Vegetarian Wontons

After my first attempt at making pot stickers I encountered a problem, pot stickers stick. Duh!

However I have no intention of fiddling with delicate wontons and eating, well, flattened burst wontons when I spent ages making them pretty.

So these wontons deviate from tradition in that they are steamed in a bamboo steamer and then fried in a small pan.

There are no gram guides for this recipe as the amount you need depends on the amount of wontons you want to make. I personally like to make a huge batch of filling and leave it in the fridge for a few (2 at most) days, making wontons for myself or my family as they are needed

Ingredients

Chinese cabbage (finely sliced) ( i use about half a cabbage head)

carrot (finely grated) ( i use about one whole carrot)

Firm tofu (about 350g) mashed

Pepper to taste

Soy sauce

Sake

Ginger (grated finely)

Garlic (finely chopped)

Wonton Wrappers

Add your cabbage, carrot, ginger and garlic to a bowl and toss together to make sure the ingredients are spread evenly together throughout the bowl. Add your mashed tofu and mix well again. Add a good glug of soy sauce, there should be a small amount of sauce swimming in the bottom of the bowl. Mix the soy sauce in well with the dry ingredients. Add a tablespoon of sake. Season with one or two turns of a pepper mill.

On a dry surface take your wonton wrapper. I use frozen ones and they serve adequately. Make sure the wontons you choose are suitable for frying. Place a good tea spoon of filling in the center of the wrapper making sure that there is cabbage, carrot and tofu in each wonton. Brush the edges of the wonton with water and pinch the edges closed around the

filling. I find that lifting the edges up and pinching them down works best. Make sure your wonton is firmly closed. Repeat the procedure for as many wontons as you want

In a wok heat about a cup of water. Place your bamboo steamer with a cabbage leaf in the steamer (to prevent the wontons sticking) over the water. Make sure that the water doesn't go dry and burn your steamer, or that the water isn't so high that it bubbles in through the steamer rack.

Place three wontons, or as many as will fit, in your steamer and steam for 2 minutes or until the wontons become a translucent brown.

Once they are steamed carefully place them on a hot frying pan which is generously oiled, but the oil should not come up the sides of the wonton. They should not stick.

Once the bottoms of the wontons are crispy serve with sweet chili dip or with ginger soy sauce