Fiesta Rangoon

I had to share this recipe right away with Super Bowl Sunday right around the corner. I'm sure you've mostly all heard of crab Rangoon before. It's a tasty staple on the appetizer page of many Chinese restaurants. It's the perfect combination of light and crispy wonton wrappers filled with a creamy mixture of imitation crab (what IS that stuff anyways?!?) and cream cheese. Fancy places might add some chives and serve them up with a sweet and sour sauce. But what about all those people who would love the idea of this appetizer, less the crab, fake or not?

Because I'm such a kind, loving and caring wife, I always wonder to myself "WWSE?" - what would Steve eat? For those of you who don't know, until he met me, lived with me even, my husbands diet consisted mostly of a few main food groups, none of which were "weird".  We're getting places in trying to get Steve to try new things, but I always have to keep a few plain things in my arsenal just for him.  And then it dawned on me - Fiesta Rangoon.

Ok, so I don't know what part of the crab Rangoon is really Rangoon but for the sake of recipes, we're gonna go with it.  This recipe has all the great qualities of the crab Rangoon; the warm, creamy inside, the crispy wonton skin, the texture- but it's missing the crab for any of you plainer eaters.

It starts with a filling of cream cheese, salsa and Mexican blended cheese and finished with a Mexican inspired sweet and sour sauce.

Fiesta Rangoon

Yield - 20

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 c chunky salsa (for these I used a pineapple peach salsa, you can use whatever you have on hand)

1 c Mexican blended cheese

Small package of wonton skins

Cream together cream cheese and salsa until well blended and a light salmon color. Add cheese and mix. Heat enough oil in a deep fry pan so that there is approximately one inch of oil. Place wonton skins so they form a diamond. Add one small teaspoon of mixture to wrapper and fold in half to make a triangle. Fold in two outer corners so wonton is house shaped. Add filled wontons to heated oil, cook until browned on one side, approximately 2-3 minutes, turn and cook other side until browned. Remove and drain on paper towel.

*I tried wrapping these a few different ways ranging from rectangular pockets to traditional looking crab Rangoon that's neatly bundled up. I found that this technique worked best to avoid too much leakage haha.

Sauce

Jalapeño jelly (found usually at specialty stores)
Sweet and sour sauce
1 tsp cumin

Combine equal parts jelly and sweet and sour.


These can easily be made ahead of time and reheated in the oven. The crisp up just as well as when they were made fresh! Preheat oven to 350 degrees and heat for 10-15 minutes.