Egg Rolls (vietnamese style)

I love egg rolls, especially Vietnamese ones, so when I make my own, I always go for that style.

I've blogged about these before, but last time I baked them. Since fried ones are so much better and you're allowed to indulge during the holidays, I fried them this time. Everything else was pretty much the same.

I made these weeks ahead of time and froze them individually and fried them up the day of and served them with chili sauce. A tasty and easy appetizer for any time of the year!

Ingredients:
- ground pork
- carrots
- onions
- glass noodles (mung bean noodles)
- garlic
- wood ear mushrooms
- fish sauce
- soy sauce
- egg rolls wrappers
- oil (for frying)

Directions:
- Shred the carrots and set aside.
- Finely dice the onions and set aside.
- Mince the garlic and set aside.
- Soak the glass noodles in water until they're pliable (about 15-30 minutes), then cut them into shorter more manageable pieces.
- Soak the wood ear mushrooms until they're soft (hot water will speed this up), then cut it into thin strips.
- Mix everything together, seasoning to taste with soy and fish sauce. You can always fry up a small portion of the filling before wrapping the egg rolls to make sure it tastes good.
- Take a sheet of egg roll wrapper and fill it with a diagonal line of filling and wrap it up.
- You can either fry them immediately or put them in the freezer at this point to fry up at a later date.

Sweet Potatos Fries

Sweet potato fries have become so darn popular that I wouldn't be surprised if McDonald's started selling them soon. I know I'd buy them!

When my husband decided to smoke 25 pounds of meat, he also decided to send out an email (at midnite, mind you), inviting some people over that night for a last minute dinner party to help us eat it. I was informed of our dinner guests when I woke up in the morning :) Which is totally fine by me by the way. I love having people come over. Short notice or no notice, if show up at my doorstep, I'll gladly feed you. Plus, it forces me to clean, and sometimes, I need that extra push of motivation.

Since this was literally last minute, I whipped up some cole slaw before heading off to work and picked up some sweet potatoes on my way home because I thought it'd be a nice pairing. And they really were. I especially like them dipped in the BBQ sauce my husband made.

And because sweet potato fries tend to be quite soggy, I used my good friend google for some tips and tricks. The secrets that I decided to use were soaking the sweet potatoes in water after cutting them and dusting them with corn starch before frying. The fries came out crisp and delicious, but I'm still open to suggestions on how to make them even crispier. If you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes
- Corn starch
- Salt
- Chili powder

Directions:
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into matchsticks.
- Soak the matchsticks in water until you're ready to fry.
- Heat some oil (a heavy bottomed pot would be best) to about 350 degrees.
- Dry the sweet potatoes (I used my salad spinner).
- Dust them in corn starch right before frying. (If your first batch doesn't come out as crispy as you'd like it to be, use a thicker coating)
- Carefully drop the coated fries into the oil and fry until they are golden browned and crispy.
- Remove them from the oil and spread them on a cooling rack, letting the excess oil drip away.
- Sprinkle salt and chili powder while the oil is still hot so that it will stick better.
- Stuff your face - these things are seriously addicting!

Carne Asada French Fries

This stuff is heaven on a plate! It's also heart attack on a plate and deserves to be a part of thisiswhyyourefat, but it's totally worth it!

San Diego Mexican food is (in my opinion) some of the best. I mean really, a San Diego carne asada burrito consists of a delicate, perfect tortilla, meat and guacamole. That's it. Don't mess with a good thing. There is no need for silly rice or beans or *gasp* lettuce! Leave it alone dammit!

Carne asada french fries (carne fries for short), are another example of a San Diego Mexican food perfection. Can you tell that I really like San Diego Mexican food? It's one of the things I miss the most. That, the weather, and the beaches. Oh, I suppose my friends and family count too :)

Since I can't seem to find carne fries outside of San Diego, I had to make it myself. It's so simple, yet sooo so sooooooo good. Just take a big fat heaping pile of piping hot french fries, smother it in shredded cheese. Top that with a healthy dose of good old carne asada and finish it off with a bit (LOT) of guacamole. Cover it or stick it in the oven so that the heat of the fries and the meat melt the cheese into a glob of ooey gooey goodness. This is perfect "snack" after a late night of drinking, and great for dinner, lunch, and heck, even breakfast!

And since Blazing Hot Wok is featuring Mexico for this month's Regional Recipes event, I'm submitting this. Check out the roundup which will be hosted by Wandering Chopsticks or submit your own before March 15th.


Ingredients:
- French fries (recipe here)
- Carne asada (recipe below)
- Shredded cheese
- Guacamole

Directions:
- Pile hot french fries on a plate.
- Top with a large mound of shredded cheese.
- Add chopped up carne asada.
- Dollop lots of guacamole on top.
- Cover or pop in the oven until the cheese is melted and delicious.
- Stuff your face.
- Go to the gym.

-Carne Asada-
Ingredients:
- Beef (flank steak is typical, but any cut is fine since we're chopping it into such small pieces)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic powder
- Chili powder
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Soy sauce
- Lime juice

Directions:
- Marinate the beef in all the spices, soy sauce and lime juice.
- Grill until cooked through.
- Chop into small pieces.

Pork flautas

Since I had overcome my fear of deep frying when I made french fries, I knew that I wanted to deep fry something for our Super Bowl party and decided on flautas.

I love flautas. It's basically the same thing as a taquito except you use flour tortillas instead of corn. I prefer flour tortillas better because it's fluffier and lighter and a bit airy. You could easily make taquitos instead by substituting the flour tortillas with corn.

You can also easily replace the meat with chicken, beef or whatever other meat you prefer. The important thing is to keep the meat moist and flavorful.

Ingredients:
- pork butt
- onion
- garlic
- cumin
- chili powder
- paprika
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- salt
- pepper
- salsa (optional)
- tortillas
- oil for frying

Directions:
- Cut the pork butt into chunks if you want to. It'll make it easier to work with and fit in the pot. I like 1.5x1.5" chunks.
- Generously sprinkle the salt and herbs and seasonings on the meat and put it into a pressure cooker if you have one, or a heavy pot if you don't.
- Fill the pot with water until the meat is barely covered. Toss in an onion (quartered) and a few cloves of garlic. These are just used for flavoring and will be discarded, so they don't need to be chopped nicely.
- Either cook it at high pressure for about 30 minutes or simmer/braise in the oven until the meat is fall apart tender and moist and flavorful.
- Take the meat out and shred it with two forks or your hands.
- If the meat is a little dry, or if you want a little more flavor, toss it with a few spoonfuls of salsa. Don't use too much though, you want the meat to be juicy, but not "wet".
- If you want, cut your tortillas in half (I did this as I found it wasn't necessary to use a whole tortillas). Put a line of meat in tortilla and roll it up. Help keep them rolled up with 3 toothpicks. I only used one in the middle the first time and this is what happened.
- Heat up a pot of vegetable oil until it reaches 325 degrees.
- Slowly slide the flautas into the oil and fry until the tortillas get brown and crispy.

Homemade french fries

I've always avoided deep frying things at all costs. It just seems scary and messy. I always try to bake things instead of frying, such as egg rolls, potato wedges, and carnitas.

The hubz was craving a good homemade burger, so while he made the burgers, I worked on the fries and decided to finally face my deep frying fears. And you know what? It really wasn't bad at all! I'm definitely going to be frying more often in the future (maybe not such a good thing for my waistline, but whatever).

The key to great homemade french fries is to fry them twice. As you can see, after the first fry, they're pasty white and a bit on the soggy side.

They remind me of In-N-Out fries, so if you like that style, stop after the first fry. But if you want them to be crispier and more golden brown, fry it a second time for these results -

Ingredients:
- Potatoes (as many as you'd like)
- Oil (one bottle 48 oz)
- Salt to taste

Method:
1. Cut the potatoes into strips.
2. Heat the oil in a cast iron pot until it reaches 325 degrees (The cast iron is important because it holds the heat and also brings the oil back up to temp quicker than regular pots). If you have an actual deep fryer, that works too.
3. Slide the potatoes slowly into the oil to avoid hot oil splattering onto your hands. Do them in batches of about one potato at a time. This will give the potatoes enough room to cook and not stick together. It will also limit how much the oil temperature drops per batch.
4. Turn up the heat to high to bring the oil back to temp.
5. Using a wire spider, stir the potatoes around gently. Then remove the potatoes onto a wire cooling rack after about 3 minutes.
6. Bring the oil back up to 325 and repeat steps 3-5 until all the potatoes have been fried once.
7. Bring the oil up to 375 degrees.
8. Slide the potatoes back into the oil in batches of about one potato at a time. Make sure the heat is on high so that the oil comes back up to 375 asap.
9. Stir the potatoes with your spider and remove when they are golden brown and crispy.
10. Sprinkle them with a bit of salt or whatever other seasonings you would like while the fries are still hot.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 until all the fries are beautifully golden brown and crispy. Serve while still hot!