Steamed Won Tons

I've always thought it would be hard to make won tons correctly, but recently on the Food Network I was watching a show that made it seem pretty easy.  So on Wednesday I gave it a shot.

I put some carrots in my food processor and pulsed it a few times to get a good grind.  I bought a bag of shredded cabbage and gave it another chop to make it smaller.  Finally, I diced up some uncooked shrimp (after peeling and deveining them, of course).  I put all that in a bowl and added some rice vinegar, ginger, and a dash of white pepper and mixed all of it together.

I bought a package of won ton wrappers (48 in a package) and put 12 on a baking sheet.  Using a spoon, I put a small amount of filling in the center of each wrapper.  With a small bowl of water next to me, I dipped my finger in the water and ran it around the edge of each wrapper.  Then I used the most common technique for won ton wrapping by taking two opposite corners of the wrapper and bringing it into the middle.  I pressed the edges together to get a good seal.  Then I brought a third edge into the middle and sealed.  The fourth corner was brought in at the end and sealed all around.  I decided to make 8 more for 20 total.

For a finishing sauce I put some hoisin sauce in a saucepan and added some diced green onions.  After adding a splash of water, I reduced this on low for about 15 minutes.

I wanted to use my Asian steamer basket to prepare them and figured it would take 10 minutes to prepare the bunch.  I added some of the shredded cabbage to the bottom to cover the slats and prevent the won tons from sticking.  I set my wok on the range top and added a few cups of water to generate the steam.  The first batch turned out great so I put them in the steamer while we started to eat dinner.

As we were enjoying the won tons and the quinoa-goat cheese-currant salad I made as a side (future post), I noticed a little bit of smoke coming from the steamer basket.  There was an interesting charred wood smell in the air, too.  Both DB~ and I went over to investigate.  Sure enough, I didn't add more water to the wok for the second batch so the steamer basket was essentially smoldering from the raw heat.  As I type this, the smell of charred wood still hangs in the air of our house, even with the windows open on this crisp spring evening.

Even though I need to buy a new steamer basket, it was worth it.  I'll probably make some ravioli with the won ton wrappers tomorrow and freeze them for this week.