In case you are wondering why I have no picture for you, it’s because twice I made these, twice I served them to guests to give me feedback on my new recipe with the warning not to eat them all because I still needed a picture, and twice I turned around about 3 minutes later to see an empty plate where my wontons should be.

“Hey!,” I exclaim, “You were not supposed to eat them all before I took a picture!” The individual who swiped the last one chews more quietly, looking anywhere but at me. I sigh, “Never mind, I’ll make another batch later….” Except the spousal unit drank the last of the tequila and the rest of my pineapple went into a pineapple-blueberry wonton so it’s going to be awhile before I make these again. Given how delectable they are, I figured I had better share the recipe before your next party.

Tequila-Habanero Spiced Pineapple Wontons

Ingredients

• 1 cup pineapple chunks
• 1 habanero pepper, finely diced
• 1 cup tequila (The best you can afford)
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 small, red onion, diced
• 2 tbsp cilantro, diced
• 1/2 pkg wonton wrappers
• 1 egg, beaten

Prep

• Finely dice the habanero pepper. Add your pineapple chunks to a small tupperware container and add the tequila and diced pepper. Cover and give the mixture a shake to make sure its distributed. Let the pineapple soak for a few hours. You can even leave these soaking for a few days if you want a stronger flavor.
• Once your pineapple is ready, extract the chunks and finely dice them. Set aside.
• Place your softened cream cheese in a medium bowl, and using a hand mixer, whip until soft and fluffy.
  If you are unfamiliar with whipping cream cheese, start the blades on slow and circle around a few times. The cheese will start to cling to the blades. Put the speed to high and beat against the side of the bowl in a circular motion and the cheese will come loose as it becomes soft and whipped.
• Finely dice your onion and cilantro.
• Add the diced pineapple, cilantro, and onion to the cream cheese. You should also add in the diced habanero from the marinade. Combine and stir with a rubber spatula until you have a well blended mixture.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lay out your wonton wrappers. Start with 12 wrappers.
• Beat your egg in a small bowl and set aside.
• Place approx 1 tbsp of the mixture into the dead center of the wrapper.
  Use any manner of deep breathing techniques and chanting of ‘a little dab will do ya’ to resist the urge to add larger and larger globs of filling to the wontons. It will look like you didn’t put enough, but I promise it’s correct. The filling expands in the heat and will burst your wonton open.
• Dip your finger in the egg and trace around the edge of each wonton. Fold the sides into an X and pinch together to seal.
• Spray a little non-stick on a cookie sheet and transfer the wontons. Make sure they are evenly spaced apart.
• Bake the wontons for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden and crisp.
• Serve immediately.

What do you recommend as a dipping sauce? 

I can’t figure this part out. The flavors are so fusion. Do you want spicy? Do you want sweet? Do you want an asian sauce or a salsa? I offered 2 options and what I noticed is that my taste testers had very different preferences when they tried each sauce and then just started popping them in their mouth, sans sauce, at an increasingly rapid pace. Here’s what I made for your experimenting pleasure.

• 1 part soy, 1 part Sriracha, 1 part sesame oil, 1 pinch sesame seeds
•  Chili de Arbol Salsa Roja

If you want to offer something with sweet notes, maybe you can rock a ponzu? If you try that, let me know how it goes!

Warning: Make sure you hold back one or two wontons before you serve these or you may find yourself lost in a godzilla-like rage similar to what we all feel when someone eats the last spring roll without asking if anyone else wanted it.

~Nom On