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Elk wontons
A different spin on a conventional recipe
By Dustin Mitchell
Wildlife Biologist
Southeastern Region
My family and I love hunting, and we love consuming what we harvest. We also love Chinese food, particularly wontons, so we tried a few variations and found we really enjoy this wonton recipe with elk burger.
It's always fun for me to use game meat to put a different spin on conventional recipes. Wontons, for instance, are a traditional Chinese dumpling filled with meat — most often pork. So, when my wife Danielle harvested a cow elk last season on the La Sal Mountains, we processed most of it into burger and used it to experiment on a lot of recipes, including this one.
Anyway, it's something a little different that everybody in my family loves.
Ingredients
For the meat filling
- 1 lb. of elk burger (I like to use a ratio of 70% elk meat to 30% pork suet)
- 1 package of cream cheese
- 2 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon of ginger
- 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
- ½ of a medium sweet onion (finely diced)
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper
- 1 tablespoon of Montreal steak seasoning
- 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
For the skins
- 1 package of wonton wrappers
- 1 egg white mixed with ¼ teaspoon of cold water
For cooking
- 2–3 cups of cooking oil (e.g., vegetable oil, canola oil, etc.)
Directions
Step 1:
Place the elk burger and other ingredients for the meat filling in a medium-sized bowl. Mix thoroughly.
Step 2:
Lay as many of the wonton wrappers as you can on a cookie sheet.
Step 3:
Brush the edges of the wrappers with the egg white and water mixture.
Step 4:
Put approximately one tablespoon of the meat filling in the middle of the wrappers. Then fold the wrappers in half, forming a triangle. Be sure to seal the edges of the wrappers together with the egg white/water mixture by pressing and rubbing it along the edges.
Step 5:
Using a large pot on your stovetop, preheat about 2 to 3 cups of cooking oil to approximately 300 degrees.
Step 6:
Drop as many wrapped wontons into the pot of boiling cooking oil as you can fit. Cook the wantons in the pot for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. To ensure both sides are the same color, use tongs to periodically flip the wontons.
Step 7:
Once the wontons are fully cooked, scoop them out of the pot and lay them on a baking pan lined with paper towels.
Step 8:
Wait a few minutes for the wontons to cool, then serve, preferably with rice. I also like to dip them in sweet and sour sauce.
Enjoy!
