Holiday Traditions: Christmas Wontons

It is so nice to hear about all of your holiday traditions… traditional (Prime Rib) and nontraditional (Kentucky Fried Chicken)! So let’s keep this holiday train going…

Every year, my parents have a holiday cocktail party. Otherwise known as, “The day my mother shows off her Christmas decorations to nonfamily members.” The holiday cocktail party is the culmination of everything that embodies my mother… Decorating, Christmas and food… And a bit of screaming. Traditionally, there is always at least one person in my family either screaming, pouting, firing off a rude email, having a pity party or crying. Without fail. Does this happen in your family? There’s plenty of laughing, hugging, and loving but there’s always a side platter of hysteria. You would think were Italian with all of the drama, but we’re not, we are just overly emotional Irish folk.

 

 

However, we set all of this aside when “company” arrives like any other dysfunctional family. My parent’s holiday parties are a blast. Plenty of interesting guests, cocktails, music, appetizers and holiday cheer. It wouldn’t be a holiday party at our house if there wasn’t one thing… My mother’s appetizers! In my Christmas book, A Very Chic Christmas, there is a compilation of her best party appetizers but there is one particular appetizer that is everyone’s favorite… Her Christmas wontons!

Continuing our holiday tradition sharing, I thought I would share the Christmas Wonton Recipe with all of you here on the blog! (For the rest of her recipes, you can purchase, A Very Chic Christmas, HERE.)

Anne's Famous Wontons with Apricot Dipping Sauce

My mother, Anne, says, “This is my original recipe.  I have made it so many times and it is a little different each time...which is just fine.

You can change this if you want because I do most of the time.  But it always turns out great.  Here it goes...

I just make as many as I have sausages.”

Ingredients:

Wonton skins in package

Italian Sausage in package as links.  2 packages. I use the hot and they are great!

Large package of cream cheese

Green onions  2 to 3 bunches

Sesame Seed Oil

Chili Garlic Sauce  this is in the Asian section and it is red with a green lid. 

Peanut Oil

Remove the thin skin/casing from the sausage and put the sausage in a skillet on a med high heat.  You do not need any oil because the sausage has enough.  I like to take a spoon and cut up the sausages into small pieces.

While this is cooking cut up the green onions.  Put in a large bowl.

The cream cheese is for binding this all together.  Use as much as you like but remember that you want the sausage to be the main flavor you taste and not the cream cheese.

Add the cooked sausage to the green onions in the bowl.  Now while the sausage is hot add the cream cheese.  Start out with half of the package and see how it goes. Then add more if needed. Then add some sesame seed oil.  Just a little bit goes a long way. Like a 1/2 teaspoon. Now add the chili garlic sauce.  I just like a little...like 1 teaspoon and go from there.  Remember that the Italian Hot sausage has a lot of heat....so go easy with the Chili Garlic Sauce.

Taste this and see how you like it...it needs to taste good at this point.

Now get the wonton skins and get a little bowl of water.

Place one wonton skin on some parchment paper.  Put a spoonful of the mixture in the middle of the wonton skin.  Now take a little pastry brush or I just use my finger and put some water around all of the edges of the wonton skin.  This will seal it.  Now pull the 4 edges up and press them together. You want this to look like a little pouch.  You can twist the top if you like...Make it look nice. Repeat.

Now in a deep sauce pan or a skillet....Heat the oil.  I like to use peanut oil because it can get the hottest. Have enough to cover all of the wonton.   Turn it up to high and when it is hot...drop the little wontons into the hot oil.  I like to do just a few at a time because they go pretty fast.  Take out and put on paper towel as soon as they become light brown...

Dipping Sauce:

4 tablespoons peach preserves

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce

1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

 Mix together and serve with Wontons.

Make as many as you have time for.  It is best to do them just before your company comes. (Editor’s note: mother still refers to guests as “company.”)  The wontons are not really good cold nor are they very good reheated.  You can assemble them ahead and cover with a slightly slightly slightly damp tea towel so that they do not dry out and then fry them as the guests are arriving.

Voilà! Christmas wontons!

What is my Christmas book, A Very Chic Christmas, all about? It’s about how to have a beautiful Christmas. Simple as that.… By following a few rules. My sister likes to refer to it as, “A judgmental Christmas book with humor.” It’s all about how to decorate for Christmas, Christmas guidelines, my Christmas stories and of course, our family holiday recipes. There are over 50 recipes including menus for a Christmas Cocktail Party (Lemon spiced shrimp with horsey dipping sauce), Christmas Morning Breakfast (Biscuits with Sorghum), Casual Christmas Eve Dinner (chicken pot pie), Fancy Christmas Eve Dinner (Beef Wellington), Christmas Dinner (Crown roast with crispy roasted potatoes with goose fat and herbs), and New Year’s Eve Cocktail Party (Crispy crab stuffed mushrooms and mini roast beef sandwiches with onion confit and horseradish sauce). And desserts and cocktails!

 

To have a softback book delivered to your door, purchase HERE.

To have an e-book delivered to your device instantly, purchase HERE. 

*Christmas in Provence is starting off nicely. We found a giant Christmas tree and will start decorating today… Stay tuned for details in the next blog.