Harpers Homemade : egg rolls

Monday, March 26, 2012

Avocado Eggrolls

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Let me start by saying that if you've never tried Cheesecake Factory's Avocado Eggrolls you should. They are so amazing. My homemade version doesn't compare, but it is pretty good nonetheless. These were different from the restaurant version because I didn't have sundried tomatoes (and they were too expensive to me to buy) so I thought roasted red peppers would be good. I also didn't have tamarind or cashews for the sauce so I just decided on a cilantro lime sauce. These were baked but next time I may try frying them to give them more of a crunch. And I was going to use corn in the mixture but totally forgot until they were already in the oven! I'm sure I'll be making these again sometime though.

Ingredients
2 medium avocados
1/4 cup diced onion
2 tsp minced garlic
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (can make your own or buy a jar)
2 Tbsp fresh chopped cliantro
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp of sesame oil
dash of salt and pepper
6 eggroll wrappers
Cooking spray

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 and spray baking pan with a little bit of cooking spray.
2.Cook onions and garlic in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes or until tender.
3.Cut open and remove seeds from avocados. Take a sharp knife and make horizontal then vertical slits into the flesh and scoop out into a medium bowl. You may need to break up any pieces that didn't cut all the way through. The goal is to have small chunks.
4.To the bowl, add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine.

5.Place about 3 Tbsp of mixture onto eggroll wrapper and wrap up (I'm still not great at wrapping them but you can see my veggie eggroll post to see how I did it)
6.Place eggrolls onto baking sheet and spray with a little more cooking spray
7.Bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are lightly browned. You can flip halfway through if desired.
8.Serve with cilantro lime dipping sauce (recipe below)

Cilantro Lime Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup of canola oil
3 Tbsp of lime juice
3/4 to 1 cup of cilantro, roughly chopped
2 tsp of honey
salt and pepper to taste
1 jalpeno, seeded

Directions
Blend all ingredients together with food processor until well combined.

Recipe Sources:
Eggrolls: Adapted from The Restaurant Recipe Blog
Dipping Sauce: Adapted from Christie's Corner

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Baked Veggie Egg Rolls

I tried my first attempt at eggs rolls a few months ago. I used chicken and I fried them. And to my surprise, they actually turned out pretty decent. Nathan's mom has made them before and they are really good and they look really good too. I'm not so great at wrapping them just yet. But I'm getting there! The next time I made them, I baked them and they were just as good. On my 3rd time making them, I decided to make them without meat. Again, really good for a homemade version! They are actually fairly easy to make. The only time consuming thing is chopping everything up and then rolling them. Once I get the rolling thing down, it'll probably go a little quicker. I don't really have specific measurements here. Like most things I make, I kinda eyeball it, so these measurements might not be exact.

Ingredients
Egg roll wrappers (can find these near the produce section-they are refridgerated)
Couple handfuls of chopped cabbage (can use fresh head of cabbage or buy a small bag)
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 cup of chopped baby bella mushrooms
1-2 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 Tbsp of sesame oil
2 tsp of reduced sodium soy sauce, plus more for dipping sauce
1-2 Tbsp of chopped fresh cilantro
Thai Garlic Chili Pepper sauce-for dipping

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350
1. Heat large skillet with a little olive oil and add in chopped mushrooms and garlic until softened-about 5 mins.

2. Add in cabbage, carrots, and ginger and mix
3. Add in sesame oil and 2 tsp of soy sauce and mix until well covered
4. Cook for just a minute or two and then add in cilantro

5. Take off of heat and let cool for a few minutes
6. Prepare a small bowl of water for sealing egg roll wrappers
7. Spoon mixture onto wrapper

8. Fold as shown in pictures and seal ends together with a little water (this is probably not the right way to do it. I meant to google it to see how it's done, but just kinda winged it instead. So you may want to look up how to fold them correctly)

9. Spray baking sheet with some cooking spray-I use olive oil
10. Lay egg rolls onto pan seam side down and spray the tops with cooking spray as well

11. Bake for about 30 mins or until they start to turn golden brown and get a little crunchy

Dipping sauce
Mix together soy sauce and Thai garlic chili pepper sauce to taste

Recipe source: Harper's original