By Julia Westhoff

When it’s this hot and steamy outside I like to invite friends over for cold beer and Thai food. Generally I’ll make a red chicken curry, a salad, and one or two fried things. I’m not usually into frying things at home, but homemade crab rangoon is so easy and soooo much better than what you can find in our local restaurants. I learned the tricks of the trade from one of my best friends, Jamie Wu. Her family owned a Chinese restaurant growing up, and she shared one of their little known secrets: You know how sometimes you’ll get crab rangoon, only it doesn’t really taste like crab? Well, that might be because they actually use shredded carrots to stand in for the crab meat. (Clever, huh?)

Anyways, this crab rangoon (which actually calls for real crab) is truly delicious. Warning: it’s kind of insane how many of these people will eat. I recently made 35 of them for four adults and a kid, and they were gone within minutes. I serve these with a prepared sweet chili sauce that I’ve doctored up with some vinegar and soy sauce.

Recipe’s after the jump.

Crab Rangoon

Ingredients
1 (6 ounce) can crabmeat
6 ounces cream cheese, room temp
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
Worcestershire sauce to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash white pepper
Wonton skins, room temp (this recipe will use between 30-40)
1 beaten egg
Oil for frying

Directions:
1. Combine first 6 ingredients.
2. Brush beaten egg on edges of wonton wrapper and spoon 1/2 teaspoon
of filling into center.
3. Fold edges, squeezing out any trapped air.
4. Deep fry at 350º until golden brown and crispy.
5. Blot on paper towels.