Egg Rolls for Supper!

We love the winter garden for many reasons, there's no worry about pests eating your crops, you don't have to water as much, the weather is cooler for harvesting, etc.  You can actually walk through the garden and just graze like a cow might, stopping to break off some sweet peas to nibble on, tear off some fresh lettuce, chew on some parsley or cilantro while you're walking in the garden.

Some of the produce actually makes it into the kitchen though.  When I got home tonight, Tricia had started making egg rolls, so I caught some of the process on camera.  We used to be sort of intimidated by making them, but they are easy to make and use all the fresh produce from the garden that is currently being harvested.  They are also a big hit with our family.  Let's get started.

First, Tricia took some mushrooms, four cups of cabbage, a stalk of celery, some green onions, and a couple of cosmic purple carrots and put them in the food processor and grated them up nicely.


Fresh ingredients

 She then puts that mixture along with 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger, a dash of salt, a dash of sugar, and a dash of garlic powder into a cast iron dutch oven that has been heated up with a little oil and cooks it, stirring constantly and then adds 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce.  Tonight she had one of our chickens that she had deboned that she chopped and added into the pot as well.


The filling for the egg rolls

  You'll need to purchase a package of egg roll wrappers.  You can find them in the produce department of your grocery store.


Egg Roll Wrappers

Take a couple of tablespoons of the mixture simmering in the dutch oven and spoon diagonally like shown below.  Then take the bottom corner and pull over the mixture until it is covered.  Take the left corner of the egg roll wrapper and pull toward the center.  Now take the right corner of the egg roll wrapper and pull toward the center.  The final step in the top corner.  Take some water on your finger and rub along the corner as this will act as glue to seal the egg roll.  Tightly pull the top corner down and over the egg roll and press down to seal.

Let's roll!

Before you get concerned about the cutting board.  The red stuff is not blood.  It is stained from some fresh beets that were just cut up.  We'll show you those in a minute.  Tricia is putting the finishing touches on an egg roll. 


Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Here is the first one.  It takes a little practice, but you get better with each one.  Before you know it, you're a pro.

First one is done

 Once you get some ready, place them in a cash iron skillet with a little oil and fry until golden brown.


3 egg rolls frying

 Roll them over and fry evenly.  Tricia even puts them on their sides and stands them up to make sure they are fully cooked.  

Almost done!

While we're working on rolling and frying the rest of them up, we might as well work on a side dish.  Since the sugar snap peas are coming in right now, what could be a better companion for some egg rolls than some stir fried sugar snap peas?  Here's some we just picked out of the garden. 



Sugar snap peas

To cook them, here is the secret ingredient: homemade butter from our Jersey cow, Daisy.  Butter makes everything better! 



Homemade butter from Daisy Lou!

Put a dollop of butter in your skillet, put in the sugar snap peas and look out!  If Tricia's not careful, I'll eat them right out of the skillet.  In addition to tasting great, they look good, too.  They turn the most brilliant green color. 

That looks good, right there.

  The peas are done and just in time, as the egg rolls are hot and ready to eat, too.    

A platter of homemade egg rolls (these won't last long!)

We almost forgot.  As another side dish, Tricia cut up some fresh beets and sweet potatoes and put them in a stoneware tray.  She drizzled some melted Daisy butter with some sea salt and black pepper, put them in the oven and roasted them - talk about good!


Oven roasted root vegetables - sweet potatoes & beets

I wanted to get a picture of the plate, but we were all too busy eating to take the time to take one.  This meal is a fun and delicious way to take advantage of the winter vegetables we're harvesting right now.