Recipe: Crab Rangoon

When I lived in Butte, one of my favorite restaurants was Asia Garden.  Situated off in one of the lesser-used entrances to the mall, Asia Garden was one of a small handful of Chinese restaurants in town, and they had the red wall hangings and big round table with the lazy susan to prove it.  While I frequented the restaurant quite frequently with one of my former boyfriends, and later with friends and family, I never figured out the name of the proprietor.

I don't even quite remember my list of "usual" dishes I'd order there, although I vividly remember my now-ex-boyfriend always ordering the sweet-and-sour chicken.  Maybe I ordered sesame chicken.  Or cashew chicken.  I think they had a good rendition of Moo Goo Gai Pan.  The mu shu pork was decent too.  I remember getting wonton soup there a lot, but eventually crossed over to hot-and-sour territory.  But indelibly marked in my mind was the crab rangoon appetizer.  Little triangle-shaped pillows filled with cream cheese, imitation crab, a touch of ginger and the tiniest hint of chives.  Delicious.

I've made them a few times since, always using real crab.  And they are tasty.  I usually prefer a 2:1 ratio of crab to cream cheese, although you can feel free to fiddle with it.

4 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. crab meat (I usually use canned crab)
1 TB. minced ginger
1 tsp. chopped chives
wonton or egg roll wrappers

In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, crab meat, ginger and chives together thoroughly.  Dab a bit of filling in the center of the wrapper, and wrap the wrapper up.  Asia Garden makes these up in triangle forms, where one point of a square-shaped wrapper is brought over to it's opposite point.  But you can make them up in any variety of traditional wonton folds.  Deep fry for a couple minutes, in batches.

Alternatively you can spray a mini-muffin pan with an oil and place a wonton wrap in each cup.  Spoon a spoonful of filling in the center of the wonton wrap, and bake in an 350 degree oven for around 10 minutes.

Backpacking Recipe: Chicken Curry Wrap

Got this from Backpacker Magazine and tried it out this weekend after our trip (it ended up being cold and rainy so we opted to stay in a hotel and have a slightly different adventure around Palm Springs).  It's super-filling and really tasty, so I just know it will work great for when we actually do go backpacking.  It serves two generously.

Before you go, pack in a 1-quart ziploc bag:
1 TB. salted cashews
1 TB. raisins
1/2 TB. curry powder (oooh imagine how awesome this would taste if you made your own curry powder!)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Pack separately:
1 2.5 oz ranch dressing cup (Hidden Valley makes these, you can find them in the regular dressing aisle)
1 foil package of chicken (found near the foil packages of tuna and salmon)
2 tortillas or pitas (we actually filled 3 pitas with this)

When you're ready to eat, add the chicken and ranch dressing to the ziploc bag and mix thoroughly.  Fill the pitas or tortillas with the curry mixture, and eat.

You don't even taste the ranch dressing with this, and there are enough textures and flavors going on that it tastes like "real" food and not reconstituted-in-the-woods food.  I'm almost tempted to see what this would be like heated in camp over rice.