Five Spice Banana Wontons With Caramel Sauce - wontons

Method

• In a heavy bottom sauce pan, distribute sugar evenly and heat over medium heat. As sugar begins to melt, gently move unmelted parts to the center with a wooden spoon, swirling as you go. Be careful not to over stir, as sugar may not melt evenly. When sugar has completely melted and has turned a dark caramel color, remove from heat and stir in butter.
• Stir in cream. Caramel will probably seize. Return to medium-low heat and stir until caramel has completely dissolved. This may take a couple minutes, so be patient!
• Dice banana and mix with chocolate.
• Set up your dumpling folding workstation. You will need a small bowl of water for wetting the dumpling wrappers. To fold dumplings, place a small amount of banana mixture (~3 cubes) in the center of the dumpling. Dampen two sides of the wrapper and fold into a triangle. Place triangle down with the long edge facing you. Wet one corner of the long edge. Using your thumb, indent the long edge of triangle and bring the inside of the two corners together, as if the triangle were bringing its "hands" together. This is called a "praying" dumpling. Repeat until all the banana filling has been used. If you find the wonton wrappers are ripping, try using a smaller amount of filling. Cover wontons with a damp paper towel until ready to cook. All these steps can be done before dinner.
• In a wok, or high sided pot, heat 1 1/2 inches of oil over high heat. When hot, but not smoking, reduce heat to medium and add 8 or so wontons. Fry, turning once or twice to cook evenly, until light brown. Drain with a slotted spoon to a paper towels.
• To serve, arrange dumplings on plates. Dust with five spice powder using a sifter, the way you would confectionary sugar. Drizzle with caramel sauce.
• In a small skillet, toast Sichuan peppercorns until quite fragrant ~2 minutes.
• In a VERY clean spice grinder, grind all the spices together until they form a very fine powder.