Restaurant Inspired: Black Bean Wontons with Lemon Cilantro Pesto, Corn Salsa and Prawns

Welcome to our first blog post!

Way back in December, Kristin and I had lunch at a pub in Seattle where we tried an amazing black bean ravioli with prawns and cilantro pesto, and this is our attempt at recreating it.  It turns out black bean ravioli is hard to come by, so we thought we'd make our own using wonton wrappers from the grocery store (which are cheap and delicious).  We also added a little twist by making the cilantro pesto extra lemony, complementing the prawns.  The whole meal turned out fantastic, and we highly recommend trying it out yourself!  It might seem complicated, but each of the steps is actually very easy.  If you do give any of our recipes a try, please let us know how they turned out!

P.S: we're working on getting better at paying attention to measurements, sorry for the approximations this time.

Ingredients:

Black Bean Wontons:
1 package wonton wrappers
1 can black beans, drained
a few tablespoons Parmesan cheese (we used slivered rather than grated)
salt and pepper to taste

Cilantro Pesto:
about 2-3 heads of cilantro, removed from stems
juice of 1/2 a large lemon or 1 small lemon
1/2 cup slivered Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
1 clove garlic

Corn Salsa:
3 roma tomatoes, finely diced
1/3 red onion, finely diced
1 cup yellow frozen corn, defrosted and drained (use fresh if in season)

2/3 lb Prawns or Large Shrimp

To make the corn salsa, simply combine diced tomatoes, diced onion, and corn in a bowl.  Salt and pepper to taste.

To make the cilantro pesto, combine cilantro leaves, garlic and parmesan cheese in a food processor.  Add sufficient olive oil to coat the cilantro.  Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.  Process until blended to a nice pesto texture.  Pesto is pretty subjective, so taste it and feel free to adjust measurements based on what you prefer.

To make the black bean wontons, mash black beans and parmesan together in a mixing bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.


Place about 1 tablespoon of bean mixture in the center of each wonton wrapper.  Moisten 2 adjacent edges of the wonton wrapper with water, and fold the wrapper over so that the wonton makes a triangle.  Seal and crimp the edges of the wonton wrapper with your fingers.

Fry wontons in a large frying pan in oil over medium-high heat, until both sides are browned and crispy.

While the wontons are cooking, preheat the oven to 425 F.  Line a baking sheet with a single, even layer of prawns, and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Bake for around 10 minutes (depending on size of prawns), until the prawns are opaque and pink throughout.

Top black bean wontons with lemon cilantro pesto, corn salsa and prawns, and enjoy!