As mentioned in a previous post, I am in a gourmet club. This quarter’s theme: Irish Food. My assignment: appetizers.

Hmmmmm……..

I was looking for something fun….something different…something Irish. Plenty of main dish items came to mind. Potato soup – a no brainer. A dessert focused around Baily’s Irish Cream sounded divine. Appetizer…um….yeah.

A can of Guinness and shot a Jameson’s later, I was still not any further along my way. What is an amateur chef to do? I took a two pronged approach: Google “Irish appetizer”, and ask my fellow amateur chef with an Irish heritage for ideas. Both ultimately led to the same conclusion.

Google, as it is wont to do, provided many options. Most seemed to be some variation on sausage and bread. Not interesting enough. Most were very quick to prepare, low in cost and booooring. So I dug further.

I came up with two options:

  • Guinness cheese fondue and Irish soda bread
  • Irish egg rolls

In a trial run last weekend, the Guinness cheese fondue made its debut. With the Guinness (and Worcestershire sauce), the cheese had a real earthiness to it. The soda bread? Pretty good right out of the oven, but was not a good match for the cheese. Too sweet. Axe that idea. The fondue with other options? Not bad, but not Irish enough.

My friend Mike came back with his suggestion: Irish egg rolls. It was fate. A quick search on the net provided several recipes. One of which I used as a starter and modified from there. I made a trial run this weekend of them and tried five variations of them. All had the corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes inside. One was plain, two variations added cheese (mozzarella, cheddar) and two added condiments (horseradish, spicy brown mustard). The mustard won.

These are great little appetizers, have an Irish theme and are likely to be a unique dining experience for all attendees.

Let me know what you think of them.

Irish Egg Rolls

Prep Time: 30 Min | Cook Time: 5 Min | Servings: 8 servings | Difficulty: easy

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz chopped corned beef
  • 1 pkg of fresh shredded angel hair cabbage
  • 1 pkg of fresh shredded hash browns
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 16 (7 inch square) egg roll wrappers
  • Spicy brown mustard
  • 2 quarts oil for deep frying

Directions:

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Heat 1 tsp oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Fry up corned beef for 3-5 minutes. Take off heat.

Place cabbage in steamer pot and steam for 5 minutes. Take off heat.

Cook shredded potatoes according to directions.Take off heat.

Lay the egg roll wrappers out on a clean dry surface a few at a time. Place about 2T of each of the corned beef, cabbage and potatoes into the center of each wrap. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Squirt 1 t of mustard on top Roll up into logs according to the directions on the package. Wet the edge with water to seal.

Fry rolls a few at a time, turning if necessary, for about 5 minutes, or until golden. Remove from hot oil to drain on paper towels.

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