Part Two: Wontons

I came home on Friday evening in the mood to cook. I opened the fridge to find pork chops--lots of them. It rarely occurs to me to buy pork, so I don't know many ways of preparing it well. I opened up The Best Recipes in the World and looked up "pork" in the index. 30 seconds later, I had my answer--a Chinese pork and asparagus stir-fry with a starter course of pork wontons. The stir-fry, I have to be honest, was nothing special. The wontons, however, were fabulous, and they opened up new vistas of dumpling-making that I fully intend to explore.

I picked up the wonton wrappers from the supermarket. (Homemade wrappers? Not likely to see those in the near future.) I ground up one thick, lean pork chop in our trusty Braun blender/slicer/dicer, added some scallions here, some soy sauce there, a drop of sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and that was about it.

I folded the wontons up the way the pictures-only directions seemed to suggest, only to find out after having cooked and eaten them all, that I had interpreted the diagrams incorrectly. That is why Ashkon deciphers Ikea instructions in our house rather than me. Anyway, no harm done. After folding they got a quick pan fry, and then 5 more minutes in a covered skillet to steam them through. A little soy dipping sauce on the side, and you've got a tasty appetizer. They began disappearing before I even managed to take a photo to record this wonton milestone.