Quick home cooking: Thanksgiving gau gee
Chef Will Chen recently posted a fun snack on his instagram: gau gee filled with Thanksgiving stuffing and cranberries, accompanied by gravy for dipping. BRILLIANT.
He said I could make it, too, and I was highly skeptical. How could I possibly fry gau gee if I don’t have a large pot? Should I buy an air fryer? I don’t make Thanksgiving turkey; how would I make a proper stuffing?
As a chef, Will can make a lot of amazing and creative dishes on the fly like this. He loved getting my “home cook” questions and decided to turn it into a teaching moment, and showed me how to make my own gau gee without having to buy any new equipment.
Will doctored his Stove Top stuffing with mirepoix, but he said that you can customize your stuffing any way you want to make it taste like the kind you’re used to. Just make sure you chop the ingredients small, so they don’t protrude out of the won ton skin. You can add as many or as little cranberry raisins as you like.
As for gravy, he made his own from scratch; you can buy gravy if you want. This is meant to be a fun Thanksgiving snack, not a culinary masterpiece (although it is). Also you’ll see that we used gravy as the sealer for the gau gee. Traditionally, you might use water or an egg wash; I thought the gravy did a much better job.
I had not made won ton in decades, and was surprised at how easily I fell back into it. I am still conservative with how much I fill my dumplings, too! I’m always afraid to overfill my won ton skins for fear of breaking them, but you can see that Will fills his all the way to the edges. What a fun and delicious way to bring back memories of mass won ton making in my popo’s kitchen.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Let me know if you customize your gau gee.
