Camp Wontons
Seasoned beef and beans wrapped in wonton skins and fried in a skillet at the picnic table.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 5, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 50 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 1 lb | |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 large | chopped at home, carried in a bag |
| Green pepper | 1/2 cup | chopped |
| Refried beans | 1 can | |
| Shredded cheddar | 1/2 cup | |
| Ketchup | 2 tbsp | |
| Chili powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Wonton skins | 4 dozen | |
| Cooking oil | enough for 1/2 inch in the skillet | |
| Salsa or taco sauce | to serve |
Method
- Brown the beef with the onion and pepper in a large skillet. Break the meat up as it cooks.
- Move the meat and vegetables to a bowl. Stir in the refried beans, ketchup, chili powder, and garlic powder until it holds together in a spoon.
- Wipe the skillet clean of grease, then pour in half an inch of oil and set it back over the heat. It is ready when a scrap of wonton skin sizzles on contact.
- Lay out a wonton skin. Put 1 to 2 tsp of filling in the middle and a pinch of cheddar on top. Fold the near corner over, fold the two side corners in, and roll it up. Wet the last corner with a finger dipped in water and press it shut.
- Fry six at a time, 30 to 40 seconds a side, until the skins go brown and blistered. Pull them onto a plate lined with a paper towel.
- Keep the oil hot between batches and serve with salsa.
This is car-camp food, not pack food. Half an inch of hot oil and forty-eight individual wraps means a table, a chair, and someone else on dish duty. The payoff is that the filling does the hard work at home: chop the onion and pepper in your kitchen, measure the spices into the same bag, and camp becomes browning meat and folding paper.
The refried beans are structural. They bind the beef into a paste that stays put inside the skin instead of leaking into the oil, and they stretch a pound of meat across four dozen wrappers. Keep the filling to two teaspoons a wonton — overfill and the seam splits mid-fry. Wet the last corner properly and press it, or you get the same result.
Packing
Chop the onion and pepper at home and bag them with the spices already measured. Beef, cheese, and wonton skins ride in the cooler; skins dry out fast, so keep the stack sealed until you are ready to wrap.
Variations
- Bake the wrapped wontons in a foil pan in a dutch oven if you would rather not deal with a skillet of hot oil.
- Swap the beef for a pouch of taco-seasoned lentils and skip the browning step entirely.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/camp_wontons-1787.asp