It was the bf's birthday on the weekend & all he really wanted to eat was PIZZA HUT & an NBA championship trophy cake! It's his birthday so that's what he got and then some....
I couldn't not cook anything so I ended up making side dishes & appetizers... oh & a MINT BLUEBERRY yogurt SMOOTHIE that wasn't served because we forgot all about it. Anyway, I ended up making a ROASTED vegetable salad with fresh BOCCICINI (spell check??) drizzled with an OLIVE oil & AGED BALSAMIC vinegar & egg rolls (we call this LUMPIA).
Filipinos normally serve egg rolls at parties. Typical egg rolls consists of ground beef, onions, garlic, seasoning & on the bf's side of the family - chestnut, all wrapped in a WONTON wrapper & fried. I'm not much of an egg roll eater because it doesn't really appeal to me. Maybe because I see it as just ground beef wrapped in fried, oily wrappers.
So ofcourse, I invent my own egg rolls ;) My new found FAVOURITE ingredient to use is CHINESE 5-SPICE. I also don't like using only ground beef but a mix with ground pork & in this case minced shrimp too.
Enjoy!
ROASTED VEGETABLES AND BOCCICINI WITH BALSAMIC OLIVE DRESSING
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 italian eggplant, sliced
1 orange pepper, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
1/2 small tub of boccicini, sliced in half
2 T dried basil
3 T dried oregano
cracked black pepper & kosher salt to taste
- Preheat oven to 450F
- Place eggplant, pepper & zucchini on baking sheet
- Place tomatoes & pepper on another baking sheet
- Drizzle with olive oil, basil, oregano, salt & black pepper. Toss everything together with hands
- Place in oven and roast for 25 minutes. Flip & roast for another 20-25 minutes or until slightly charred
- Let cool
- Place in bowl & add cheese. Drizzle olive oil & balsamic vinegar on top
LAYA'S EGG ROLLS
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1/4 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined & minced
1/4 C carrots, sliced into matchsticks
1 med onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 T dried basil or
2.5 tsp chinese 5-spice
1/4 C light soy sauce
2 T fish sauce
1 T sesame oil
2 tsp murin
pack of wonton wrappers, cracked egg
kosher salt and cracked black pepper
- Mix ground beef, pork & shrimp together
- Add basil, chinese 5-spice, salt & pepper to meat mixture. Set aside
- Add sesame oil to pre-heated pan
- Saute onions and carrots until soft
- Add meat. Season with more basil & chinese 5-spice
- Add soy sauce, fish sauce & murin
- Continue to saute until ground meat is cooked
- Take off heat & let cool
- Add 1.5 t of meat mixture into wonton wrappers & seal with egg
- Fry in hot oil
- Serve with sweet chilli sauce or murin mixed with fish sauce in a 3:1 ratio
