Avocado Eggrolls

One of my favorite appetizers from the Cheesecake Factory is their avocado eggrolls. So here's my little take on it. Eggrolls are generally deep-fried. For this, I did a quick pan-fry. You can bake them too, if you'd like. The ingredients a pretty straight forward and can probably be found in your own pantry. Avocado, onion, parsley, sun dried tomato, balsamic vinegar.

I paired the egg rolls with a Filipino style teriyaki sauce. These are great appetizers or if you're like me have them for dinner.

Makes 6 eggrolls

Avocado Eggrolls

1 medium ripe avocado - diced
1/2 medium sweet onion - sliced
1/2 c parsley - chopped
1 c sun-dried tomato (drained from oil)
Juice of half lime
1 Tbsp paprika
salt and pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 egg - well beaten
6 egg rolls wrappers.
Canola oil
Pinoy Style Teriyaki Sauce (recipe below)

Saute the onions in a skillet until it they slightly turn brown, near caramelizing. Add the sun-dried tomato and saute for another 2-4 minutes.

Remove from the skillet and into a bowl season with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Add Parsley avocado and lime juice and balsamic vinegar. together. Mix together.

Take an eggrolls wrapper and place it like a diamond on a flat surface and place a generous scoop of the mixture.

To roll- bring the corner over and roll once. The bring in the sides and wet the top corner with the egg wash. Roll once more to seal. Do this for each.

Heat some canola oil in a skillet. When the oil is hot pan-fry the eggrolls each ride roughly 60 seconds or until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve warm.

You may also deep-fry or bake these.

Serve with the teriyaki sauce

Pinoy Style Teriyaki Sauce

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
juice of half lemon or lime
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp worschestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients together.

Teriyaki Glazed Chicken Tacos

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!! It's time to get your margarita on. Wooooo...

How about some tacos with an Asian twist, eh? This is my take on the whole Korean taco craze here in LA. Take that Kogi BBQ!!! (...but in all seriousness they really do have good tacos.)

For my version, it has some teriyaki glazed pan-fried chicken on a bed of stir-fried veggies in a warm wheat tortilla.



Glazed Teriyaki Chicken Tacos

Teriyaki Glazed Chicken:

4 large chicken tenders
Salt
Pepper
Paprika

4 Tbsp Soy Sauce
4 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp Water

For the Glaze: In a small saucepan, combine soy sauce, vinegar, garlic powder, cornstarch and brown sugar and heat until the glaze thickens.

Season the chicken tenders with salt, pepper and paprika.

Heat a pan with some oil. When hot, cook chicken rough 5-8 min per side. Baste the chicken with the glaze before turning. Baste again after turning.


Veggie Stir-Fry:

1 red bell pepper (sliced)
1 yellow bell pepper (sliced)
1 small onion (sliced)
2 baby bok choy (sliced)
2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
Sesame Seeds
salt & pepper to season

In a wok or large skillet, heat some cooking. Saute the onions, bell peppers, and bok choy. Season with salt and pepper.

When the the veggies looks tender, adding the oyster sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes. Stir to distribute flavors. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and stir once again.


Putting it all together: Wrap loosely 4 tortillas flat in some foil. Warm in the oven for 5-10min.

Place a nice helping of the stir-fry then a chicken tender, wrap it up and enjoy.

Spinach Wontons

I was trying to figure out what to do with some leftover egg roll wrappers I had in the fridge. Searching high and low in the ol' refrigerator, I spot some onion, lemon juice, sour cream. Open the freezer...frozen spinach. Confused look on my face, then the light bulb moment. Ting!!! Wontons!!! Then I remembered Greg from SippitySup had done something similar with his pea puree, so that got me thinking. I can take my spinach dip recipe and make it as a filling for wontons. The only thing I left out was the water chestnuts, which is completely optionalfor this. Plus I didn't have any on hand

I did baked these. The nice thing about baking them is that you can do it in large batches compared to deep-frying them. They had the crispy edges of the fried version and a slight softness the soup kind. I had also made a dipping sauce to go with this, but totally forgot to take a pic of it. But it was good, too. A nice mild salty-tang and of soy sauce color, if that would be of any help.

You can deep-fry these in the traditional way to get that bubbly wonton look everyone is famliar with.



Spinach Wontons

1 small box frozen spinach (defrosted & chopped)
1/4 medium onion (diced)
3 Tbsp Sour cream
20 wonton wrapper
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/3 c grated romano cheese (plus extra)
1/3 water chestnuts (chopped - optional)
Salt and pepper to season.

Optional:
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 2 Tbsp water)

Preheat oven 400˚F

Make sure to drain all the excess water from the spinach. In a pan, heat some oil and saute the garlic for 30 sec. Then add the onions. Cook tossing occasionally until they are tender and translucent. Next, add the spinach and the optional water chestnuts. Season with salt and pepper. Toss again for 2-3 min.

Place the spinach mixture in a bowl and add the sour cream. Mix Thoroughly.

Take a wonton wrapper and place a dollop of the spinach mixture in the middle.

Wet one corner and the two adjoining sides of the wrapper with the eggwash and fold into a triangle. Fold into a triange shape. Press firmly to seal.

You can leave it in the triangle shape or make it into the tortellini shape. Baste the wontons in the egg wash or olive oil.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. (This will keep the wontons from sticking) Sprinkle some of the extra romano cheese on top of the wontons. Bake for 20-25min.


Dipping Sauce:

2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Combine all three ingredients.


You may add this to some boiling broth to make into wonton soup. Just omit the egg wash and crimp the edges together firmly.

Shrimpy Love

Course #3 - Main Dish

I had no idea what title to give this. It's either the current one or shrimp in cream sauce with sauteed baby bok choy over garlic and olive oil couscous. Right. That wouldn't fit with the limited space given.

I hope you enjoyed the coming attractions as now I give you the feature presentation.

This recipe will serve 2-4 people. (Depending on how hungry one person is)


Shrimp in Cream Sauce
1 Lb Shrimp - deveined and shelled (you may add more)
1 Garlic clove - minced
2 Tbs Butter or margarine
3 Tbs Lemon Juice
1 8oz can Evaporated Milk.

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and heat garlic. Add in shrimp. Stir constantly until they turn a nice white-pink color.

When the shrimp is cooked, add in lemon juice and evaporated milk. Stir occasionally and bring to s slow simmer.


Garlic and olive oil Couscous

1 box Casbah brand flavored couscous.

Rather than cooking it with water, I used 1 1/2 c chicken stock to add a little more flavor.

Bring the stock to a boil before adding the couscous. It'll cook in about 5 min. Fluff with a fork to break it apart before serving.


Sauteed Baby Bok choy

1 bundle baby bok choy (per person)
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to season

Heat the oil in a saute pan and add in the baby bok choy. Season lightly with some salt and pepper, then add in soy sauce. Cook for roughly 3-5 min.


Putting it all together: Take a bowl or plate and place a nice helping of couscous as the base. Top with some of the sauteed baby bok choy and shrimp with cream sauce.

The sauce gets absorbed by the couscous giving it a nice lemon-garlic flavor.