Tuna Rangoon, a Wine Review: Alice White Red Lexia and a New Toy

First I want to talk about the tuna rangoon. Sounds weird, right? This is one of the things I've done with those wonton wrappers. I'm not really a big crab fan, so I've never had crab rangoon. But I like the concept of something mixed with cream cheese, wrapped in a wonton wrapper and deep fried. And I happened to have a can of tuna and a tub of Alouette. For those who don't know, Alouette is a smooth cheese spread kind of thing, like soft cream cheese with herbs in it. I like the garlic and herb one the best, but they have other flavors too. And that's all the pimping they're going to get without sending me some free stuff. Heh.

I took about a quarter cup of it and a can of drained tuna, mixed it together and plopped a tablespoon or so onto some thinly rolled wrapped dough. Not sure why I cut the dough... but then I deep fried it. And it was awesome. The filling was creamy and delicious and the wrapper was crackly on the outside but with a little chew on the inside. I will be making them again.

Next up is my new toy. I was tapped to select a wine type for the Bakespace Wine Club a couple months ago and for doing so Babs (she's the head honcho over at Bakespace and a member of the wine club) sent me a Penguin Corkscrew. When I heard I was getting a Penguin corkscrew I was thrilled, of course, but I didn't realize what it was. I thought it was a corkscrew shaped like a penguin. Heh, wrong. It's a wicked fancy pants dealie. I love it, I just used it for the first time the other night and it works great. Thanks Babs! And since I haven't done a wine review in months, here's what I opened with it, as always in the Bakespace Wine Club format.

Name: Alice White Red Lexia
Price: 6.99
Year: 2006

Short intro from the wine maker about the wine: Red Lexia is a sweet, lusciously red wine with a crisp, refreshing finish that is delightful chilled. Give it a go on it's own or with spicy Thai and Indian dishes or light desserts like fruit tarts and almond cookies.
Review: First off, let's not have any misconceptions here. This is not wine. It is candy. Details? Ok. It's smell is very fruity, peach, red berries and plums. Tastes like it too, although mostly plums. I'm not sure they even used grapes to make it. Despite the number of flavors it's not a powerful taste, which is a double edged sword I guess. Very smooth and sweet with a clean finish. Doesn't really taste like wine. Where was this stuff when I was a teenager? I enjoyed it, but not in a "I'm going to buy this for myself" kind of way, more a "my girlfriend didn't drink her wine coolers and I don't feel like going to the store" kind of way.
Would you buy again?: Maybe, if I'm doing a fruit something.
Wine Pairing Ideas/Recipes: Fruit and lots of it. I bet it would be good with trifle, maybe even in a whipped cream or a reduction for a dessert. I actually ate meatball Lean Pockets with it and it went surprisingly well. But I think part of it is that it's flavor isn't terribly assertive. I could see eating it with spicy foods.

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Homemade Wonton Wrappers

1 egg
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 to 1/2 cup water (or more)

-Beat the egg with the salt and a 1/4 cup water.
-Put the flour in a mixing bowl, make a well and add the egg and water mixture.
-Mix it as much as you can with a spoon.
-Add as much water as you need to get a dough.
-Knead for a couple minutes, until it forms a smooth, pliable dough.
-Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for a half hour.
-Roll small (about thumb sized) pieces very thin on a well floured surface or use a pasta machine.
-Use it for whatever you wanted wonton wrappers for. Store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.
(I got the recipe from here)

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Ok, I know I had said I was going to post about that casserole this week. But I'm wicked excited about making my own wonton wrappers, so it's getting posted first and that's just the way it's going to happen.

I decided to make them kind of spur of the moment. My girlfriend is away for a few days, so I'm bored. Which usually means I make some kind of bread, since it takes some time. I don't know if wonton wrappers really count as bread, but the concept is the same. There's kneading and resting and all that. Now, I had always heard that making wonton wrappers was hard, but I didn't think it was that bad at all. I think the main issue people have is getting them as thin as they want and I'll admit that's a problem. But I just let them be a little thick and didn't worry about it. It made them a bit chewy, but I liked it fine. If you have a pasta machine you can get them really thin, but I don't have one. They're one of those things I'd love to have but just don't really have the room for. Anyway, rambling aside, wonton wrappers are easy. You should make some. Here's how.

Take an egg, three quarters of a teaspoon of salt and a quarter cup of water and beat them together. Put two cups of flour into a bowl and make a well in the center. Add the egg mixtureand mix it together as well as you can with a spoon. It will look really dry. That's because it needs more water. I'm sure it's my keen grasp of these kinds of details that keeps you guys coming back. Heh. I wound up adding almost another quarter of a cup. That turned it into a lump of sticky dough. I left it sticky since I would be working more flour into it as I kneaded. Which is what came next. It took a few minutes (maybe as many as five like the recipe called for, but I don't think quite that long) before it turned into a good, firm, cohesive dough. The dough is firmer than bread dough, so it's a little tougher to knead, but you don't have to do it for as long. Now you just cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for a half hour. What you get is a soft, pliable but not very elastic dough. This means you can roll it out but it doesn't snap back much. I just cut chunks the size of my thumb off and rolled them out as thin as I felt like. I just barely made this stuff today and the thing I had planned kind of fell through, so I haven't done too much with it yet. But I did make a little something that I'll show you. I rolled out a chunk of dough and put a big chunk of pepper jack cheese on it. Then I just rolled it up and twisted the ends like a tootsie roll wrapper. And deep fried it. This is the first time I have ever deep fried anything. It was wicked good. A little ham and mustard in there would have been nice. I'm going to do some actual Asian style stuff with the dough too, I just need a little time to get the stuff together. But I still have a bunch of the dough left and several days of only cooking for myself ahead of me.

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