Finger Food

Well I’ve done it.  I have finally done it.  I have finally gotten so gungho while chopping veggies that I removed the tip of my left index finger.

It frakking HURTS.  Also there’s a hefty amount of blood.  So I’m not too sure when I’ll be up to full slayer power but thankfully over the weekend I did tons of cooking so I should be able to keep the blog full for days despite my battle injury.  I work with fungal spores and bacteria so I’m also taking a few days off to 1) Heal 2) Medicate 3) Avoid any chance of secondary infection.  I’m going to try to do a half day tomorrow but I’m not sure how much use I will be.

In any event I can lay in bed or on the couch watching a new show that I’ll get addicted to and popping these delicious Artichoke Wontons like candy with my aspirin. There was a huge sale at the Nugget over the weekend–39 cents a piece!  I bought up about 8 of the delicious African native thistle and harvested the chokes.  Did you know that they have been found to reduce your bad cholesterol load while increasing the High Density Lipoprotein (aka HDL or good cholesterol) load?  So enjoy this delicious **finger food** recipe–Hahaha get it?  Finger?  Aw you just don’t appreciate my awesomely lame puns!

Artichoke and Feta Wontons

Adapted from Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here for the Food”

olive oil (I used grapeseed)

1 package wonton wrappers

8 fresh artichoke hearts

1 4 oz container crumbled traditional feta cheese

1 cup just barely blanched spinach

2 tablespoons scallions, finely chopped

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 cups homemade chicken broth

water

Preheat the oven to 200ºF.

Heat the broth and keep warm.  You can use a tea kettle for this, a hot plate or a saucepan; it really doesn’t matter.

Combine artichokes, feta, spinach, scallions, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.  I ran this through the food processor on just three pulse settings and it work.  Otherwise be sure to finely chop everything prior to combining.

Open the package of wonton wrappers and lay out a wonton wrapper on a dry surface.

Brush the edges with some water, place a heaping teaspoon of your artichoke mixture  and fold up the wontons.   Place your filled wontons to the side and keep them covered with a damp washcloth so they don’t dry out while you fill the rest.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Once hot, drizzle some enough oil to just lightly coat the bottom of the pan–in fact you can just add a teaspoon and brush to cover the pan.  Once the oil starts to smoke toss in the wontons and fry about a minute or two on each side.  You’ll have to go by feel, you want them to get brown and crisp but not burn.  After you are satisfied splash in just a little of the hot chicken broth, enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and cook until the liquid evaporates.  This took me about 2-3 minutes.  I made 4 big batches and used about a fourth of the cup each time.  Remove the wontons and keep in the warm oven until ready to serve.