Photo by The Crepes of Wrath
Today I’m excited to share with you a special video collaboration I recently did with Sydney from The Crepes of Wrath. Sydney and I met a few months ago at a BlogHer theater and networking event and since then, her blog has been one of my new favorites for regular reading, for both the photography and the writing. I’ve bookmarked so many of her recipes, including these beer braised ribs, miso kale salad, and chocolate chunk cookies. When she started posted short, fun cooking cooking videos, I became inspired to finally start making my own.
So when Sydney asked if I wanted to do a cooking video together, as a way for food bloggers in New York to support and promote each others’ work, I immediately said yes. Earlier this month, I spent a fun Sunday afternoon with her and her husband Kramer making (and eating!) Sichuan wontons, one of the dishes I regularly teach in my Dumplings and Wontons classes at West Elm Market and Brooklyn Brainery.
Check out the video below, then read on for more about Sichuan wontons!
If you’ve never had Sichuan wontons before, and you’re a big fan of spicy food, this is one dish that will surely go on regular rotation after you try it once. This is one of my favorite Sichuan dishes of all time, with a deliciously savory, tangy, and spicy sauce that is positively addictive. Unlike with Cantonese wontons, which usually goes into a soup with or without noodles, you just 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.
And the folding is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The name for Sichuan wontons 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.
Photo by The Crepes of Wrath
So give these a try! Just be aware: in the words of a student who recently attended one of my dumpling classes, the sauce “is so good I can drink just it straight.”
Also see: Sydney on learning to make Sichuan Wontons, over at The Crepes of Wrath
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Sichuan Wontons
Serves 6 o 8
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 egg
- 6 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 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
- In a large bowl, combine the pork, egg, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and most of the scallions (reserving a small handful for garnish at the end.) Mix until everything is well-incorporated. The filling should be sticky and just slightly wet.
- Fill a small ramekin or bowl with water and place it by your side. This will be for sealing the wontons.
- Angle a wonton wrapper so that it faces you like a diamond. Place one heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Dip your fingers in the water and wet the outside corners of the wonton wrapper. (Keep the extra wrappers covered with a barely damp towel until ready to use, to prevent them from drying out.)
- 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 water to the inside of the left tip, fold it over the right tip to overlap (as shown in the picture above) and press together
- For the “boat” version, start by folding the wrapper in half to form a rectangle. Add a dab of water 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put in the wontons and boil for 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 remaining scallions on top.
- 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.
Recipe first posted February 3, 2011. Revised April 22, 2013.
Yes! I just made these for a Lunar New Year dinner. So easy to make a lot and very exciting flavors. I was tipped off to add some tree/woodear fungus for texture to the filling. They also look super dramatic plated on a white dish.
Diana, these wontons were great. Thank you for introducing them to me!
DojiStar – What a nice coincidence! I know what you mean about the white plate…the bright redness of chili oil looks so nice against a white backdrop.
Max – Thanks! And I’m so glad you enjoyed the Sichuan class!
Hey commenters – So it seems that my captcha (swiggly image of letters that provides an “answer”) is broken on this wonton post, on Safari and Internet Explorer. (It’s fine on Firefox). If you’d like to leave a comment and you can’t see the captcha image, you can reply to another comment and the image will appear.
Thanks!
-Diana
These look delicious! I so know what you mean about how Chinese New Year has changed with age – less about money, more about food! So much food.
One of those looks like chinese nuggets! Thanks for the list of new years food. Too bad I couldn’t make any this year. My hubby is the “better” asian cook so he kicked me out of the kitchen for New Years cooking. He didn’t want me to mess up the New Year karma with Americanized cooking. lol. I’m going to try these throughout the year to get his approval for next year!
Great minds think alike! We also made these for our Chinese New Year dinner, hehe. =)
Sichuan Wontons don’t seem like a typical Chinese New Year dish. But I love them. they are delicious! It’s hard to find authentic ones in the States, I have to say. For New Year, I love turnip cake since I’m from a Cantonese heritage. It’s sad that my mom’s so far away that I can’t taste her turnip cake… :(
Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit!
Hi! I just came across your blog (while searching for a tea egg recipe) and I just wanted to say that I love what you’re doing :) Thanks for sharing your work!
Mouthwatering! It looks great!
Currently I am abroad, it’s a pity that I cannot find wonton skins here. Every time when I want to eat wontons, I have to make the wrappers by myself.:(
Adding few minced water-chestnuts into the stuffing will be another surprise. :)
I am over the top excited to make this recipe. The pictures are amazing and looks like a pretty recipe to follow. Thank you!
Hi there!
Your wontons looks divine! I love the sauce recipe. Thanks for sharing. I better make batch and freeze them so I can enjoy all year long.
I just bought a package of wonton wrappers yesterday! I’m going to save this recipe for future use. :)
I was looking to see where people were buying black bean pastes aside from going to Asian markets when I came across your blog. Love the focus on Chinese food. I grew up in a Chinese household but my parents weren’t cooks so I never really learned how to cook Chinese food :(
Looks great! I love the close-up.
I made these last week and they were amazing! I’m always looking for recipes that call for Sichuan peppercorns. My husband and I are both dumpling and wonton fiends so we made an entire meal out of them and then froze some for appetizers later on. I made a post about them on my blog (with proper credit given), I hope you don’t mind.
i just found your recipe on Pinrest, this is my favorite wonton. I used to have a restaurant close to me that made them, the only one around me and it closed. So thank so much for the recipe, I never made wontons, it was very simple to make it and I’m eating them right now . LOVE IT!!!
Awesome video, Sydney and Diana!! Hope you guys will collaborate more in the future, and keep the good stuff coming.
Thank you!
Hi,
This dish look so apetizing and I defi´nitely want to try to make it. I love wanton but you cannot find them in sweden… I tried them when I was in China and in Canada. Very nice post.
Ciao.
That looks and sounds pretty amazing!
I made these tonight for three people. I started to get frustrated putting them together. The wrappings kept breaking and I thought it was going to be a disaster.
They cooked just fine and everyone loved them. They were awesome.
I will make them again (next time I want to impress someone).