Teem Gok – A Chinese New Year Dessert

January and February were filled with so much revelry. Kevin and I hosted our first Lunar New Year dinner this year and it was a wonderful comedy of errors (well worth its own story someday). I made teem gok–that’s my best romanized Cantonese for deep fried sweet wonton–to supplement store bought desserts supplied by Kevin’s mom. I’ve seen teem gok recipes on the internet that call for dates and other dried fruit as filling, but my family has always stuck by a recipe that’s simple and nutty and crunchy.

Truth be told, my favorite dessert of the night was the red bean neen go which Kevin’s mom suggested I slice into squares, lightly fry, then dust with a bit of sugar. They were so delicious, like pan-fried red bean mochi. Those crispy corners holding the soft chewy red bean cake were Chinese dessert perfection. I’ll leave off an attempt on that one for the next new year.

Teem Gok – Deep Fried Sweet Wonton

Ingredients:

1 cup grated coconut

1 cup raw skinned peanuts, roughly chopped

4 tbsp brown sugar

¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

1 package wonton skins

1 beaten egg or water for sealing1 quart oil for deep-frying

1) Mix together filling ingredients in a small bowl.

2) Take a wonton skin in the palm of your hand, put 1 teaspoon of filling in each wonton skin. With your other hand, dip a finger in your beaten egg or water and line edges of your wonton skin with egg or water.

3) Bring wonton edges together into a triangle or half circle and seal tightly with fingers.

4) Fry in hot oil until golden brown. (Your oil is hot enough when a small piece of potato dropped into the oil fries quickly and floats to the top.) Drain teem gok on paper towels.