Creamy Wantons and Sweet Chili Sauce

Hello Fellow World Foodies!!

This was such a good find on Pinterest. I pinned it probably a couple of months ago, but just had not had time to do it. FYI mine totally did not turn out like the picture but I can guarantee that they were just as tasty if not more! Steve and I were looking for something tasty for dinner and decided to look through my Pinterest board, and came across this delight.

We used this for appetizers however there was plenty of enough to make them a meal. So the extras we put in to fridge for the next day's lunch. And even though you fry them, we placed them in the oven at 350 for a couple of minutes and were just as delicious.

As we were making these tasty treats I was thinking how great it would be if we had a sweet chili sauce to dip them in. I always enjoy that sweet/ spicy taste, on top of a creamy cheesy wanton...who can go wrong really? So being the handy dandy person I am, I googled a recipe and gave a shot! So this blog is a double duo! I hope these two things bring you as much joy in your home as they did for us.

First recipe up is the Spinach and Cheese Wanton! Thanks to Jinkzz's Kitchen for this recipe! We fried them up in a pan. Be CAREFUL if you are going to fry them up! Not sure if you know this, but when you add things to hot oil it typically pops back at you! So just be weary! I am sure you could bake these as well maybe at 400 for 10 minutes or until they turned brown. I also think if you replaced the ricotta with just cream cheese it would be just as good! We aren't huge ricotta fans, so I think that will be our next venture as well with adding mushrooms.

Ingredients

1 box (10 oz) Frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Large size wonton wrappers
oil for frying 
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste


1. In a bowl, placed squeeze-dried spinach. Fluff them up to loosen.
2. Add cream cheese and ricotta cheese. Mix well.
3. Season with salt and pepper according to your taste.
4. To wrap: Take a teaspoon full of the filling and place it in the middle of the wonton wrappers. Gather the corners to create a pouch. Take small stips of the cut wonton and use it to tie the corners together. Be careful not to break the tie.  (I folded mine like a package, didn't have enough wanton to tie corners together)

5. Do this until all the filling has been used. 
6. Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot, place a few of the pouch and fry until golden in color. NOTE: Fry only a few at a time so as not to lower the oil temperature and not to overcrwod the pan.
7. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain excess oil.
8. Transfer to a serving platter and serve warm.


So when I searched for the sweet chili sauce, a lot of different options came up, but this blog called SheSimmers seemed to be the most reasonable and useful one considering that I did not have to run back out to the store to buy more products to make it! Instead of using fresh peppers I used Red Pepper Flakes. Also due to a lack of a blender or food processor, I grated my garlic on a cheese grater, which if you opted for the fresh peppers you could do as well.

I am not sure how long this sauce stays good for, so we places it in the freezer have heated it back up in the microwave for other dishes! Trust me you wont be lead a stray!! Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 red Jalapeño or Serrano peppers, deseeded (See note #1 below.)
• ¼ cup white distilled vinegar
• ½ cup sugar
• ¾ cup water
• ½ tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch or potato starch (See note #2 below.)
• 2 tablespoons water

Instructions

1. In the blender, purée together all the ingredients, except for the last two.
2. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to medium and simmer until the mixture thickens up a bit and the garlic-pepper bits begin to soften, about 3 minutes.
3. Combine the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and continue to simmer one more minute. The cornstarch will help the sauce to thicken slightly thereby causing nice suspension of the garlic-pepper bits; otherwise, you get a thin sauce with all the little pieces floating on the surface.
4. Let cool completely before storing in a glass jar and refrigerate.

***Side note***I have decided to format my blog in a different way, with the pictures down the side. I have noticed that when I am reading other's blogs with instructions and they have pictures along the way its a bit hindering, because I need the instructions more than I need the pictures. Do you like it? Or is it better the other way?