Chili Oil Wontons

Step 1: Make the Wonton Wrappers

Mix the flour, the salt and most of the warm water into a rough dough, adding the last splash of water a little at a time. Knead it on the counter for 8 to 10 minutes until the surface turns smooth and the dough stops tearing, then knead in the cooking oil. Wrap it and leave it to rest for at least 30 minutes, and this rest is not optional: gluten that has not relaxed will spring back every time you roll it. Roll the dough into a thin sheet, dust it with flour often, and keep turning it so it does not stick to the board. You are aiming for a sheet thin enough that you can see the light through it. Cut it into rounds about 9cm across, dust the rounds with cornstarch so they do not stick together, and set them aside.

Step 2: Season the Pork Filling

Put the ground pork in a bowl with the salt, the Sichuan peppercorn powder, the cooking wine and the cold water. Stir it in one direction for a couple of minutes until the meat turns sticky and starts to look pale and glossy. That stickiness is the difference between a wonton that is juicy and one that is dense with meat, and it comes from the water, not the spice. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes while you make the sauce. This is also the time to toast the peanuts and crush them roughly.

Step 3: Mix the Chili Oil Sauce

In a large bowl, combine the chili oil, the light soy sauce, the black vinegar, the minced garlic, the sesame paste, the sugar and a pinch of Sichuan peppercorn powder. Whisk until the sesame paste loosens and the sauce turns smooth and glossy. Taste it on a plain cracker. It should be aggressively salty, sharply sour and deeply chili at once, because the wontons will soak it up as they sit in the bowl. If the sesame paste makes it too thick, thin it with a spoonful of the hot stock.

Step 4: Wrap the Wontons

Set a small bowl of water beside your wrappers, because a damp finger seals the edges far better than a dry one. Put a teaspoon of filling in the center of a wrapper, fold it into a triangle, then bring the two side corners together and pinch them firmly. Keep the wontons small, no bigger than a thumb, because the point is to get a dozen of them into one bowl. If your homemade wrappers are as thin as they should be, work quickly and do not overfill, or the filling will push through the seams. Dust them lightly with cornstarch and set them on a floured plate so they do not stick together while you wrap the rest.

Step 5: Boil the Wontons

Bring a pot of water to a full rolling boil and lower the wontons in. They will sink at first, then float within about 90 seconds, and the wrappers will turn from opaque to glistening and slightly translucent. Give them one more minute after they float, then pull them out. Overcooked wontons turn rubbery, and the filling turns dry, so watch the clock rather than the clock watch. Use a slotted spoon to lift them out and let them drain for a few seconds.

Step 6: Build the Bowl and Serve

Stir the chili oil sauce again, since the sesame paste will have settled, and ladle it into two serving bowls. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of the hot chicken stock to each bowl and stir: the stock is not there to make it a soup, it is there to turn the sauce from a paste into something that coats and slips. It should still look like a shallow pool of chili oil with chili flakes suspended in it. Slide the drained wontons into the bowls, let them sit for a minute so they drink the sauce, then finish with the chopped scallion, the crushed peanuts, the white sesame seeds and the cilantro, and one last thread of chili oil. Serve immediately, while the oil is still hot and the wrappers are still soft. Eat them with chopsticks, one at a time, dipping each wonton to pick up the chili oil and the peanuts that have settled at the bottom of the bowl.

Tips

• Roll the dough until you can see light through it. A thick wrapper is a heavy wrapper, and you lose the contrast between the soft filling and the delicate skin that makes this dish work.
• Let the dough rest at least 30 minutes before rolling. Gluten that has not relaxed fights you at every pass of the rolling pin and springs back to a thick oval.
• Stir the filling in one direction until it turns sticky. That is the only way to get a wonton that releases juice when you bite it, and it takes two minutes of firm stirring.
• Keep the wontons small. A dozen thumb-sized wontons per bowl is right, and a bigger wonton just means more wrapper and less filling.
• Fry the chili oil, do not pour it from a bottle. Hot oil poured over garlic and chili flakes turns raw garlic sweet and carries the aroma far better than ready-made oil.
• Taste the sauce on a cracker before the wontons go in. It should be a little too salty and too sour on its own, because the wrappers will pull it back.
• Add the toppings last and serve at once. The peanuts go soft and the scallion goes limp if they sit in the hot oil, and half the pleasure of this dish is the crunch.
• Add extra chili oil at the table rather than in the bowl. You can always make it hotter, but you cannot take it back.

FAQ

What are chili oil wontons? Small pork dumplings from Chongqing and Sichuan, served in a sauce made almost entirely from chili oil with soy sauce, black vinegar, garlic and Sichuan pepper. The Chinese name, hong you, means red oil, and the color of the sauce should be a deep brick red.
Do I have to make the wrappers from scratch? No. Thirty ready-made wonton wrappers work perfectly, and this recipe rolls its own only because the thin skin is the point. If you buy them, look for the thinnest ones you can find and keep the filling to a teaspoon.
Can I make the wrappers ahead? Yes. The dough keeps for two days wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator, and rolled sheets freeze flat for a month with a sheet of baking paper between each layer.
Why does the dough need to rest? Resting relaxes the gluten and hydrates the flour, so the dough rolls out without springing back. Thirty minutes is the minimum, and an hour gives you noticeably thinner sheets.
Can I use store-bought wontons? Yes, and they work well. Boil them straight from frozen if they are fresh-chilled, or from boiling water if they are frozen solid, adding about a minute either way.
How spicy is this dish? Quite. The heat comes from the chili oil and the numbing tingle from the Sichuan peppercorn, and both are easy to scale back. Use half the chili oil and pour more in at the table if you want it milder.
Can I make it vegetarian? Yes. Replace the pork with chopped shiitake mushrooms, firm tofu and a little more water, and add a spoonful of vegetarian stock. The rest of the bowl stays exactly the same.
Is this dish healthy? It is rich in oil and salt by design. To lighten it, use half the chili oil, add more vinegar for the sourness, skip the sesame paste and double the peanuts, and serve it with a large side of cucumber and greens.