.southwest eggrolls.

I *love* southwest eggrolls! If it's on a menu somewhere, we will order it. I have made these for years and they are always a HIT at parties. When I do make them, I usually double the recipe and freeze what I won't use so we can pop them out whenever we're having a craving.

Whether you use them for a meal or party appetizer, these will be a hit in your home, I guarantee!


Finely dice 2 Tbsp red bell pepper.


Finely chop 2 Tbsp green onion.


Take out the seeds and pith of one jalapeno pepper. Finely dice.


In a bowl, put 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp chili powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.


You're also going to need 1/3 cup black beans, drained and rinsed, 1/3 cup frozen corn, and 1/4 cup frozen spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed to remove water.


Cook and finely chop up 1 chicken breast.


And grate 1 cup cheese. I use half cheddar, half monterey jack.


Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a skillet. Add the peppers and onion to the pan and sautee for a couple minutes. You want the peppers to be a little soft.


Add the chicken.


Add the corn, beans, and spinach. Cook this until the spinach is completely broken down and evenly dispersed in the pan.


Add the spices and mix well.


Finally, add the cheese. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the cheese in. It will melt and coat everything.


This is what it will look like once everything has been added. Now we're reading to make the eggrolls.


Now you can use fajita sized tortillas or snack sized. If you use fajita size, you'll get 10 eggrolls out of this recipe. If you use the snack size, you'll get 5, maybe 6. Put a tablespoon full of the filling in the center of the tortilla.


Fold the outside edges in and roll up. Tack closed with a toothpick.


Repeat until all the filling has been used up.

At this stage, you can freeze them.

You want them to firm up a little before frying otherwise the centers will ooze out. I put the eggrolls on a plate and covered with a towel and put in the fridge for about an hour.


Heat oil in a skillet, wok, or whatever to 370*. Carefully lower your eggrolls in, making sure not to overload the pan. Fry until all sides are nice and golden.


Remove from the oil and place on paper towels to catch any remaining oil.

If you are frying up frozen eggrolls, the centers will most likely still be frozen. Once they've been fried, pop in a 350* oven for about 20 minutes to make sure they're cooked through.

Remove the toothpicks, and slice in half on a diagonal. Serve warm with avocado dip (recipe below).


AVOCADO DIP

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp dill weed
1 clove garlic, crushed (you don't want minced... it'll be too garlicky)
a few shakes of Tabasco sauce
pinch salt
1 avocado mashed

Mix everything together and put in a bowl. Set in the fridge to chill.

**This dip can also be made with regular ranch dressing and mashed avocado mixed together.


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_103f4cr2zdd

.egg rolls.

Whenever I make Chinese food, I *have* to make eggrolls. These aren't your typical cabbage filled rolls with the egg roll wrapper. The recipe I use requires an almost crepe like wrap made of egg, cornstarch, and water. Then it's filled, dipped in a tempura batter and deep fried. It is so yummy. It's a nice variation from the traditional ones you find in most Chinese restaurants or take out shops.
If you have a Pampered Chef food chopper, you'll want to use it. It makes prepping for this thing so much quicker!




Crack 4 eggs in a bowl.

Add 2 Tbsp cornstarch.

Add 1/4 cup water and whisk, working to get rid of any lumps. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the cornstarch to dissolve, so if it's lumpy at first, don't worry... they should dissipate soon enough.

Heat up a crepe pan. This is a pretty big one. My husband got it for me for my birthday and it was so big, I had to make double the egg mix. If you don't have a crepe pan, use your small saute pan. It will cause the edges to curve up a little, but it will be just fine. How do I know? Because that's what I used to use before I got my lovely crepe pan. :)



Ladle some of the egg batter into the pan. Tilt the pan in a circular fashion to coat the entire thing. When you feel it's cooked on one side, use a spatula to flip it. Cook for only another minute and then remove from pan. Repeat until your batter is all gone.

Put the cooked "crepe" on a plate to cool.


Now for the filling!














Finely chop 1/2 cup carrot.

Finely chop 1/2 cup celery.

Finely chop 1/2 cup onion.

Finely chop 1 Tbsp water chestnuts. (I did more than that in this picture because I needed more chopped water chestnuts for another dish.)

These are bamboo shoots. Bamboo shoots come from bamboo! The bamboo is harvested in the spring or early summer. It's then sliced thinly and boiled until tender. The flavor is rather distinct and is an important component for these eggrolls.

(NOTE:You can find bamboo shoots in your grocery store down the asian foods aisle. They're in a can usually next to the can of water chestnuts.)


Finely chop up 1/4 cup.



Take 1 cup bean sprouts and cut them up. These don't need to be finely chopped. Mix all the veggies together in a large bowl.

In a small bowl put:


1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Mirin
1 tsp Soy sauce
and 1/4 cup water







Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wok. When hot, add 1/2 cup ground pork and fry until cooked.
















Dump in the veggies and toss to coat with whatever oil there might be left in the pan. Saute for about 5 minutes until you think the veggies are cooked.

Add the soy sauce/mirin sauce. Cook for another minute.



In that same little bowl, whisk together 1 Tbsp cold water and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. This is going to be our thickener. Add it to the wok and bring to boil. The sauce you added will start thickening up.




Once thick, pull from the heat, transfer to a bowl and let cool.

To assemble, put one of the egg crepes on the counter or cutting board. Put a large Tablespoonful of filling in the center.

Fold in the sides.

Roll up like a burrito. Make sure you have the seam side down so it doesn't unroll.

Repeat until all the wraps and/or filling are used up.



These can be individually wrapped with saran and put in a large ziploc at this point for freezing. I normally make it to this stage and wrap well and hold in the fridge overnight until I need them the next day. Makes it easy when I have company coming.


Before we can cook these, we need to make the dipping batter. In a bowl, mix up 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 3/4 cup cold water. Whisk everything together so there aren't any lumps.




Dip an egg roll in the batter and coat well.

Carefully put the eggroll in a wok of hot oil (350*) and fry until nice and golden on one side. Turn and fry the other side. When it's golden all the way around, remove from the oil and put on a paper towel to drain.

This is a finished egg roll. You can see that the batter makes it nice and puffy on the outside.


Serve these babies hot with some soy sauce.



Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_64gbpb9hhr

.won ton soup.

We had company over for dinner tonight. I made a huge Chinese feast complete with won ton soup, crab rangoon, bbq pork, almond breaded chicken, and lo mein. So delicious. We were all completely stuffed by the end of the meal.
This recipe was one of my mom's. It was one she got when she took Chinese cooking classes when I was a kid. I grew up making this and all the various dishes she made. The wonton filling can be made up the night before and held overnight in the fridge. It's actually a very easy soup to make. The most time consuming part is filling and forming the won tons.

FILLING:



In a bowl, smoosh together:
1/2 c. ground pork
2 Tbsp chopped water chestnuts
2 Tbsp chopped bamboo shoots
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp rice wine
1 tsp cornstarch

To make easy work of the chopping, use a food chopper. My Pampered Chef food chopper rocks at this!




You're going to need a package of won ton wraps.

Put a teaspoon sized ball of filling in the middle of the wonton wrapper.

Dip your finger in a bowl of egg white and rub it along the edge. This wets the edge and makes a "glue" to hold everything together.

Fold the wrapper over to make a triangle. Press the edges down with your finger to make sure it's sealed well.


















Bring the two ends together and overlap them. Using a little egg white to seal them in position.

Continue doing this until you've used up all of your pork filling.
If you are a fan of fried wontons, you can make it to this point and then freeze in a well sealed bag.
I made these a couple hours before I actually needed them. I wouldn't make them any earlier than that as they tend to get a little soft from the liquid in the filling.

This is bok choy. It is a cabbage with a very subtle taste. It is a traditional vegetable in won ton soup.

What you want to do is pull off any bad leaves. Wash everything well and then chop it up. Set aside until we need to use it.

Chop up some green onion, slicing on the diagonal.
I chopped up an entire bunch because I needed some extra for the crab rangoon. You could get away using less than what is pictured here. Or, if you are a big green onion enthusiast, you can use a lot more!

In a pot put 6-8 cups chicken stock. I used 4 cups chicken stock, then 2 cups water and 1 packet oriental flavoring from one of my Top Ramen. Normally I would use Won Ton soup mix, but I can't seem to find it here! The Top Ramen seasoning packets are very comparible to the taste. Add a tsp of salt into the broth. Mix everything up and bring to a boil.

Once the broth comes to a boil, add the chopped bok coy, 1/4 cup sliced water chestnuts, and 1/2 cup mushrooms (preferrably baby white ones), cut in half, or sliced (if you're using regular white mushrooms).
Cover, reduce heat to medium. Cook for 15 minutes. Add the won tons and cook for another 15 minutes. Add the green onion just before serving.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_63gbmgn3g9