Wantán frito, Peruvian fried wontons with sweet and sour sauce

Ingredients

• 500 g of wonton wrappers
• 250 g of meat (beef, pork, or poultry) or seafood
• 2 Chinese onion strainers (also known as “cébettes”)
• A pinch of glutamate (Ajinomoto)
• salt and black pepper
• oil for deep frying
• sugar roux
• Ketchup
• 1 cinnamon stick
• One characteristic of red wine vinegar
• 1 drop of soy sauce (sillao)
• 1 ½ tablespoons of chuño (potato starch) per 500 ml of sauce
• Lime juice
• 1 ají amarillo pepper, julienned

On a cutting board, finely chop the meat with a knife, along with some shallots, then season with salt, glutamate, and pepper. Mix well and set aside in a bowl.

Prepare a cup of water and a small spoon. Place a small amount of filling at the tip of a square of dough, roll it up a little before the middle, then gently pinch the dough around the filling, like a ravioli, using the handle of the spoon, which has been dipped in water, to moisten the dough.

Fry the wontons in a pan of hot oil: they cook very quickly. Drain them on paper towels.

For the sauce, bring a small saucepan of very sweet water, a cinnamon stick, a generous amount of ketchup, a splash of vinegar, and soy sauce to a boil.

Bring to a boil, then add the chuño, which has been diluted in a small amount of cold water, stirring constantly to prevent clumping. Continue to cook until the sauce, which initially appears milky, becomes translucent.

Just before removing from the heat, add the lime juice and the julienned ají amarillo. Remove the cinnamon and serve the sauce hot with the wontons.