Goal Accompished??

As the week draws to an end, I decided it was time to accomplish this weeks goal of making homemade crab rangoon... Here is my documentation of the experience.

Step 1: Go to walmart and buy necessary ingredients
1 quart oil for deep frying
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 (6 ounce) cans crab meat, drained and flaked
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 (14 ounce) package wonton wrappers

After realizing I had no idea where to find water chestnuts or wonton wrappers and I had officially wandered around the grocery section aimlessly for 20 minutes I decided to call my mom. A nice lady at the store overhead me and pointed me in the right direction. I continued to wander around aimlessly until eventually stumbling across them. And how do you "flake" crabmeat?

Step 2: In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese, crabmeat, garlic powder, paprika and water chestnuts.
First off, I do not have any mixing bowls. However, I do have a very large red bowl, which should do the trick. Second of all, I saw somebodies comment on allrecipes.com which said this recipe had a bit to much crab in it. So I decided to just use 1 of the cans of crab meat. Since I didn't know what flaked meant, I just drained it and poured it in.

Step 5: Place approximately 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture in the center of wonton wrappers. Moisten wrapper edges with water, fold over the mixture and pinch to seal.
Piece of cake! I've got this step down perfectly.

Step 4: In a large, heavy sauce pan heat oil to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Exactly how are you supposed to know how hot oil is? Typically I would do the finger test, but I didn't feel this was appropriate and I wanted to keep all my phalanges. So I turned it on HIGH and left it for a few minutes. I did the water test, it spattered and so I assumed that meant it was hot.

Step 5: In small batches, fry the wontons 3 to 5 minutes, or until golden brown.
Upon putting the first wonton in it started sizzling and immediately turned black! I have proof! Maybe this means it is to hot?


All the sudden my apartment is filled with smoke and I can hardly see. I quickly turn on my vent/fan above my stove, attempt to scoop out the black wonton (of course burning myself) and open the windows and patio door. It looked something like this...


Step 6: Turn Heat Down/Off and repeat Step 5
This time it turned out something like this...


I also made a flower shape...


Step 7: The Ultimate Taste Test
It's time to test the product. Will it be as good as Cathy could make them??


The Outcome/Lesson
After spending approximately $13.71 on groceries to make these crab rangoons, I've come to the realization that I should just stick to buying the ones from the Chinese Restaurant and leave the Rangoon making to the pros. I sit here with a full plate of crab rangoon before me and don't even want to eat them - yes they are that bad. However, the most important lesson I have learned is that apparently my smoke detector doesn't work.