Vegetable and Pork Egg Rolls

It seems to be an Asian inspired few weeks for me and today I looked at the meat and poultry I had purchased from http://www.hopcottmeats.ca ,my terrific local fresh butcher, and I had a pound of ground pork. Besides making wonderfully moist patties for the barbecue or meat loaf or added to spaghetti sauce, ground pork lends itself so well to Asian dishes. I had a package of egg roll wrappers in the fridge and was able to round up the other ingredients. I am reminded it makes sense to plan menus for the week and always have a well stocked kitchen.

Chinese Egg Rolls (Pork)
Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork or chicken or very fine strips of meat
2 cloves minced garlic
2 T minced ginger
2T soya sauce
2T sugar
2T rice wine vinegar or sherry
3T green onion chopped
2 tsp cornstarch
5-6 cups shredded cabbage and carrots (small bag of coleslaw mix substitute)
3 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
dash 5 spice powder
dash sesame oil
add soya to moisten if too dry
salt to taste after adding soya sauce
egg roll wrappers
small bowl with water and dash cornstarch (or use egg and water wash to moisten edge of egg roll before frying)
veg oil for frying

Fry ground meat with garlic and ginger until no longer pink. Add next 5 ingredients. Mix well.
Steam-fry shredded veg until wilted. Add sprouts and chestnuts. Add next 4 ingredients.
Mix meat and veg mixtures together.
Add soya sauce if mixture is too dry. Mine was fine at this point and I didn't want it to be too wet and weep through the wrappers. I abhor splattering oil in my kitchen!
On a clean surface put 1 wrapper with a point facing you. Put about 1/3 cup filling on the bottom 1/3 of the wrapper and fold away from you, wrapping one side in and then the other. It should look like an open envelope now. Before making the final turn moisten the edges with the water or egg mix and lay it folded edge down and proceed to make as many rolls as you will be using right away. If you make them all up, you can freeze them and deep fry later.
I made 6 which gave us 3 each and that was very filling!
Fry in about 1 inch of veg oil at 350 degrees until brown on 1 side, turn and repeat. Drain on paper towels.
Serve with plum or sweet and sour sauce or honey mustard or rice wine and ginger threads.
I made a quick sweet and sour sauce with 1/4 c ketchup, 1/4 c soya sauce, 1/4 c rice wine, 1/4 c sugar and 1/4 c pineapple juice mixed with 1 T cornstarch and 1/4 c water to thin. Heat until thickened and thin if necessary with water.

Ground Pork, Ginger and Garlic

Veg, Sprouts, Water Chestnuts, Pork Mix, Spices

Egg Roll Wrapper facing you

Filling on bottom 1/3 of wrapper

Final roll, brush with water or egg mixture and lay facing down

Ready to Fry

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Hot and Tasty!

Mongolian Beef

It started out with the crockpot eyeing me. I was debating on putting a stew in there and waiting for the magic to happen but honestly I had a craving for Chinese.

I found a recipe for crock pot Mongolian Beef but suddenly it was afternoon (funny how that happens, oh, you Pinterest and FB junkies) and I needed a quicker fix! 

I found a recipe at Table for Two as it were and I adapted it ever so slightly.

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/2013/01/07/take-out-fake-out-mongolian-beef/

Mongolian Beef with Rice and Spinach

Take-Out, Fake-Out Mongolian Beef

4 healthy servings in under 30 minutes

Oil for frying

1T ginger minced

3 cloves garlic minced

1 onion, chopped

3/4 c low sodium soy sauce

1 c water

sesame oil a few drops

1 1/4 c dark brown sugar

1 1/2-2 lbs flank steak partially frozen and sliced across the grain

1/2 c cornstarch

green onions sliced

In a small saucepan over med heat, add 2 t veg oil and sauté ginger, garlic and onion about 2 minutes. Add soy, water, brown sugar and stir to combine. Bring this mix to a boil for about 3 minutes then remove and set aside.

In a large bowl toss sliced steak with cornstarch and place in fridge for about 10 minutes to allow cornstarch to stick to the steak.

After 10 minutes in a large pan, heat 1/4-1/2 cup of oil and in batches sear the steak on both sides. Do not cook through. Remove and place on plate with paper towel as you do the same to all the steak. Pour off any excess oil in the pan.

Place the pan back on the burner over med heat and add the sauce, bringing it to a boil. Add in the steak slices and coat with the sauce. The sauce will begin to thicken and shine.

Serve hot over rice or noodles and add onions. Add greens (spinach, broccoli, bok choy) to complement this highly fragrant and delicious meal. I hope you have leftovers because they make a great lunch next day and another chance to practice with chopsticks.