Wonton Mission

There are a few things you need to know about this dip:

• The inspiration behind it was solely the desire to make wonton chips. Seriously, I’m not joking.
• I debated between calling this zesty or spicy.
• I took many more pictures of the process to share, but my camera didn’t like me today. She’s an old lady, what can I say?
• I ate all of this dip for dinner tonight. Can we push beach season back a few more weeks?

 So last night BD had Sam the Cooking Guy on and I kept glancing at it while cooking, cleaning, and doing homework. One of his dishes was guacamole and instead of tortilla chips he used wontons to make chips. He’s all about healthy eating on the show and claimed there are very little fat and calories in them, which I could care less about. (Just ask the cellulite on my thighs.) However, the idea of using wontons as chips really intrigued me, so all day I’ve been rolling ideas around in my head for some kind of asian-esque dip to serve them with. I’m sorry but guacamole deserves tortilla chips. (You can check out my guacamole recipe here, btw.) What I came up with is kind of a deconstructed Crab Rangoon. It wasn’t my original intentions but after I started wolfing it down like a cat on tuna fish and thought about the flavors that’s how it worked out.

Another little bonus to this recipe is that it was actually really cheap to make. This recipe yields about 2.5-3 cups of dip. I had to buy everything for it and the total came out to about: $8.50. Now I have Sriracha, Seasoned Salt, and Cayenne pepper on hand, if you don’t it will be a little more. So this would be great for about 4-6 people and easily doubled for more.

Zesty Crab Dip with Wonton Chips

*Serves 4-6 as an appetizer

(print the recipe)

Ingredients:

For Dip

- 2 6oz cans of crabmeat

- 8oz cream cheese, room temperature

- ½ cup sour cream

- ½ cup scallions, chopped

- 2 teaspoon sriracha

- Two pinches of ground cayenne pepper (optional)

- Ground black pepper, to taste

For Wonton Chips

- Wontons, any amount

- Oil – any kind: EVOO, Veggie, Canola, etc

- Salt

Preparation:

Dip:

1. Remove crab from can, drain, then lightly rinse and press out excess water.

2. In a mixing bowl add all your ingredients and stir to incorporate.

3. Transfer to a heatproof dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

4. Remove from oven, stir and serve.

Wonton Chips:

1. Remove wraps from package and cut diagonally. Cut however many you plan on eating.

2. Separate and place on a baking sheet in a single layer. Lightly (very lightly) brush with oil on both sides.*

3. Bake at 350 for 5-8 minutes until lightly golden brown.

4. Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt to taste.*

 *Both the oil and salt are optional. I liked that it gave it a bit more flavor and chip likeness but you can skip it.

Thoughts:

This dip seemed rather delicate to be honest – in a good way. It wasn’t overpowering, just simple and tasty. The crab had a lovely, subtle flavor, the onions added a good balance to the crab’s sweetness, and the heat hit you nicely at the end. The heat wasn’t too intense, which is what I wanted, but you can always up the level if you choose to. The wonton chips were really interesting. They almost played tricks with your mouth. The first few bites, mine was saying: “Is this a chip? It kind of taste like a chip, but it has the texture of a wonton. What is going on here??” They were really light and not greasy or heavy feeling, even with a tiny amount of oil brushed on them. Sam was right about them being a healthier choice. One ounce of plain wonton wrappers has 0.4 grams of fat and only 82 calories, but adding the oil will add a little more. If you don’t want to use the wonton’s you can substitute crostini, bread, or regular chips, but I think these complimented each other so well that you should really give it a try.