The Journey Begins….
Last night, I decided to flex my cooking muscles a bit, and made pork egg rolls, pork wontons, and cauliflower fried rice. I referenced three different recipes for cook time and tips, but pretty much winged it for most of the night. I’m going to post the recipes, along with a bit of color commentary because, hey! It’s-a me, Kilgorio!
BBQ Pork Egg Rolls
Ingredients:
1/4 minced bamboo shoots
1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. chicken broth
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. oil for stir fry
1 C minced mushrooms
1 minced stalk celery
1/4 C minced water chestnuts
1 C chopped mung bean sprouts
3 stalks of green onions, sliced thinly
1/2 lb. barbecued pork (I used ground pork for both recipes, this part was cooked and seasoned with some sweet and smoky BBQ rub and garlic salt)
Egg roll wrappers
3 Tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp. water
4-6 cups oil for frying (I fried the wontons in the same oil, more on that later)
Method of Madness:
First, mince everything. Bamboo shoots, mushrooms, celery, and water chestnuts. Then, chop the mung bean sprouts and the green onions. You’ll be sautéing these in intervals, so prepare some individual containers for each ingredient.
Mix together the oyster sauce, chicken broth, and sugar, and set aside. This is your sauce.
Next, time to brown your pork. Break out a small skillet, set it to medium heat, let it do its thing, then put your meat in. The skillet.
Season it as you wish, then drain and put it in a mixing bowl. Preheat your wok on med-high heat. When it’s there, add 2 Tbsp. of oil and let heat for about a minute. Add mushrooms and stir-fry. After a minute, the celery. At one minute intervals, next add the water chestnuts and then the bamboo shoots. Push the mixture aside, add another Tbsp. of oil and add the bean sprouts and green onions at the same time. Once everything is sautéed nicely and heated all the way through, stir in the sauce and bring to a boil. Add the pork, heat thoroughly, then put everything into the mixing bowl the pork was in and let cool.
Heat 4-6 cups of oil to 385°. While that’s heating, prepare the wrappers. I only made six egg rolls, though the recipe is supposed to be for fifteen. 1. It’s only Bon and I some of the time (Glenn does eat what I make, but this recipe took a while), and, 2. I used the remainder of this mixture for a scramble for her and I this morning that turned out really well.
Okay, so put a half tablespoon of the mixture in the middle of the wrapper. Fold them like this:
Use the cornstarch/water mixture on the side tips, and the top. Deep fry in the oil for about a minute and a half per side, then drain on a paper towel.
Deep-fried Wontons
Ingredients:
3 C minced mushrooms
1 1/2 lbs. ground pork (do not brown, it will cook in the wonton)
1/2 Cup shredded bamboo shoots
1/4 Cup shredded water chestnuts
2 stalks of green onions, sliced thinly
1/8 Cup minced ginger
2 teaspoons rice vinegar (unseasoned)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Wonton wrappers
4-6 Cups of oil for deep-frying (seeing a pattern?)
Method of Madness:
Combine the ground pork, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, green onions, ginger, mushrooms, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil in a large mixing bowl.
Now, I made both of these recipes at the same time last night, so I made the egg rolls and the wontons before I heated the oil.
Break out the wonton wrappers, place a tablespoon of your mixture in the center. Fold in half vertically (toward you), keeping the mixture in the center. Fold that joining (of the two edges) back up about an eighth of an inch, then fold in half horizontally. Press the edge together with a fork. Lather, rinse, repeat. You can either freeze the wonton wrappers and the mixture for later, or make them all and freeze the finished product. I chose the former.
Since I was doing these two together, I preheated the oil to 375°, then put the egg rolls in. Wait about a minute, then slide the wontons into the oil. When finished with that, turn the egg rolls, fry for another minute and a half, then remove everything.
Cauliflower Fried Rice
Ingredients:
1 lb. bag frozen cauliflower florets, riced in a food processor
3 slices bacon, diced
2 large eggs
2 talks of green onions, sliced thinly
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
Method of Madness:
Fry diced bacon very crisp, set aside on paper towels. Add sesame oil to a med-high skillet, dump in the cauliflower and let it fry, stirring constantly, for about four minutes. Push cauliflower to the side, add more oil, and drop in the garlic, ginger, and green onions. Add fish sauce, soy sauce, and black pepper to the “rice”.
Mix everything together and fry for a few more minutes. Push everything to the side once more, crack the eggs and allow them to cook, stirring constantly. Add bacon, stir everything together, and remove from heat.
For condiments, I recommend sweet and sour sauce, soy sauce, or something spicy. I used some sweet chili sauce and made some hot mustard last night.
Froze the rest of the wonton filling, scrambled the egg roll filling with some cheese. Good eats were had by all.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of Cooking with Kilgore™. Good evening from Western Wishes.