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Thai Shrimp Wontons

Thai Shrimp Wontons
  • Prep 60 min
  • Total 60 min
  • Servings 24
Spicy Thai wontons with shrimp and lemongrass, with a coconut dipping sauce.
By The Food in My Beard
Updated November 3, 2014

Ingredients

  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 2 inches ginger
  • 5 Thai chiles
  • 1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass
  • 1 shallot
  • 1 pound shrimp
  • 24 wonton wrappers
  • 8 ounce coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon sambal
  • 1 lime
  • 1 tablespoon cilantro
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 1 teaspoon fish or soy sauce

Steps

  • 1
    In a food processor, make a very fine paste from the garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chiles, shallot, and some fish or soy sauce. Use a little bit of vegetable oil to help it become a nice fine paste.
  • 2
    Cut up the shrimp into a small dice and mix with the paste.
  • 3
    Measure out the shrimp mixture into the wontons and fold them up into little pockets. You can do traditional style wontons, but for these thai syle wontons, I like to fold them up with the top of the shrimp mixture exposed. To do this, place some of the mixture in the center and fold the sides up to form a square. Next bring in the corners to tightly wrap the mixture, still leaving the top open. This is a tricky maneuver, but it becomes easy after you do the first 5 or so.
  • 4
    Steam the wontons.
  • 5
    Mix the coconut milk, sambal, chopped scallions, cilantro, luice from the lime, and some fish or soy sauce over low heat.
  • 6
    Serve the wontons with the coconut dipping sauce.

No nutrition information available for this recipe

  • I first fell in love with Thai food when I was living in Bermuda, at a restaurant called Silk that I frequented often. It was not the most authentic Thai food, but it was a perfect blend of Thai and familiar flavors that a person needs when they first start trying Thai. I often got these little shrimp wontons as an appetizer and always wanted to try my hand at making them at home.

    The main difference between these and most wontons I have had is these were open on top. I’m not sure if this style affected the flavor at all, but what I did know was that they looked really cool! I was feeling a bit nostalgic for the warm evenings of alfresco dining on the Silk patio, so I whipped up a batch of these to bring me back.

    This is a paste of ginger, garlic, lemongrass, shallot, chile, vegetable oil, and fish sauce.

    The paste in with some diced up shrimp.

    Folding the wontons to be open at the top.

    Making these may seem like a project, but there is NOTHING like the satisfaction of having a table full of these ready to be put in the steamer.

    The dipping sauce was simple: some coconut milk, sambal, scallions, cilantro, and lime.

    Classy. These wontons were really tasty! I added a few extra chiles, and kept all the seeds in, so mine were really spicy! If you use the amount in the recipe, and leave out the seeds, they will have a mild-medium kick.

    This did the job of transporting me to those warm Bermuda nights! Now if it would just stop raining here in Boston!

    Dan Whalen sometimes thinks food is just as good as an aeroplane or time machine. Check out his blog at The Food in My Beard; check Dan’s Tablespoon profile often to try his recipes with creative international spins!
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