Fried Hun Tun (Won Tons)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year's, the year of the Dragon, so we must celebrate. I'm not Chinese but we celebrate anyway.
In 2009, we were in Hawaii to celebrate Chinese New Year's which was fun because of the large Asian population there.

This year my son, Nick, is in Japan and they are celebrating in Yokohama's Chinatown.

When my kids were little we did various things to celebrate, like tour a fortune cookie factory... How fun is that? We loved Chinatown in Seattle so there was always a lot going on for Chinese New Year's. In fact, last year, Nick's wife, Sachiyo, organized a field trip to Chinatown for Chinese New Year's with her English class. They experienced the parade in Seattle's Chinatown (now called the International District) and they had so much fun my son said to me "How come we never did any of this fun stuff when we lived here!?" I guess what we did wasn't enough for his childhood memories. However, we do have lots of good recipes to remember. This is one we always made on our New Year's Eve. In fact, my daughter made these with her friends this year for New Year's Eve so her childhood memories are still intact. These are good to make on New Year's Eve because they are nice appetizer-type food that you can munch on all evening.

I got this recipe from my very first Food and Nutrition class in college from a Chinese instructor who loved to cook at Shoreline Community College in Seattle. That was the best "Foods" class I ever took! We cooked all kinds of foods and experimented with different techniques in cooking to see how it effected foods and why. Today, I guess you could say my kitchen is still my laboratory.

Makes 75 Won Tons

1 lb. ground meat (pork, beef, turkey, we usually use pork)
1-10 ounce frozen chopped spinach
1/4 cup very finely chopped green onion
1 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. sherry
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
a pinch of curry powder
2 packages Hun Tun skins (they are making the packages smaller and smaller these days) You want at least 75 wrappers.

1. Mix all ingredients together except skins.

2. Pat 1 heaping teaspoon full of this mixture in the center of the Hun-Tun skin.

3. Fold and seal.

To fold, lay wrapper flat with meat mixture in the middle and fold over to make a triangle shape as above. With a bowl of cold water nearby, wet finger and dampen the corners of the outer edges of the folded wrap. Then fold again and dampen corners will stick together.

4. Put finished Hun Tun on a flour-powdered platter.

5. Repeat until all Hun Tun are made.

6. Heat 2 quarts of vegetable oil in large, deep pot or wok. Drop in up to 12 Hun Tun at a time. Fry until golden brown.

7. Put on a paper towel. Serve hot, but not immediately.

They are delicious plain or dipped in a dipping sauce, Sriracha hot sauce or soy sauce. We like a dipping sauce called Grandma's Sweet Chili Sauce that goes perfect with these.

You can't eat just one.

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