Wonton Wrapper Wonderland

Once upon a time, in my delirious love affair with dim sum, I decided that I would make my own. My first adventure in potstickers was a complete success and we truly enjoyed the appetizer, but it was an awful lot of work for just two people.

Image Source: http://www.topdimsum.com/

Then there were the wonton wrappers. I had a ton left and I had already opened the package. Back then, in ancient times, all I had access to were the round wonton wrappers. But as our Chinatown expanded and stores started popping up closer to the Temple, we also started seeing a variety of wrappers from wonton to gyoza to eggroll and a variety of small buns from many a Pan-Asian background.

Dumpling wrappers or skins are also sold as shao mai, shumai, siu mai, su my and shiu mai. Generally, they are round (disks) and are sold fresh as well as frozen in Asian markets and supermarkets. Wonton skins are thicker and square. Eggroll wrappers are thicker than dumpling wrappers and often larger in area than wontons. If you are interested in distinct differences, you can read about it: here.

Nutella Wontons

Wrappers are stuffed with vegetables and meats or seafood, and may be boiled, fried, or steamed. Usually, they are served with a dipping sauce, or in soup. They freeze well, if you make a batch. In addition to a variety of cooking methods, there are different ways to shape them, and if you’d like to learn how to, you can read and view videos about it: here.

But if all you make are the dumplings you love from your favorite Chinese takeout, you are missing the true versatility of packaged wonton skins (and yes, you can make your own, but most of us do not have that kind of time on our hands).

Lasagna Bites

I used to bake the wonton skins in tiny muffin tins, like open flowers, and then fill them with picadillo and cheese or shrimp and sour cream, or ground sausage and cream cheese, and have delectable tapas in a crunchy and handy little package. It was the ultimate finger food.

Wonton Mozzarella Sticks

Later, it also occurred to me that wonton skins were perfect for homemade ravioli—thank you, Marco Polo!

If you like to mix up your cuisines, you can make pierogis, taquitos, empanadas, a horiatiki salad, and tiny pizzas... You do not need to make savory dishes, either; you can use the wrappers for dessert. You can cut them up and season to taste to make your own nachos/chips or crackers.

Ice Cream Tacos

Heck, if you cut in strips and wrap a tiny weiner and bake it, you'll have a great mummy Halloween treat. 

Add wonton and eggroll wrappers to your freezer staples! 

https://www.pinterest.com/amapolapress/food-goddess-wonton-wrappers/

Check out the Pinterest board for a few recipes ideas and collections on the many delicious things you can do with wonton wrappers. Of course, the board will also include cooking with dumpling and eggroll wrappers.

Cute and Healthy Snacks

When I was a kid, my grandmother’s idea of a snack was often a piece of fruit. It was always something simple and unassuming. This was easy in the pre-school years because I accepted anything that was handed to me and was edible.

After a while, I would pick the tree, climb it and pick my poison! Not that Mami approved of my tomboy fruit picking ways. My choices were mango, guava, for a while we had a jobos tree, and later guineos niños (These pygmy bananas that grow in Puerto Rico and are super sweet). Through the years, depending on the intensity of storms and hurricanes, we also had papaya, soursop and tamarind.

The gent who owned the two-story home across the street was an SVP at Sultana, a Puerto Rican cookie and cracker company that eventually got gobbled up by Nabisco. He’d bring me tins of all sorts of goodies, and I’d enjoy these with cheese, in the afternoons, with a cup of chocolate.

There were no after-school cute sandwich cutouts or anything whimsy. I think she would have thought that was akin to playing with your food, and she did not approve of that.

The idea that you had to make food fun was alien to her. You ate what she put in front of you. There would be no discussion. She did not have patience for people who indulged children into believing they ran her kitchen. She’d have none of that!

Cute on a plate made no sense to her. She was a Great Depression baby and she’d known real hunger. Food, to her, was fuel for life not about cuteness. She did not understand food-related frivolities or junk food, for that matter. She did understand the pleasures of food, mind you. Her favorite delicacy was octopus salad, and she loved her turrón.

The idea of creative bento boxes would never compute, and the obsession the Japanese bring to it where they've created a competitive sport out of making lunch boxes would have thrown her for a loop. But she let me eat school lunches only halfway through first grade. I lost weight because I wouldn't touch half of it (it all smelled of dirty dish water, and tasted of salty dirty dish water to me). She took me home for a homemade meal every day after that.

The snacks she provided for my school day were mostly nutritious and utilitarian. Frankly, I don’t remember my own school snacks much, because I’m still obsessing over the fact that she wouldn’t buy me the lunchbox I wanted (Batman, of course).

I’m also not entirely sure that she would have thought making these snacks was time well-spent, unless she somehow managed to involve me in making them with her. She’d probably try almost anything to get me in the kitchen with her.

We don’t entertain kids around here, but I can guarantee you that I will be making at least two of these snacks for us. After all, being a kid at heart still counts!

Frozen Banana Penguins 

http://www.readingconfetti.com/2014/01/sledding-penguins-frozen-banana-snack.html

Fruit Bugs 

http://littlepageturners.blogspot.com/2010/04/edible-insects.html

Orange Slice Butterflies  

http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/05/orange-slice-butterflies.html

Apricot Clownfish 

http://family.disney.com/recipes/apricot-clownfish

Orange Fish 

http://www.canadianfamily.ca/food/a-cute-and-easy-summer-snack-fruit-fish/

Turkey Peppers and Hummus 

http://www.superhealthykids.com/thanksgiving-turkey-peppers-and-hummus/

1,001 Ways to Savor Garbanzos

We love chickpeas at the house. I’ve known them as garbanzos my whole life, and as cecis my life in Brooklyn. And while I have cooked with the dried stuff (and have some in my pantry right now), and chickpea flour makes for a different kind of baking, I want to give you many reasons to have at least a couple of cans in the cupboard.

Garbanzos are legumes, and as such are generally low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are high in a few minerals. To me they taste somewhere between white beans and favas but with a more elegant consistency and texture.

The true beauty of chickpeas is that you can use them in a variety of cuisines: Spanish, Indian, Italian, Middle Eastern, African, Asian, and Mediterranean. Roasted they make great snacks. They are delightful in stews. Hummus is nothing without chickpeas. It is good in rice, with pasta, in a couscous salad. You can make soups with them and they hold up really well. Also: desserts! 

We tend to buy Goya (it’s a family thing), but there are other chickpeas in the market. Fine Cooking picks Goya as their top choice but they tested others as well.

I’m always singing praises for chicken tarragon with chickpeas, one of the easiest recipes that fill the house with a divine aroma, and yields enough liquid for soup or stock, and materials for sandwiches (be it chicken and/or mashed cecis).

I make a gumbo with rice, garbanzos and shrimp that is spectacular (the chicken version is awesome too). One of my all-time favorites is a Basque-inspired cod stew with tomatoes (sometimes potatoes), capers and garbanzos.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is rice with garbanzos (a pilaf/pulao). It’s creamy and filling, and great as leftovers. Add peas and chicken and call it a poor man’s paella. For a relatively easy paella, try this gem from Penelope Casas: crusted paella with pork, chicken and sausage.

In winter, a bowl of chorizo and chickpea soup with some crusty bread is pure heaven – in spring, I do a less soupy chickpea and sausage stew that also doubles as a pasta sauce with oil, lemon and a handful of fresh dill.

For those with food allergies, using garbanzos as a flour base makes a recipe gluten-free without missing much. You can make pizza, peanut butter chocolate chip bites, and even pancakes.

For those of you with kids, there are great lunchbox ideas starring chickpeas, from crunchy cinnamon-sugar roasted chickpeas to garlic Parmesan roasted chickpeas. (Here’s a spicy oven-roasted chickpea recipe for the adults brown-bagging their lunch.) Chickpea protein bars are also great snacks.

Garbanzos also make great baby food when mashed with sweet potatoes and a dash of milk, or a blueberry and rosemary mash.

For the vegetarians and vegans, chickpeas provide great alternatives such as garbanzo-based veggie burgers, and falafels.

And what could be better than getting comfortable for an evening of binge watching your favorite new show with a bowl of chocolate chickpea truffles?

The versatility of the chickpea, as mentioned earlier, includes various cuisines that will expand your palate. In no particular order:

Italy

Fried Chickpea Polenta (panelle)

Greece

Chickpea Soup with lemon and Olive Oil (revithia)

Portugal

Chickpea Stew (grão de bico)

Moroco

Chickpea and Tomato Stew

Spain

Chickpeas and Spinach Stew with Ginger

Turkey

Hummus

India

Chickpea Dal with Coconut Broth

Egypt

Rice, Garbanzos, and Macaroni (Koshari)

Ethiopia

Chickpea Stew (wat)

Trinidad & Tobago

Chickpea and Potato Curry

Philippines

Menudo

Sri Lanka

Chickpea Stir Fry (kadala thel dala)

There is a Pinterest board with a few collections and a few individual recipes for your enjoyment. You’ll find dozens of recipes there, but I like to think that like Arabian Nights, there must be 1,001 ways to enjoy the little beans. You should try them all!