Wednesday, June 26, 2013

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.

    13 comments:

    1. I've pretty much stopped deep frying anything, but gave in for onion rings this week. Life without fresh Walla Walla onion rings would not be good

      ;-)

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    2. This lavender looks very pleasant, I can remind myself of its smell by looking at your photos :)

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    3. What does that Lavender syrup taste like? Is it nice? What would you use it for / in?

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      1. I made it because I had it at the new restaurant (which is fabulous). They had a gin, lemon, and lavender syrup drink that was delicious. I wanted to see if I could recreate it.

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    4. You have been very busy! The egg rolls look amazing.

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    5. I agree, the egg rolls look incredible, mmmm. What do you use the lavender syrup for, Daphne? I have some lavender sugar, but I struggle to use it.

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      1. I'm trying to create a rum, lemon, and lavender syrup recipe.

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    6. I have lavender hanging to dry too but my bundles are smaller. I wasn't sure how large I could make them and still have them dry. I wish I would have gotten more picked because since all the rain most of mine have really budded out too. Maybe I will try some of those anyway. What do you plan to use the lavender syrup for? I'm working on peas too this week! Thanks for your help. I don't like the smell of meat cooking in the house so put the crockpot in the garage a lot to cook. Nancy

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      1. My local restaurant has a drink made with it that I want to try to recreate.

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      2. Another question bout the sugar peas. I picked quite a few the day before yesterday. Then I picked a few more today but not nearly like the other day. I didn't see very many little ones on there so I was wondering if they blossom again and produce or if it is time to pull them out? Another question about the shelling peas. I think I read that cukes shouldn't follow peas. Do you know anything about that as wanted to plant some after the peas? Thanks for your help. Nancy

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      3. Don't know about cukes following peas. But then I've planted onions near my peas with no issues and they aren't supposed to get along either. And I have no issues with dill in my carrot patch.

        With snap peas it depends upon the variety. With Cascadia (the type I grow) the first flush is really big. Then wait a week or two and you will start seeing the buds appear again. The second flush has smaller peas. It will make a third flush with even smaller and more deformed peas. That last one for me isn't all that good, but I love peas. Then I pull them up as the plants are just about dead and are totally infested with powdery mildew.

        It helps to plant two successions about 3 weeks apart to try to time the waves. So when one is getting harvested the other one is starting to put out buds. Mine are too close together as I planted them only 2 weeks apart. BTW three weeks apart in very early spring will make them produce about a week apart. They don't grow fast in the cold weather.

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    7. Thanks for the recipe, they sound really good.

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