It’s basically just cream cheese and chopped crab in a fried dumpling. It’s greasy, it’s unhealthy and it’s really delicious… if properly prepared.
We got a recipe from our friend Joahn. She’s the one here near the microwave oven. She gave the basic recipe but not the details which is good because it means I'll have to improvise (bwahahahaha!)
This is her recipe:
Mix crab, cream cheese and onion leaves. Use a spoon to measure how much filling will be put into the Rangoon wrapper (less is better since so you close it better). Use the egg as a sealant along the edge of the wrapper. Since it’s a square wrapper, folding it will make it a triangle. Deep fry.
When I finally prepared the dish, Jaye told me to tell Joahn that we’ve tried out her recipe. I say we don’t just tell her...
We got a recipe from our friend Joahn. She’s the one here near the microwave oven. She gave the basic recipe but not the details which is good because it means I'll have to improvise (bwahahahaha!)
This is her recipe:
Mix crab, cream cheese and onion leaves. Use a spoon to measure how much filling will be put into the Rangoon wrapper (less is better since so you close it better). Use the egg as a sealant along the edge of the wrapper. Since it’s a square wrapper, folding it will make it a triangle. Deep fry.
When I finally prepared the dish, Jaye told me to tell Joahn that we’ve tried out her recipe. I say we don’t just tell her...
we show her.
Step 1: Gather ingredients.
This was fairly easy since there was a Jewel-Osco supermarket two blocks away from our apartment and I bought a can of chopped crabs from there. As for onions and cream cheese, we already have those in our pantry.
Step 2: Uh, did she say onions or green onions?
Darn, I forgot the recipe called for green onions and not regular onions but aren’t green onions just onions that have already sprouted? Just place the onions in a drawer and wait a couple of days and you get this poor man’s green onion. I was about to chop them but they looked nasty while I was washing them. Hmmm, better ditch the onions, white or green.
Step 3: Mix!
Mix one can of chopped crab with whatever’s left in your Philadelphia Cream Cheese plastic container (no really, I never measure stuff). Mix them until they look like oatmeal.
Step 4: Wrap!
Take out your lumpia wrapper and place a teaspoon full of filling in the middle.
Beat an egg (yawn)
Fold the wrapper and use the egg as a sealant. No one told me how to fold it so I folded it like an envelope.
...and I learned that was wrong. I had to Google another method of folding dumplings and found this one: crane-style!
Step 5: Deep Fry!
Plop the dumplings into hot oil and watch disaster unfold. I made 15 dumplings and...
4 dumplings blew a hole and spilled cream cheese into the oil
3 were stuffed with too much crab that it unfolded while deep frying
8 were burnt to a crisp
As you’ve probably figured by now, I have no idea how to deep fry food. It turns out these things cook really really fast. All dumplings were dark brown and the cooked oil turned black thanks to all the charred remains of the wrapper.
At least they were edible. The recipe was good, the cook was just nuts.
Step 5: Deep Fry!
Plop the dumplings into hot oil and watch disaster unfold. I made 15 dumplings and...
4 dumplings blew a hole and spilled cream cheese into the oil
3 were stuffed with too much crab that it unfolded while deep frying
8 were burnt to a crisp
As you’ve probably figured by now, I have no idea how to deep fry food. It turns out these things cook really really fast. All dumplings were dark brown and the cooked oil turned black thanks to all the charred remains of the wrapper.
At least they were edible. The recipe was good, the cook was just nuts.
