Egg Roll in a Bowl with Wonton Crisps -- more Lunar New Year #recipe fun

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  The Lunar New Year – Year of the Dragon – starts this Saturday, February 10, We loved testing recipes for Between a Wok and a Dead Place, set at the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, like these Longevity Noodles, Egg Tarts, and Five Spice French Apple Custard Cake, illustrated so beautifully by friend of the blog, Kim Davis. 

As Pepper says in Wok, foods used to celebrate the Lunar New Year are often symbolic. The length of the noodles in Longevity Noodles symbolizes long life, and stacks of spring rolls are said to look like gold bars.

I’m as fond of gold bars as the next girl, but I wanted to try something new. Egg rolls, I thought, even though deep frying scares me a bit. But then I found this recipe for Egg Roll in a Bowl, a sort of deconstructed egg roll, and thought I could manage that. It’s not a traditional LNY dish—it’s symbolic value is mainly to remind us how absolutely delicious Chinese food is. No frying, no wok. Great fun and flavor. It’s now joined our rotation, along with these Cold Sesame Noodles and this Stir-Fried Beef and Sugar Snap Peas or the Broccoli Beef recipe in The Solace of Bay Leaves.

Often, I learn a better way to do something as I make the recipe, and that was the case here, so the photos don’t perfectly match the instructions. Oh, well—I know you can read! The original recipe said to cut the egg roll wrappers for the crisps, then oil them. Much better to oil first! Hint: They're quick to make, so bake one wrapper per person, and bake a fresh batch to go with your leftovers, which are fabulous! 

Get your vegetables ready before you start the rice. Grating the carrots was a lot of work, and we quickly realized that thinly sliced carrots would taste even better. I’m fairly sure I’d never cooked Napa cabbage before, though I’d eaten it. Four cups turned out to be about half a small head, so buy—and plan the rest of your week’s cooking---accordingly. 

The original also called for cooking a pound of ground beef, turkey, pork, or chicken in the pan after sauteeing the garlic and ginger, for a combo reminiscent of an egg roll. We skipped the meat, although at the last minute, decided to add some frozen, cooked shrimp we thawed. You could do either one, or marinate flank steak, as in my Stir-Fried Beef and Sugar Snap Peas,  and cook that up at the aromatics stage. 

Next time, we’ll add Chinese Five Spice before returning the cooked vegetables to the pan, sauteeing it briefly. And there will be a next time, because despite the chopping required, this dish is easy and full of flavor, and reheats beautifully. Turns out egg roll wrappers do freeze, if wrapped well. 

Wishing you a roaring good Year of the Dragon! Tell us how you plan to celebrate!

Egg Roll in a Bowl with Wonton Crisps

For the crisps:

4 wonton or egg roll wrappers

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

kosher salt, for seasoning

black pepper, for seasoning

For the egg roll filling:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

3 cups shiitake and crimini mushrooms, ¼" thick slices

1 ½ cup carrots, thinly sliced (about 2 medium carrots)

4 cups napa cabbage, ¼" thick slices

1 ½ cups bean sprouts, rinsed

1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish 

kosher salt 

black pepper 

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

3 tablespoons soy sauce

Optional additions: 

1 pound ground turkey, chicken, beef, or pork

1 pound marinated flank steak (see Stir-Fried Beef and Sugar Snap Peas)

https://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2018/03/stir-fried-beef-and-sugar-snap-peas.html

cooked shrimp

For serving:

cooked rice 

soy sauce

sliced green onion, for garnish 

To bake the crisps: 

Heat oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Lightly brush the wrappers with vegetable oil, on both sides. Cut into strips, ½-inch wide. Lay on parchment and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 5 minutes; turn over and bake 1-2 minutes longer. Watch closely, as they will brown quickly. Remove from oven and set aside. They will continue to crisp as they cool. 

To cook the filling: 

Heat a large saute pan or wok over medium high. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add mushrooms and saute 1-2 minutes, until beginning to soften and turn color at the edges. Add carrots and saute for 1 minute. Add the cabbage and saute for 1 minute. Add the bean sprouts and green onions and saute for 1 minute. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper, stir to combine. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Return pan to heat. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and sesame oil. Once hot, add the garlic and ginger. Saute until fragrant, making sure the garlic doesn’t burn, about 15 seconds.

If you’re adding ground or sliced meat, add it now. Cook until done, no longer pink, breaking it down into smaller pieces, about 3 to 4 minutes. 

Add soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper, and stir to combine.

Return the cooked vegetables to the pan. If you’re using cooked shrimp, add it now. Stir until warmed through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season to taste. 

Serve on rice, with soy sauce, garnished with wonton crisps and green onions. 

Serves 4.

                                       TO ERR IS CUMIN

A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, coming July 16, 2024 in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

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