Friday, March 16, 2012

St. Paddy’s Day Recipe: Irish Egg Rolls!

At my office, I’m the head of our Potluck Planning Committee (I know, it’s SO “The Office”, right?)

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(Angela: “I'm just trying to figure out why you're trying to sabotage things.”)

 

Although our meetings are much more succinct and less catty.  It’s more like, “there’s a holiday coming up, let’s do a potluck.” “Okay!”

Anyway…our potluck is today, and we did an Irish food theme (or green food, since every office has at least one person who’s going to bring a veggie tray because, “hey, it’s green”).  I asked the hubs what I should make, he did some research, and threw down the gauntlet: Irish Egg Rolls.

Irish Egg Rolls?

…okay, sure, why not?

Apparently he saw it as an appetizer at an Irish pub, and hey, I like egg rolls (Chili’s Southwest Eggrolls?  Hex yeah!), and I like a challenge, so that’s what we did.

The original recipe (shown here) calls for frying them, but we didn’t want all that extra grease, so we baked them instead, and they still turned out crisp and delicious.

Since I have a big office, we also doubled the size of the recipe to use up the full package of egg roll wrappers (15).

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces chopped corned beef (I recommend getting it freshly sliced from your grocer’s Deli)
  • 1 tbsp bacon grease (aside from a little Pam and whatever’s in the corned beef, this is your only fat, so like I always say—might as well get as much flavor from your fat as you can.  If you’re anti- bacon grease, you can totally just use a pat of butter or a tbsp of olive oil)
  • 2 cups shredded cabbage
  • 2 cups diced cooked potatoes (about two large russet potatoes, diced, seasoned w/salt & pepper), peeled & boiled)
  • 2 cups shredded carrot (took about 5-6 whole carrots, washed, peeled, & then shredded)
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onion
  • salt and pepper (or Cajun seasoning—it’s my go-to season-all), to taste
  • 15 (7 inch square) egg roll wrappers

     

    Directions:

    Boil the potatoes, then drain. Set aside for the moment.

    Heat the bacon grease in a large skillet (we used a wok, ironically) and add the cabbage, onions, carrot, and seasoning, and sauté over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.

    IMG_0186 (I do so love colorful food!)

    Then add in the corned beef & potatoes and toss, sautéing for another 5 minutes until the cabbage starts to wilt a bit.  Check for flavor & season again if needed.

    Next, set up an “egg roll wrapping station”.  I did my rolling on a plate, with a small condiment bowl of water next to it. 

    Scoop 1/2 cup of filling onto the first wrapper:

    IMG_0197

    And then wrap the egg rolls according the instructions on the package—it’s pretty easy.  Just fold the bottom corner up snugly:

     

    IMG_0205

    Then fold in the sides, then wet the top bit of the triangle with the water:

     

    IMG_0207 (Please ignore the fact that I’m flipping off the camera—it was accidental, I promise.)

    And then roll the rest of the way up, and place on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet.

    P.S. Heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

    Once all your rolls are wrapped, lightly spritz the rolls with cooking spray—this will help them brown & get crispy & brown like as if they were fried.

     

    IMG_0209

    Then bake on the middle rack for 18-20 minutes, flipping them halfway through—(I forgot to do the flip, but they still look pretty good, although the bottom looks SO perfect):

    IMG_0210

    (Tops, without flip halfway through baking)

     

    Serve with a Dijon or spicy brown mustard for dipping (we’re using Tabasco spicy brown mustard, because hey, this is a “Cajun” food blog, so it’s gotta be in there somewhere!)

    IMG_0216

    (This shows the bottom.  Look how gorgeous & perfect that is!  So please remember to flip them.)

     

    NutriFacts: (1 serving = 1 egg roll)

    (Please note that in the original recipe, calorie count for one of these fried was 278 calories)

    Calories 158.2

      Total Fat 3.4 g

      Saturated Fat 1.0 g

      Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g

      Monounsaturated Fat 1.4 g

      Cholesterol 19.8 mg

      Sodium 516.1 mg

      Potassium 120.2 mg

      Total Carbohydrate 25.4 g

      Dietary Fiber 2.0 g

      Sugars 0.6 g

      Protein 6.5 g

     

    Have a great St. Paddy’s weekend, everyone!!!

  • Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday

    6 comments:

    1. Holy crap. Not only do those sound delicious, they look AMAZE. You rolled them perfectly. Do want. With a Green Hurricane on the side plz.

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    2. Yummy! Trying not to drool on my keyboard!

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    3. Thanks gals! They were really tasty. My coworkers are so used to me bringing Cajun food that they originally asked "are they Cajun egg rolls?" Once I corrected them & they tried them, they were all begging me to make a Cajun version. One lady suggested I just make a cookbook of "International Egg Rolls"... like with German sausage & kraut for Germany, etc... it's definitely on my to-do list!

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    4. yumrs. this looks pretty easy (easy if always my number one requirement for cooking. a chef I am not). what would you serve it with for dinner??

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    5. It was super-easy. The rolling of the egg rolls was probably the most labor-intensive part, and once you do a couple, you get into a groove & it's really quick. Since I had it as part of a potluck, I got to have a LOT of different items with it, & one of my favorites was a Guinness stew, so I'd say some sort of hearty beef stew... Or a quick-n-easy shepherd's pie?

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    6. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh my goodness. That's pretty much all I can say with all the drool that's happening right now.

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