I made it up out of the blue and it's freakin delicious. I don't have an exact recipe, because it's not an exact science. It's my own special wonton. I've always been a fan of the wonton. Not the kind you get in Chinese restaurants where they're twisted into difficult shapes and fried with the most nonexistent little morsel of meat in the middle, but the kind that you would get at Geppetto's in Ashland, Oregon, full of cream cheese and spinach and perfectly golden crispy. I always have to have those when I go there. I mix up the spicy mustard with some honey and dip the wontons in that. It is, quite simply, the bomb.
Of course, I can only have them when I go to Geppetto's, and most of the time, that's 3,000 miles away. So I went on the hunt for wonton skins, which was more difficult in New York than one would think. I finally found them in an awesome little Indian store on Lexington called Kaluyastan's that has every amazing thing you could never find anywhere else. I experimented a couple of times with the wontons. I tried to make the spinach ones, but there was too much oil content. They came out like completely deflated, greasy little triangles. They would have tasted good...if not for the total lack of light, flakey crunch and the fact that they were ugly, flat and glistening.
Darcie made wontons once when I was visiting and I remember them being awesome, so I asked her what she did. She told me she used mostly cream cheese and a little bit of mozerella, but not much. That's when it hit me. The fuckin oil in the monterey jack was ruining the wonton. I'm a real Einstein.
So recently I decided to try again, and to shake it up a bit. Or as Emeril Legasse says, "kick it up a notch."
For a little more than a dozen of Maria's extra special wontons:
About 4 oz. philly cream cheese
About 2 oz. goat cheese
A small pile of part skim Mozzerella (just a few ounces, but I don't remember exactly how much I used)
Thawed wonton skins
a small dish of olive oil or melted butter
Thinly sliced prosciutto (Less than a quarter pound is all you need!)
Mix together softened cream cheese and goat cheese until fluffy. Set aside mozerella. Assemble the wontons by laying down a wonton skin on the cutting board and - imagining that you are going to fold it crosswise into a triangle - place a dollop of the cream and goat cheese mixture on the skin and then top it with a pinch of mozzerella. Take a small piece of prosciutto and lay it like a cap over the little mound of cheese the same way you would see sushi on top of rice. Brush the edges of the wonton skin with a tiny bit of olive oil or melted butter, and fold the wonton into a triangle. Use a fork to seal the edges on both sides. Once you've made a batch of these, heat your oil to frying temperature and fry them to golden brown. Lay them on a paper towel to soak up any excess grease.
They will be golden and crunchy and absolutely delicious. Even Rob likes them and he's not all that fond of goat cheese. Now that I've mastered this, I'm going to have to try the spinach ones again.
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I've been cooking up some good stuff lately. Best of all though was the macaroni and cheese I made on me and Rob's 4th anniversary since our first date. I wanted to make him something he was going to flip for. Then one day, while watching an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown on the Food Network, I learned how to make the best mac and cheese that I've ever personally tasted. I'm going to tell you the recipe, but there is one thing you need to do. Instead of using panko breadcrumbs like he says in this recipe, use roughly chopped garlic croutons to top this dish. They gave it the most amazing crunch and delicious garlicky kick. Robert's eyes just about rolled into the back of his head with ecstacy when he tasted this. We ate every single last bite of leftovers. One other thing, I used a macaroni type noodle called a Pipette instead of the smaller elbow macaroni. The Pipette has the capacity to hold a bit more cheese, which is a beautiful thing.
Baked Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
Alton Brown
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
Topping:
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs (or chopped croutons!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. (Use the croutons! Trust me.) Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.