I’ve been making little egg rolls for years now and I’ve never been disappointed. I’ve switched up the ingredients and the proportions many times.  Some things work better than others of course; I’ve made them too garlicky or too peppery before but still… they’re always delicious.  Of course the ones I make are not traditional and don’t even involve egg — just a familiar name for a familiar concept, bite sized fried-up goodness in a hand-rolled form.

Here is a recipe to get you started on making your own.

This recipe is for about 40-50 mini egg rolls:
(sounds like a lot but they go quick!)

1 pack of wanton wrappers, usually 60 sheets
2-3 cups red cabbage (1/2 small head)
3/4 cups shredded carrots (2-4 medium carrots)
1/2 cup mushrooms chopped
1 large clove of garlic minced
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (heaping)
1/2 block tofu (1 1/4 cup crumbled)
1 tablespoon soy sauce & 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
splash of olive oil & sesame oil

vegetable oil for frying

Be sure to allow enough time before you get started for your wanton wrappers to thaw if necessary.  Press tofu to drain as much excess moisture as possible.  You can pat it dry with some paper towels and set it under a plate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Finely chop cabbage and shred carrots. Cut mushrooms into small bits. Finely mince ginger and garlic, keep separate from other vegetables.

In another bowl, crumble the tofu. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce & 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper. Stir.

In a wok or frying pan heat up a splash of olive oil and a drizzle of sesame oil. Add garlic and ginger, saute over medium heat for a moment until garlic is fully cooked.  Add cabbage, mushrooms, and carrots and cook for about 1 minute.  This is a really quick fry, you don’t need to cook it much at all in order to preserve a bit of crunch in the filling. Add the tofu mixture, stir up and add kosher salt to taste.  Remove from heat and transfer in to a bowl. The filling is complete, you should have 4-5 cups worth.

Get ready to fill the wanton wraps. Create a work area fully equipped with a rolling surface, a bowl of water for sealing, and a landing zone for the egg rolls ready to be fried.

Put one wanton skin on your work surface. Place one tablespoon of filling in the middle.  Doesn’t seem like a lot of filling but it’s enough. If you start off packing it with too much it will be very difficult to roll. Once you roll a few you will get a feel for how much filling works best for you, there will be plenty of chances to practice. As you are working through the filling towards the bottom of the bowl you may have extra moisture, try to work around it rather than include it in your rolls. If moisture escapes while frying you may have some spitting oil. Ouch.

Begin rolling by folding one corner of the wanton over the filling. Dip your finger in water and lightly wet the next corner to be folded towards the center. The water will help seal it closed. As you fold the side over be sure to tuck and close any openings on that side. Repeat this step for the other side.

Complete the mini roll by wetting the last edge and folding it over. It’ll look like a cute little package. It might be a little sloppy at first but it won’t take long to get the hang of it. If you happen to rip a wanton or two don’t fret, you’ll have a few left over anyway. Put completed rolls on to a plate, be sure to stack them in such a way that they don’t stick together — give them a chance to dry for a moment before you pile them on top of each other.

Once the all the filling is depleted and rolled into mini egg rolls it’s time to fry! Deep fry! We use a small sauce pot filled with about an inch and a half of vegetable or canola oil and a wire basket utensil to remove them from the oil. Use a utensil that will allow the oil to drain directly over the pot and off of the roll.  I like to use a small pot in order to use less oil and also because we can only fit a couple in the oil at a time, which means it’s easier to handle 2-3 frying egg rolls rather than having the option of dealing with many more at once. Seems safer for a makeshift home deep frying set up, they cook rather quickly once the oil is hot and you don’t want to have too much to deal with at one time. Prepare a landing zone for the freshly fried egg rolls. I usually use a baking sheet lined with Viva paper towels, a plate with a few paper towels works too.

When you’re ready to fry, check if the oil is hot enough by tossing in a small piece of wanton. It should quickly fry up and float to the top. If it sinks or takes awhile to fry continue to heat the oil and test again. Once the oil is ready lower one mini egg roll to start, it’ll float to the top with a beautiful crisp golden color. Transfer onto the baking sheet and carry on. Once you are confident with the cooking time you can decide to fry a few at a time. Best to start slow if you haven’t done this before so there aren’t any accidents. Hot oil is not something worth rushing around.

Be careful and enjoy as is or dip in some sweet & sour, soy, or plum sauce.

There are definitely many right ways to make stuffed mushrooms.  It’s an extremely easy dish to make and to improvise with whatever you have.  With the simple guideline of “top mushrooms with filling,” the possibilities are endless.

This dish makes a great appetizer, side, snack, or even a small meal. We made a similar version of these mushrooms for a dinner party a few weeks ago with the only real difference being the cheese we used.  They’re great for parties whether you are the host or you are bringing them with you.  Make ahead and pop them in to the oven 25 minutes before you’re ready to enjoy.

recipe:

about 2 8oz packages of baby bella mushrooms

2 cups frozen spinach
1 roasted pepper
4 cloves roasted garlic
1+ cups cheese (sharp cheddar, havarti, swiss all work well)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8- 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper powder or cayenne
handful of toasted pine nuts (optional)

1/4 cup bread crumbs toasted with butter

Prepare your roasted pepper and roasted garlic ahead of time.  Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly brush pepper with oil, wrap a head (or half) of garlic drizzled with a little olive oil in tinfoil and place both on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes, flip pepper half way through. Allow to cool before handling.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. Thaw spinach and drain excess water- if you are using fresh spinach saute it for a moment to wilt.  Grate the cheese; we used cheddar for this recipe, but last time it was havarti. It’s ok to switch things up. Both were delicious. Toast a handful of pine nuts — dry toast them in a small pan with no oil, shake them around over the heat until they’re nice and toasty.  Dice the roasted pepper and peel the garlic.  Combine all of these ingredients along with spice and salt to taste. Set aside.

Clean mushrooms and pop off stems. Place mushrooms caps cup side up in a glass baking dish. We use a shallow 8 x 12 glass baking dish.  Use whatever you have — a couple of pie dishes or a lasagna dish would work well too. The filling should be enough to top 2 8 oz packs of mushrooms.  The size of the mushrooms and the amount of room on your baking dish may vary the proportions. Disperse filling into the caps.

Finish the stuffed mushrooms off with bread crumbs.  For this recipe we used panko bread crumbs and fried them up with a little butter, probably about a tablespoon or so.  You can add some parmesan to the mix if you want.  If you are interested in making your own bread crumbs from scratch, check here for some inspiration.

Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes.

Try out our recipe or make up your own! If you don’t have all of the ingredients we used consider what else might taste nice here…. artichoke hearts, olives, goat cheese, tomatoes, Parmesan, carrots, edamame, kale, walnuts… no onions… this list could go on for days- you get the point.

A quick entry with a recipe for fancy butter…

1 stick of salted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon honey
2 cloves of roasted garlic
1/8 heaping teaspoon hot pepper powder

Combine ingredients into a small storage container and enjoy all week while you use it to make all your breads and crackers taste more exciting ;)

Of course you’ll need something delicious to dip your homemade crackers into… how about a roasted red pepper & olive spread?

Ingredients used : 2 roasted peppers (1 red & 1 orange), 2-3 cloves roasted garlic, 1 cup chopped olives spliced with capers if desired, and 1 8oz. package of cream cheese.

Preheat oven to 425°

This dip is simple to make and extra delicious.  Begin by roasting the peppers and garlic. Roasting peppers may seem like a lot of work, however that turns out to not be the case at all.  In fact, roasting peppers has become a staple in our weekly meals as of late because it’s so easy.  Once a week we make a roasted pepper sauce to use in various meals — enchiladas, pizza, chiles relleños, and anything else that requires a sauce.  SO, roasting a couple peppers for this dip is even easier when you’re already roasting something anyway.  Whether you plan to make a sauce or not, roasting a couple of peppers & garlic takes very little attention and no skill at all.

Brush or spray peppers with a little bit of olive oil and place on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil. Wrap a head of garlic in foil and drizzle a small amount of olive oil over top.  Place in oven and roast for 20-40 minutes, flip peppers a couple times throughout the time as you keep a loose eye on them; you’ll know when they’re done because they will be slightly blackened, shriveled, and softened. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool before handling.

Before you chop up two peppers for this dip, peal off the skin of the peppers and remove the seeds. It’s not terrible if you leave the skin on, but once removed the diced pepper bits will be nice and soft which is perfect for the texture of a spread.

Dice about a cup of olives and include some capers if desired. The olives we had came with capers and pimentos so it was easy to incorporate them. Just green olives will be delicious but adding some capers to the mix makes it even better.

Combine all ingredients to make the spread complete.  I like to start with the cream cheese first and add the roasted garlic before the other ingredients so it’s mixed in evenly throughout. You can chop the garlic up if you’d like but it’s often soft enough to break up while mixing. Next add the olives, capers, and peppers and mix to finish the process.

Enjoy with crackers, pita, bread, or chips!

Type is becoming blurry, street signs only exist the closer I get, and people with glasses can see better than I… time to get my eyes examined. Aye. In the meantime, I will be eating a lot of this soup, and maybe — just maybe — it will do my little eyes some good; at the very least it will be delicious, inexpensive, and simple to make.

Ingredients used : carrots, ginger, edamame, garlic, pepper powder/cayenne powder, lemon, sour cream, soup stock.

soup for 4

6 cups vegetable stock
4+ cups peeled & chopped carrots
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
¼ teaspoon pepper powder or cayenne powder
½ lemon squeezed or juice
1 cup edamame
½ cup sour cream (optional)
olive oil

equipment used : immersion blender or blender & soup pot

Begin with preparing all of the ingredients, peel and mince the garlic & ginger, peel and chop the carrots in to small rounds. Over medium heat in your favorite soup pot splash a little olive oil and include the garlic and ginger.  Saute for a moment until garlic is cooked (don’t burn it), add the carrots and stir.  Pour in the vegetable stock. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil while you add the lemon and pepper/cayenne powder. Return to a simmer and cover until carrots are tender.

When the carrots are fully cooked puree the soup into a smooth consistency with your immersion blender right in the soup pot.  If you don’t have one a regular blender will work fine, however if you are a fan of convenience and/or blended soups & sauces an immersion blender is extremely affordable and totally worth the splurge. By using this tool you avoid having to pour hot liquid into the blender pitcher and back again which also means there is barely a chance for spilling. All good things!

Once your soup is nice and smooth blend in the sour cream, give it a taste and decide if anything needs to be added- for example you may want to add a dash of salt if your base stock wasn’t very salty or flavorful. Last pour in the whole edamame beans, heat soup to the perfect temperature.

Enjoy this soup — practically effortless and super delicous.

Throughout spring and summer we prepared fresh salsa about once a week- sometimes even more.  As fall set in I noticed that we had not been making fresh salsa nearly as much, although we have been making many meals that are naturally complimented by salsa.  We started to miss it. With busy lives and produce seasons changing the desire and convenience of making fresh salsa has slowed down.

We never buy store bought salsa for a few reasons, the first being the fact that I don’t tolerate onions and I have never seen a store bought jar of salsa excluding them (let me know if you know of one!) We consciously try to avoid purchasing pre-packaged food that contain unnecessary ingredients and preservatives, and also because it can get kind of pricey — once you figure out how inexpensive and delicious it is to make your own fresh salsa it just doesn’t seem worth it to buy mass produced versions anymore. Of course there are decent market fresh salsas — but all of which will contain onions, suitable for the majority. A jarred salsa is so convenient and a perfect snack, and since we don’t purchase it from the store and haven’t been making it fresh, we have been deprived. This is why we decided to can our own. We have thought about doing this for a while and now we’re living the dream! We have a full stock of custom salsa in the cabinet! Like fresh salsa there are many “right” ways to do this.  Here is how our first attempt went.

Ingredients : plum tomatoes, bell peppers (green, red, orange, yellow), jalapeños, habeñeros, lime, salt, cilantro.

Supplies needed : canning tools, 5-6 pint jars, large pot for boiling.

Recipe:
8 cups plum tomatoes seeded and diced
2 green peppers
2 yellow peppers
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
4 fat mild jalapeños
2 habeñeros
5 pieces of garlic
7 table spoons lime
4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 bundles cilantro- 1 heaping cup chopped

Before you start this process make sure you have all of your canning equipment ready (jars with fresh lids, a pot large enough to boil the jars with 2 inches of water over top, and canning tools for lifting the hot jars/lids from the water). Wash your jars with hot water and soap, set aside while you prepare your ingredients. If you have an extremely large pot to boil your jars it may take quite a while to heat up the water — you can set it to warm up at anytime so you’re not in a situation where you are waiting for long.  Fill the pot with enough water to cover the tops of the jars with 2 inches of water.

Prepare all of the ingredients before cooking.  Seed and dice the tomatoes and peppers, pluck the cilantro leaves from the stem and chop finely, crush and mince the garlic.  Once you have chopped everything it is time to cook!

We used a 4 quart pot which would hold up to 8 pints worth of salsa — this batch made 5 1/2 pints for us. Heat up the pot with a splash of olive oil and add your garlic, jalapeños, & habeñeros. Saute for a moment and include the rest of your peppers.

Add tomatoes and simmer for a couple of minutes, it will become more soupy.

Throw in cilantro, lime, & salt to taste. Bring salsa to a full boil for at least 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and cover while you sterilize your jars before canning. Place washed jars in the pot of water to simmer for 5 minutes, do not boil.  Place lids (not the rings) in a separate pot of water to simmer, do not boil. Remove the jars from the water bath with the jar lifters and place on a heat safe surface, we use a wooden cutting board.

Fill your jars with the salsa leaving about a ½ inch of space from the top. Use a funnel to avoid spilling on the jar.  Poke the mixture with a clean utensil to push out any extra air bubbles — we use a chop stick. Wipe around the rim of the jar with a clean towel before closing.

With the magnetic lid lifter place your jar lid and screw the band on with enough force but not too tight. Use the jar lifters to place jars back into the water bath and bring to a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes. Remove jars right side up and place back on to the heat safe surface, allow to rest undisturbed for 24 hours.  Over the next hour you will hear pops from the lids which indicates a successful canning. The following day your jars should be complete. Test that they were canned successfully by lifting the jar by just the sealed lid (remove the screw top), it should be securely attached.

For more instructions and information on canning please refer to Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving or other sources with more experience; we are amateurs.

The salsa turned out to be delicious, though fresh is still better, but now we have enough salsa to last us several weeks, maybe even months! It took a little time to do, but if you’re like me it was a fun activity and we saved a lot of money by doing it. We listed out the cost of this particular salsa below, to make 5+ pints of salsa it cost us just under $9.00! I’d say that’s pretty good, an average pint of salsa at the grocery store would cost around $5.00 which means we saved over $15.00 and we are glad to know exactly how it was made and processed.

Cost :
tomatoes- $3.30
bell peppers- $2.94
cilantro- $1.10
jalapeño- $0.38
lime- $0.25
habeñero- $0.18
garlic- $0.07
salt- $0.01

total cost $8.95 for 5 pints of fresh custom salsa.

I have to admit, I don’t really like eating squash. I generally don’t even like squash soup. I like how squash looks, I like that it’s a very seasonal food, and I like to think that there will be more and more times that I actually enjoy eating squash in the future — there have been a few times in the past, and it’s almost always when prepared in a savory way.  Hold the  cinnamon and sweet spices on my squash — no thank you! We’ll make this soup savory.

As I was drawn to the squash section at the pumpkin patch, I knew that I would be purchasing a few. But I worried that they would sit on my counter for too long or that I would hesitate to try and figure out a satisfying way to prepare them out of fear that I might not be able to do it. I wanted to do it. I personally have never cooked with a butternut squash before but I wanted to try making my own style of the ever so popular soup so I picked up a couple of them first. There were several other piles of squash asking me to take them home but I had to limit myself. I didn’t know what I would do with most of them so I decided to pick up a few acorn squash and was on my way.

The butternut squash did not sit around for long, though it did take a full week of dragging my feet before I actually made it. I’m glad I did though; it was surprisingly easy to make and the soup turned out amazing — slightly sweet from the natural flavor of the butternut squash but prepared to be savory with a bit of spice, just the way I like it. I will definitely be making this again.

Ingredients: butternut squash with seeds, vegetable stock, ginger, chili garlic paste, cumin powder, chili powder, sour cream, olive oil, salt, pepper powder.

You can use your favorite vegetable stock for the base of the soup. I used a homemade stock.  Making a vegetable stock is not an exact science and I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but if you’re interested in how I made mine for this soup, you can find out how at the bottom of the post.

Measurements : serves 4
2 butternut squash
4-6 cups of vegetable stock
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or pepper powder
1 cup sour cream
salt to taste
toasted squash seeds with oil, salt, and spice.

Preheat oven to 400°

Cut your butternut squash in half before roasting; I quartered mine. Scoop out seeds & guts, set aside for later. Place your squash pieces on a roasting pan flesh up and brush with butter. Roast until tender, about 20 minutes — just enough to be able to easily remove the meat from the skin, it will cook more in the soup. Once it’s roasted remove from the oven and allow it to cool enough to be handled before chopping it up. I used a pairing knife to remove the skin and chop it into pieces.  If you halve the squash and the flesh is soft enough you can scoop it out with a spoon or melonballer. I also have read that you can use a peeler to remove the skin.

Heat your soup pot with a splash of oil over medium heat, add the minced ginger and then the chili garlic sauce, saute for a moment. Add squash pieces and vegetable stock. We used 4 cups of stock, our soup was really thick but nice & smooth. You may want to add more stock if you have particularly large squash or if you prefer it to be a thinner soup. You can always add more once it’s pureed to change the consistency. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, bringing it back to a simmer. Add ground cumin and cayenne powder. We used our pepper powder because it was freshly made days before; I think any chili spice would work well — of course adjust the heat according to how spicy you like it. Add a small amount and adjust after the soup is blended if you’re not sure how hot the spice will be.

Allow soup to simmer with spices until everything is thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, clean and strain your squash seeds.

Puree the soup until smooth. We used an immersion blender to puree it right in the soup pot. A regular blender would work as well. Allow it to simmer and blend it some more until it is completely smooth. Then stir or blend in the sour cream.  Taste and adjust flavor to your liking. You might want to make it a little spicier. We didn’t add any salt, but you might need to depending on the vegetable stock used. Keep soup on low heat before serving while you toast the seeds.

In a small pan heat a splash of olive oil, sprinkle cayenne pepper, salt, and add seeds.  Stir and flip until sufficiently toasted. Pour soup into bowls and top with toasted squash seeds. Keep extra on the table to reload this tasty garnish ;)

Delicious!

Making the vegetable stock::

I used about 12 cups of water to start which gave me about 8 cups of broth after it boiled down. I made more than we needed for this soup so I could freeze the other half for the next soup.

First chop and prepare your ingredients. Because this is a broth you won’t need to cut them very finely or make them look a certain way. You can use almost any vegetables you have but generally “onion,” carrot, and celery make a good broth base. Of course I don’t use onion in my stock however I did use garlic. This is what went into my stock: 2 cups celery chopped, 2 cups carrot chopped, 8 cloves garlic smashed with the back of the knife, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons table salt, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 15 peppercorns, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1/2 inch galangal sliced. Galangal looks a lot like ginger but tastes very different — I added it to my stock pot because I enjoy the spice it gives and I had it. I wasn’t sure how powerful it would be in a stock so I used a small amount this time. You can use just about any vegetables you have on hand; it’s fun to experiment.

Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. Taste and adjust salt level; I add small amounts of soy sauce until it’s how I want it. Remove from heat and strain and squeeze all of the liquid from the vegetables. Your stock is made! Now make soup!

note: the buddha bowl in the first picture can be found here : Flavour Design

Chicago’s fall came quick and is already on its way out.  Naturally with cold weather moving in our garden has been fading away.  A couple of weeks ago, Joe & I harvested all of our red chilies to make a garlic chili paste. This would be our first time making a chili paste and our first canning experience! Definitely not the last either! Although we only made a small batch to start, it was enough to get us excited for more canning. We used 37 red chilies to make 3 (4oz) jars of chili garlic paste.

ingredients : 37 red chilies, 4 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, & 2 tablespoons sugar,

equipment used : 3 (4oz) jars, canning tools, a large pot, magic bullet, other ordinary pots.

Making the actual sauce was easy.  We chopped off all of the stems from the chilies and sliced them a couple of times to no particular size. We peeled the garlic and measured out the other ingredients. Then combined everything in the magic bullet and pureed. We added about half of our chili pieces to start and then more as there was room in the bullet vessel, a blender would also work. Once all of the ingredients were combined, we poured them into a sauce pot and boiled for about 5 minutes. We reduced the boil to a simmer until the paste was fully cooked, about 15 additional minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your jars and lids for canning. We used Ball Complete Book of Home Canning to guide us through the process. Start off by thoroughly cleaning your jars and lids with warm water and soap. In a pot large enough to submerge your jars with at least 1 inch of water over the jars, bring the jars to a simmer; do not boil. Prepare your lids by simmering in a smaller sauce pan until you are ready to use them. Once the sauce is done cooking, fill the jars one at a time. Use your canning tools to help carefully lift the jars from the pot to a work surface that can handle the heat. Ladle the sauce into the jars leaving about 1/4 inch from the top.  Use a clean cloth to wipe around the jar rim. Remove your jar lid from the simmering sauce pan with your magnet wand and place onto the jar; tighten the screw band just enough, but avoid over tightening to achieve a proper seal. Place sealed jars back into the pot with a water level that is at least an inch over your jars, cover and bring to a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes. Turn the heat off, remove lid and let stand for another 5 minutes.  Remove jars and leave them alone for about 24 hours, listen for the “pop” sound- this will indicate that your jars are properly sealed. To be sure they are sealed properly check after the 24 hours that the lids do not move when you press them, remove the screw band and lift the jar by the sealed lid. It should be firmly attached.

This was a pretty simple process  and a great way for us to use so many chilies at once.  We would have never been able to eat the 37 chilies before they went bad and now we can enjoy them all winter long.

–use our experience as a loose guide to the process. We’re just getting started and there is so much more to learn! Safety precautions must be taken when canning and preserving food (especially if you plan to share). Research further!