Feast from the East

When Jason and I eat sushi, we usually share 3-4 rolls.  Recently, we've really gotten into ordering edamame when we're at a sushi place, too.  Jason calls them a salt-delivery food.  I bite my tongue not to mention the fact that they're 1) a green food (which he claims he universally hates) or 2) super good for you (which is enough to make him turn away from an otherwise delicious food).

I knew my sister Jill ate edamame at home, so I asked her about it and purchased steam-in-the-bag edamame from the freezer section of my grocery store.  Put in the microwave, cook for 5 minutes, open bag and sprinkle with salt (we did sea salt).  Yum!

Now what to go with it?  I know we could have had edamame with anything, but I wanted to keep with the Asian theme and make crab rangoons again.  They're inexpensive and mighty tasty!

How to Make Crab Rangoons:

Step 1: Mix 1 package of cream cheese (or neufchatel, which is what I use), 1 small package of imitation crab meat, and 4-6 sliced green onions (only the white and light green parts) to a bowl.  Mix.  Season with salt and pepper.  (I wish I had added a few more onions and maybe a splash of soy sauce to make a bolder flavor)

Step 2: Add the mixture to wontons.  Finding the wontons may be tricky.  We've yet to find them in our grocery store.  Lucky for us, there's an Asian market just a few miles away.  A quick drive and $2 well worth it.

Watch your portions of cream cheese mixture.  You don't want these buddies to blow up in the fryer.  I used a heaping 1/2 teaspoon for each wonton.  Get a small bowl of water and wet one finger.  Wet each of the edges and pinch together.  This is how I choose to do mine... little different than most restaurants.

Now they're ready to go in the fryer.  We have a deep fryer that we use.  I'm sure a deep skillet would work just as well.  Cook for 1 minute at 365F, then flip (Jason uses chopsticks, which seem to work better than any other tool) and cook another minute.  Drain on paper towels.

Yum yum yum yum yum!!!  One package of cream cheese really makes a lot (like up to 40!), so you may want to cut the recipe in half.  It does take some effort (start to finish took us about an hour), but it's something fun we do a couple times a year.  Feast from the East night... we may have to make this a tradition!