Laveder, Peas, Broccoli, and Egg Rolls

There has been a lot of preserving done in my house recently. As usual I missed the lavender when it was in the bud stage when you are supposed to pick it for use in the kitchen, but I picked it anyway. Some had buds, some flowers had opened. It still smelled fabulous.

Some of the flowers I made into a simple syrup. The color is from the sugar and not the lavender. I'd never made this one before and was hoping to get the purple from the flowers. But none of the color bled out.

The rest of the flowers and buds I dehydrated. I had way too much to fit into the dehydrator so I made two bundles and they are hanging on the sides of my mantle. Earlier in the morning I had dehydrated parsley too. I have so many herbs to work through.

Both Monday and Tuesday I was blanching and freezing peas. I blanch peas for exactly two minutes then dump them as quickly as possible into a tub with a lot of ice water.

Tuesday I did more than just peas. I had the first broccoli harvest. I knew I couldn't eat it all so I blanched and froze some. I used to tray freeze them and put them into a ziploc but I've found that vacuum sealing them in individual packets keeps them so much longer and fresher. So I do that now. In some ways it is worse as I can't measure out what I want. I have to defrost a packet size (usually a cup).

Yesterday afternoon I made a huge batch of egg roll innards. I have trouble with deep frying things as I just detest the smell of the oil in the house afterwards. And since it has been hot and humid the house has been closed up. So I made the insides one day.

Then early the next morning while it was still not deathly hot I put them together and deep fried them. I had the deep frier under the window with a fan pointing out. It worked pretty well. I can still smell the oil just a little now that the house is closed up again, but not a lot.

This is the first time I've made egg rolls. I put a recipe together that was a compendium of other recipes. They included of course all the things that are coming out of the garden right now. I added 50% to the recipe. I figured I would go through a packet and a half of wrappers, but nope. It only made 22. And that is about how many come in a packet. So below I have a new recipe adjusted for how much it really makes.

Egg Rolls

1 1/2 T oil

1 lb shelled shrimp (optional)

6 cloves garlic minced

3 T fresh ginger grated

8 oz shiitake mushrooms (optional)

3 T soy sauce

2 T rice wine

1 1/2 T sugar

1 1/2 c bunching onions chopped

1 1/2 c carrots shredded

10 c Chinese cabbage shredded

1 package egg roll wrappers

oil for deep frying

Saute shrimp in oil in a very large pan until just done. Remove from pan and cool. Chop into small pieces.

Add mushrooms, ginger, and garlic to pan and cook until mushroom are soft. Add the liquids and sugar and stir to deglaze pan. Add the onions and carrots and mix very well to get the garlic and ginger well incorporated. Add cabbage, stir, and cook until soft. Drain well.

Put the egg roll wrapper so one of the points if facing down. Put 1/4 c of the cabbage mixture and some of the shrimp onto the middle bottom of the egg roll. Form it the mixture so it is in a rough tube shape. Moisten the top corner. Fold the bottom corner up and over the mixture. Then fold each side corner in. Tightly roll it up. Deep fry at 375F for 3-4 minutes or until brown. Flip in the middle. Don't crowd them too much or the oil will get too cool. Drain on newspaper covered by paper towels.

All of mine except one are getting frozen. I'm going to taste test that one for lunch.