Our Sunset Park
Cookbook
My Experiment with Cabbage
Became Spring Rolls Sunset Park Style
Take a head of cabbage and cut it into four quarters - this will make the rest of the cutting much easier.
I use a steak knife to slice it into even 1/4 inch strips....you won't be perfect at it, try your best and keep going.
I then make a cut across all of them to make the strips half as long - it would be even better if you can manage three cuts.
Professional recipes for using cabbage always tell you to cut out the core or the center....but I am too cheap to do that.
So I pull out the parts that are not stringy strips and then chop them into very tiny bits...not chunks, tiny bits.
You can add just about anything - from chicken strips to chop meat (each pre-cooked). But I wanted to go low calorie vegan.
And I wanted a nice combination of colors so I added spinach, red sweet peppers and onions.
That brown "mush" at the top is my secret addition - in a blender I put several cups of cabbage, salt, pepper, soy sauce, sweet n low, curry, hot sauce (too taste) and garlic.
I cook that days ahead of time and after it cools put in the fridge and use it for all sorts of meals to add flavor. I never use more than a spoon full so that it doesn't overwhelm the meal.
But for this I used 2 full cups.
All of this goes into a frying pan (sprayed with Pam) and at a very high flame I continually fold it and stir it as it cooks.
I switched to a much bigger frying pan because it was spilling onto the stove (and Renee had just cleaned it the night before - it look like it was brand new - I didn't want to ruin that....lol)
We tried two different wraps. A large wrap that must be stored frozen and is 40 calories for a sheet & hard to "peel"
We tried several ways of filling & wrapping.
They are very easy to roll. The large sheets can be cut into 3 spring rolls.
We quickly found that it is best, with the large sheets to put three separate tablespoon fulls, leaving a space between them for ease of later cutting.
We also tried just two spoonfuls, rolled and then cut. You can squeeze the ends to seal them.
I much prefer these wonton skins. Easier to peel, no need to freeze and a few calories less. I'm divided on which tasted better.
With these a single spoonful can be used. And you have a choice between rolling them or turning them into triangles with a fold.
At this point we were just so hungry we didn't care about the process anymore we just wanted to finish and eat.
Our attempt at mass production.
Finally we had a plateful and were ready for cooking.
Place in a well sprayed (with Pam) frying pan. Squeeze them in. In the future we will use a square frying pan with no sides.
Spray the top liberally with Pam.
At a high flame they take about 90 seconds to cook one side, flip over (use two forks) and move quickly.
They are soooo delicious you will imagine that you will eat them all. But they are very very filling. Even pigging out on them you will only be eating about 140 calories at the very most
We continued experimenting and believe they are best at a bit size serving.
Of course you will probably serve this with something else - think about your presentation when deciding. But being practical, we imagine with a thick soup, or a thick dip or a side of spinach or corn
Please share with us your changes and experiences.