Recipe #12 - Appetizers - Redneck Egg Rolls

With HUGE apologies to Crazy Asian Girl, who has a beautiful blog, with some really beautiful photos and tasty sounding Asian influenced recipes, and only slightly less apologies to the TV show The View that had an all cooking show yesterday right before I started thinking about my lunch, I am going to blog about my afternoon snack.

I have a nice little stack of Tupperware in my fridge right now with some very tasty leftovers. I was planning on polishing off some chicken salad I made from that smoked Chicken Stuffed with Flavored Butter (best chicken recipe I have ever made). Then the View came on. I didn't catch the guy's name, but he was making Whoopie Goldberg's favorite meal, and she chose egg rolls as her top appetizer. The gentleman listed the ingredients, and what a shock, most of them were in my fridge!Main ingredients were CABBAGE and meat. He said that you can use just about nay meat for an egg roll, shrimp, pork, fish, steak... and RIBS! Sure enough, I had just a small amount of cabbage left over from that amazing Barbecued Cabbage I made a few days ago, and I still had a few left over Spareribs from yesterdays session at the smoker. Toss in a few diced onions, julian sliced carrots and you have the stuffing. I put everything into a saute pan with a teaspoon of bacon fat, and sauteed away. I didn't add any spices, as the ribs were loaded with spices from the rub, and the cabbage has BBQ sauce baked in.

I didn't have any real egg roll pastry squares, but I did have some sun dried tomato wraps that looked like I could use to make these. So, instead of making a trip to the store, I used what I had. Oddly enough, they worked great...


I wrapped them up, looking more like a Hot Pocket than an egg roll, but hey, that;s part of what makes em redneck and not Asian influenced. Then put them a pan with about 1/2 inch of Canola oil, pre heated to about 350 degrees (medium). These cooked amazingly fast, 15 seconds on each side and they were golden brown (with a few dark patches).

Amazingly enough, they tasted FANTASTIC. the mix of the BBQ cabbage, the rib meat, all worked together and were very satisfying. I tend to make quite a bit of food whenever I fire up the smoker. I always have plenty to make leftovers with, and am always looking for something new and unique to do with food three days later. these pass the test, and are a great lunch or snack. If I used real egg role dough, I would serve these as an appetizer for the right meal. A HUGE winner!
does anyone have a good leftover recipe they want to share, send me a link to something you created...
And Crazy Asian Girl has put up a few shots of her cat, thought I would share my cooking partner giving me the stink eye as I explain my plans for making redneck egg rolls...

His name is Eng (he has a sister we named Chang, after the most famous Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker). Actually, Chang is my wife's favorite, while Eng is mine. Eng loves to sit on my side counter and watch me cook. Chang and Eng contribute to our marital stability, as they are inseparable.

So Crazy, don't you judge my egg rolls with out knowing you are judging a cat lover.

Judge me, judge my cat!