Shepherd's Pie Eggrolls

Every year for my birthday, Schmambs makes me dinner.  How is that different from every other night?  For starters, I get to choose the menu.  The best part about Schmambs is that she will cook anything my little Asian heart desires, even if she's never made it before.  Last year was easy.  We had a Thanksgiving Feast since she makes this amazing bacon turkey.  This year, I had Shepherd's Pie on the mind after stumbling across a recipe for a Sweet Potato Chipotle Sheperd's Pie from the Deen Brothers (you know, Paula's boys).  Not a fan of sweet potatoes, I thought it would be fun to have a traditional Shepherd's Pie.  Then, since Schmambs and I have been brainstorming eggroll recipes for the fast approaching football season, we thought we would try Shepherd's Pie Eggrolls.  And to make it that much better, we were going to add bacon to the mix.


Schmambs has this amazing ability to multi-task.  If it were left to me, I'd probably burn the house down.  This is probably why I leave all the more elaborate dishes to be made at Schmambs' rather than when I'm home alone.  She had the bacon cooking while she browned the ground beef.





After the beef was browned, she drained it and mixed in some whole kernel corn and fresh chopped celery.  A typical Shepherd's Pie calls for carrots, peas, and onions.  Schmambs cut up an onion and tossed it in the skillet to be cooked before adding it to the beef, corn, and celery mixture.  Schmambs isn't a fan of peas (I don't love 'em, but don't mind them) and I am not particularly fond of cooked carrots, so we decided to leave those out and substitute with the celery.

   

Once the onions were done cooking, she added them in as well.

Are you drooling yet?  Remember that bacon that Schmambs had been frying?  It was now time to add that crispy bacon.  To ensure a piece of bacon in every bite, Schmambs chopped all the strips up before throwing it in the beef mixture.  In a traditional Shepherd's Pie, the beef mixture is covered with mashed potatoes.  We couldn't leave those out.  Instead of slaving away at mashed potatoes from scratch, we took the shortcut and made instant mashed potatoes.  We're not proud of it, but the project was already labor intense and hungry stomachs needed to be fed.  And to be quite honest, they weren't all that terrible when combined with all the other ingredients and fried.

  

Then comes the fun part of putting the eggrolls together.  Despite all the eggrolls we have made in the past, we are still trying to perfect the rolling process.  Some come out too fat.  Some resemble blobs more than eggrolls.  The insides of the Shepherd's Pie eggrolls look a little something like this.  Oh yeah, did I mention that we threw some cheese into the mix too?  This cheese happened to be a Mexican blend from Jalapeno Nachos we made the other night.  I would probably recommend a Cheddar cheese if you were going to try making these at home.

We used a package of eggroll wrappers and decided that we probably had enough eggrolls to feed an army and we would save the remaining mixture to make more eggrolls another night.  Schmambs heat the oil up and in went the eggrolls.  Pop pop pop went the oil.  Sizzle sizzle sizzle went the eggrolls.  Before long we had a pile of piping hot Shepherd's Pie eggrolls ready to be consumed.

A traditional Shepherd's Pie has the beef in a gravy.  Since we were making it in eggroll form, we didn't want too much liquid in the filler since that gives the eggrolls more opportunities to leak when we're frying them, so we decided to dip them in gravy.  Nothing hard.  A package of Brown Gravy from McCormick's and call it a day.  We were famished by the time we finished that I wanted to get a picture of the final product and dig in, so regretfully, I do not have a picture of the eggroll with all it's gravy goodness, but it was delicious.

Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls

I realized the other day that it's been a while since I've posted.  With Schmambs having made the transition from Stay-At-Home Mom back into the working world and transitions at my job, there haven't been as many opportunities for home cooked meals.  It took a nudge from my friend (and fellow foodie) Nicole at High Heel Photography to remind me that I have readers out there who miss their fix of delicious goodies.  So I'm back and hopefully going to be posting on a more regular basis.  At some point I'm going to have to learn to cook myself, right?  Schmambs can't feed me forever!

If you remember, Schmambs and I came up with the brilliant idea of Thanksgiving Eggrolls last year.  I dubbed them "Schmanksgiving Eggrolls" and they were filled with chicken (yes, we cheated a little because we didn't have turkey on hand) and stuffing and mashed potatoes and celery and topped with cranberry sauce.  Ohmygoodness, I'm drooling just remembering them.  Well, since that was such a success, we thought it would be fun to stuff those crispy wrappers with some other yummu filling.  It was still football season, so Sunday's were still Buffalo Chicken Wings day's.  It was decided unanimously.  We were going to make Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls.

When I arrived that Sunday, Schmambs already had all the ingredients mixed together in a bowl.  We had decided on chicken (obviously), hot sauce, celery, and shredded Mozzarella.  Now, I know Buffalo Wings are usually eaten with Bleu Cheese, but in an effort to ensure that everyone would eat and enjoy (namely me, the picky eater) the eggrolls, Mozzarella it was.  Plus, it was being used as more of a bonding agent.  There would be Bleu Cheese Dressing (or Ranch for the picky eaters) for dipping.

Making the filling is the easy part.  Then comes the tedious task of making each eggroll individually while frying and making sure they don't overcook and (and quite possibly burn the house down).  Good thing we had four hands between the two of us.  Schmambs and I rolled together for a while until it got down to the last few and she started the frying process.  

We ended up with a good amount of eggrolls.  I think more than we expected/could handle in one sitting.  We knew we would probably end up snacking on cold eggrolls later that night.  Afterall, we are only three adults and a six year old.  Eggrolls don't look like they'd be filling, but after about 2 1/2 - 3 eggrolls each, we were suffering a bit of a bellyache.  Good thing we were all smart and were wearing our elastic waistband pants!

Schmanksgiving Eggrolls

It all started with an idea.  Schmambs invited me over for Thanksgiving Shumai night.  At first I thought she meant her chicken shumai which she made around Thanksgiving last year and was turning it into an annual event.  Lo and behold, she had been thinking about stuffing the shumai with Thanksgiving related foods.  This put my foodie brain in high gear.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love Thanksgiving foods.  For my birthday, I requested a Thanksgiving meal for my birthday dinner.  Schmambs not only obliged, but she made her bacon turkey.  But that's another story for another time.

After putting a bit of thought into it, I thought that the filling would tear the shumai wrapper since they are so delicate.  Especially since you steam them.  So I suggested putting everything in eggroll wrappers.  I first tried "Thanksgiving Eggrolls" at one of my childhood restaurants, J.J. McKay's, and ever since, have been itching to recreate them at home.  This was the perfect opportunity.  Schmambs knows how to cook.  I'm great at tasting and making suggestions.  Schmambs' hubby guest starred with ideas of his own as well as contributed by being our fry chef.

We decided to forgo the turkey this time around and substitute it with chicken since that's what was on hand.  By the time I arrived, Schmambs had already started the process and was cooking the chicken in a skillet on the stove.

Now what to stuff them with?  Well, at Thanksgiving, it is traditional to have stuffing.  And typically, the stuffing would have celery.  We thought that the celery would give the eggrolls a bit of texture.  Originally we had planned on using green beans, but then thought they might be too crunchy (and Schmambs' hubby is not a big fan) so we changed over to celery.  It turned out to be a good call.

         

And of course, you can't forget the mashed potatoes.  I'll admit, we cheated (due to time constraints - a 5 year old has to eat, doesn't she?!) and used instant mashed potatoes.  Gross, right?  Well, it turned out to not be as bad as we had anticipated.  Schmambs always spoils us by making mashed potatoes from scratch.  Maybe next time.  The lumps in homemade potatoes could also give a little more texture, not that the eggrolls needed any more.  But it's a thought.  

Then came the fun part.  Getting the oil ready for the frying process and rolling the eggrolls!  I know I posted a picture of a cast iron skillet filled with oil and once you've seen one, you've seen them all, but let's just sit back for a second and enjoy all the deliciousness the oil makes food. 

  Or you could just feel sick seeing that amount of oil in one place and if that's the case, I apologize.  I am one of those that believes anything fried has to be good.  Schmambs took the lead and started putting together the first eggroll.  

Chopped chicken, mashed Potatoes, stuffing, and celery
in one happy wrapper.

Not bad for the first one, right?

Before long, we had our test batch ready to be fried.  

The suggested time for frying was 2-3 minutes.  We found that it only took about a minute to a minute and a half.  These fry fast!  And all that really needed to be fried was the eggroll wrapper.  All the ingredients in the filler had been pre-cooked.  As you can tell, the test batch came out a little burnt...

Eventually we got it right and we had a plate overflowing with golden delicious goodness.

Most places that I have eaten some sort of Thanksgiving food combo has included the cranberry sauce in the item.  We decided to be a little creative and drizzle the cranberry sauce over the eggrolls.  We cheated on this one too and used cranberry sauce from the can.  But don't worry, we didn't use it straight from the can.  We heated it up in a saucepan in an effort to get it to a semi-liquid form.  However, that didn't seem to work and we just had heated up cranberry sauce that wasn't shaped like a can.  But it did the trick.  I ended up making an eggroll with the cranberry sauce inside and I think next time we might make a few tweaks and put the cranberry inside.  But for our first go at it, the drizzle seemed like a good idea.  And of course, what is Thanksgiving without gravy?!  We used it as a dipping sauce as is used at J.J.McKay's and D'Angelo's Thanksgiving Toasted Sandwich.  Our final product was something to be proud of and it was super yummu.  

Schmanksgiving Eggrolls:


* ~ 1 lb of turkey (chicken if desired)
* 1 box of stuffing
* 2 - 4 servings of mashed potatoes
* 2 celery stalks chopped up
* i package eggroll wrappers
* 1 - 2 egg yolk
* 3-4 cups oil for frying


Cut chicken or turkey into bite-sized pieces and cook in a skillet.  Season with salt and pepper (optional).  Once meat is cooked, chop finely and place aside.  Cook stuffing as directed on box.  You can also prepare homemade according to your own recipe.  Place aside.  Chop up celery and place aside.  You can mix it into the stuffing or add it with the filling separately.  Prepare the mashed potatoes according to the box (if using instant) or according to your own recipe for homemade.  Place aside.  Separate egg yolks to use as a sealant on the eggrolls.  Place aside.  


Once all ingredients are prepared, place eggroll wrapper so that it looks like a diamond.  One of the points should be pointed towards your body.  The wrapper packaging should have instructions on how to roll the wrapper into an eggroll.  If you reference one of the pictures above, you will see how the filling should look in the wrapper.  Roll the wrapper over the filling once and then bring the sides in before rolling again.  Save a bit at the tip so you can brush the egg yolk to provide and adhesive.  Finish rolling.  


Wait until oil reaches about 350 degrees before dropping eggrolls in.  Each side should take about 30 - 45 seconds.  Make sure to monitor them as they will burn quickly.  Place on a paper towel to drain.  Drizzle cranberry sauce over eggrolls before serving with a side of gravy.