Yes, another TikTok recipe. Well, I saw it on TikTok and had to jump onto this person’s Instagram to get the recipe. Ugh…sending me on a wild goose chase. Been wanting to experiment making chili oil kine wontons at home and I found the perfect excuse. When he said this was a Din Tai Fung copycat recipe, I was pretty much sold. I went out and bought the ingredients the very next morning. It was so worth it and while I was planning to wrap a bunch to freeze and enjoy in moderation, somehow we ate it all in one night. That’s a good sign right?

The filling ready to be mixed until gooey and stuffed into wonton wrappers. I barely make wontons from scratch and this convinced me I should do it more often. And do you know, this is the first time I have outright used MSG (ajinomoto)? Seriously. Always had this stigma against MSG due to its bad reputation out there. And it is not just in my mind, when a restaurant uses choke MSG, I am very very thirsty for hours after the meal. Thank god they sell pork all ground up, I had to chop up the shrimp by hand and well, I’m just going to go with I like my shrimp chunky and it’s going in my mouth and not yours okay (not at all defensive right)?

Had a few helpers in the wrapping department, not perfectly shaped nor at all like the recipe asked but it’s okay. I don’t mind eating envelope looking wontons. It doesn’t affect the taste!

Sorry, had to include one last picture of the wontons. Boiled them up and tossed them in the homemade chili vinegar dipping sauce…topped it with fresh cilantro leaves and I was in foodie heaven. I’m already planning for the next batch…wontons are a lot of work to make but boy are they delicious. What is it with pupu sized foods that taste so good yeah?

Spicy Wontons

Ingredients

Wonton Wrappers

• 50 wonton wrappers (12 oz. package)

Filling

• 1 lb. ground pork
• 3/4 lb. shrimp
• 1/4 cup green onion(white portion)
• 3 tbsp cilantro stems
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp msg
• 1/4 cup shaoxing wine
• 3 cloves grated garlic
• 1/4 inch grated ginger
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp cornstarch

Sauce

• 1 clove grated garlic
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp black vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp msg
• 2 to 3 tbsp chili oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Instructions

1. Deshell and roughly mince shrimp. You want the mince to be slightly larger than the ground pork.
2. Combine all of the filling ingredients and stir making sure to only move in one direction. This helps with myosin development which keeps the meat together.
3. Take your wonton wrapper and place about a tsp of filling in the center of the wrapper. Use water to bind two ends of the wrapper to create a triangle. Then take two ends of the triangle and bind them together using water.
4. Boil wontons for 4 to 5 minutes or until they start to float.
5. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix with boiled wontons.
6. Garnish with the green portion of green onion and cilantro.

Recipe: Derek K Chen

Notes:

1. I ended up with more filling than won ton wrappers, I think I could have made another 7-10 wontons with the leftover fillings.