the “boat” version, start by folding the wrapper in half to form a rectangle. Add a dab of egg wash to the bottom edge of the left side and and fold it over the bottom edge of the ridge side, so that one overlaps the other. The end result should resemble a boat, with two tips cradling a puff of filling in the middle.

4. Place the finished wonton on a plate. Keep the finished wontons covered with a barely damp towel while you repeat the process with the remaining wontons.

5. In a medium bowl, mix together the garlic, soy sauce, sugar, chili oil, black vinegar, and Sichuan pepper. Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved and set aside.

6. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put in the wontons and boil for 3 to 4 minutes, until the wontons float to the top. Remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle the chili sauce over the wontons and sprinkle the sliced scallions on top.

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If you’re looking for more Chinese New Year’s recipes  (including dumplings) see my recommendations below. Also check out my recipe index for more ideas.

Snacks and Appetizers

• Chinese tea eggs
• Scallion Pancakes
• Pan-fried dumplings
• Turnip cake
• Water chestnut cake

Noodles

• Stir-fried vermicelli with garlic and scallions
• Dan Dan Mian (Spicy Sichuan Noodles)
• Minced Pork and Shiitake Soba Noodles

Dumplings

• Pan-fried Dumplings
• Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai (Shao Mai)
• Chicken and Apple Dumplings

Seafood

• Easy Chinese Steamed Fish
• Ginger and Scallion Crab
• Dragon Well Tea Shrimp (Longjing Xiaren)

Braised Poultry and Red Meat

• Red-Cooked Pork (Hongshao rou)
• Three Cup Chicken
• Soy-Braised Chicken

Vegetable Sides

• Baby Bok Choy with Braised Shiitake Sauce
• Fish-Fragrant Eggplant (Yuxiang Qiezi)
• Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans

Tagged as: Appetizers, Chinese, Dumplings, Pork, Recipes