crab rangoon makes me cranky

I realize this is Americanized Chinese cuisine and I'm completely ok with that. What I'm not ok with is how annoying these things are to make.

I didn't have a chance to go down to Chinatown for real (and cheaper) wonton wrappers so I had to use the oddly shaped Quasimodo-esque Nasoya ones.

So they're not perfectly square and they're squishy and just generally make me want to punch imaginary babies.

I persevere and get them folded up all nice and tight then begin to fry.

If you leave them one second too long one part of the rangoon is going to spurt hot cheese mixture all over your frying oil.

They still came out great but anything cream cheese filled is going on my "make rarely" list.


Crab Rangoon
1 package wonton wrappers
1 package imitation crab meat
2 stalks scallion
3 cloves fresh garlic
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 package cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste
water
oil for frying

I ended up putting everything in the blender to make a smooth paste. I chopped the scallions before adding them.

Place less than a teaspoon of filling inside each wonton wrapper and wet around the filling.

Fold the sides together (not the corners) so it looks kind of like a 4 pointed star.

Heat up the oil and pray none of them break when they fry.

Here are a few links on how to fold/make em:
http://www.starportfoods.com/Crab_Rangoons.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms6f_CBrZOI

I think I might not like to eat whole fried things

So I made soft shell crabs, whitebait and fries and I dunked them all in the hot oil of my cocotte-cum-deep fryer.

The whitebait I got from Wild Edibles. I've gotten bad shrimp from them before, but the mussels I had from there were spot on so I gave them a try. These fishies were bitter. Me no likey too much after the inital omgcrunchy taste.

I got the crabs from there too. They seemed more lively than the ones at Pescatore.

The fries are my favorite frozen bag kind: Nathan's.

It's becoming harder to find them, but I gotta good supermarket source that's only about 9 blocks and an avenue away from me. :D

Now the problem is I get a little queasy when I eat these creatures whole. 

fried soft shell crab

Simple recipe of egg wash, Chesapeak Bay seasoning from Penzey's, a lil extra pepper, salt and dredging in flour.

Next time I will batter them as the flour came clean off the back of these tasty creatures.

paula deen's crab cakes

I <3 Paula Deen, she loves butter as much as I do. I've used her recipes before, most notably "Not yo' mama's" banana pudding.

Her crab cake recipe needed some modifications.

I used more crackers so they would stick together better and added one more egg.

I used jumbo lump crab meat as well.