Tag: Chinese

Veggie Egg Rolls

Egg RollsHomemade Egg Rolls

If Egg Rolls are on the menu, you can be sure that I’m going to get them.  I’ll even buy them at Jack in the Box or 7 eleven, because I like them that much.  And, if you want to take it step further, dip the Egg Rolls in a Chinese Frying batter, just like the batter that’s on Sweet and sour Pork or Chicken, and then fry it.  Mm-mm; that’s good sheet!  But for this recipe, let’s just focus on the basics, and keep it simple.

Vegetable Egg Rolls consist mostly of one simple ingredient.  Any guess’s?  That’s right, vegetables!  Which means you can put practically any vegetable you want inside these, and as long as you follow a few basic rules, they’re going to turn out great!  First, you have to season your veggies with a light saute.  I say light because you don’t want to over cook your ingredients before you fry them, thus cooking them a second time and creating a soggy flavorless mess.  That being said, 1 minute of pan time is all you need to lightly salt and pepper, maybe a pinch of sugar for sweetener and your favorite sauce.  In this case I use Tempura Dipping sauce, and I talk about it HERE!  As for the rest of my recipe, I just use a coleslaw premix I bought in the produce with the addition of Bean Sprouts.  Egg Roll Wrappers can usually be found there too.

Egg Roll Ingredients:

For 8 Egg Rolls I use
Egg Roll Wrappers
1/2 bag of Coleslaw Premix (about 8oz)
1/2 cup Bean Sprouts
2 tbsp Tempura Dipping Sauce (Teriyaki is a half decent substitute)
1 tsp Sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Perfect Tempura Every Time

Tempura is Touchy!

Lets nail down the issues most people have with making Tempura, starting with buying it in a box.  For the most part, you’re just buying a box of flour with a fancy picture on the front that shows you how good it could look if you buy their product.  But does that make sense?  You’ve got flour at home in your kitchen, right?  Oh, maybe you need the directions on the back of the box.  Wait, that doesn’t make sense either because you’ve got the web at your finger tips.  You can just look it up.  So here we are, you and I, and we’re going to get through this together.

Tempura in a Box

Soda Water or Club SodaThe truth is that no matter what the contents of that Tempura box are, flour, corn starch or whatever, the box directions are WRONG!  Sure they give you a few pointers from step 1 to 3 but they don’t talk about a few key issues you will have if you don’t mix it in the right order, if you just use regular tap water or if you don’t keep your batter ice cold.  That’s right.  If you ignore any one of these 3 things, your Tempura is not going to turn out right.

Tempura Ingredients:

1 egg yoke
1 cup Tonic or Seltzer Water, Carbanated is the key
1 cup Flour

  • Mix the ingredients in a bowl over the top of another bowl full of ice water
  • Stir the liquids first, then add the flour and don’t over mix; leave it lumpy
  • Use ice cold Tonic or Seltzer water, not Tap, to get the batter to poof up

Watch the video tutorial and follow these simple instructions and you will have perfect Tempura, every single time.

Oriental Salad with Dressing

Oriental SaladOriental Salad made with Leftovers!

There’s nothing that top secret about an Oriental Salad.  But I’m going to make one using leftovers.  I can walk into almost any kitchen, open the refrigerator and turn out a gourmet dish.  Obviously a salad is a weak example, but it is an example none the less.  Lomo Saltado was left over in my refrigerator today and I decided to turn out an Oriental Salad.  Not that that’s too difficult in itself, but the secret to an oriental salad lies in the dressing.  So, though I’m whipping out a quick salad, I want the main focus to be two things, leftovers and the dressing.

The best part is everybody has leftovers.  So there is a very large variety of options you could probably turn out in your own salad.  Beef and Chicken are the easiest, and since my Lomo Saltado recipe has onions and peppers in it as well, I feel like this is the best choice for an Oriental Salad as well as an excellent opportunity to introduce my oriental salad dressing. There are two sauces you need to be aware of; Sriracha, made by Rooster and Kikkoman’s Tempura Dipping Sauce. Sriracha is HOT but it has an excellent flavor for oriental foods that only it can provide.  Use this sparingly and to your desired tastes.  Tempura Dipping sauce is great for many things.  I use this when I make Lo Mein or Ham Fried Rice!

Sriracha and Tempura Dipping SauceOriental Salad Dressing Ingredients:

½ cup Mayonnaise
1 tsp Oyster Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
½ tsp Sriracha
2 oz Tempura Dipping Sauce

All the ingredients are pretty basic for this salad.  Just be sure to add onions, peppers and some sort of Crispy noodle.  I use uncooked Ramen on purpose just to show that it can be done and it can still taste excellent.  The Dressing is simple and lies as follows in the above ingredients.  Make sure you try an Oriental Salad with this Oriental Dressing next time you’re craving it.