Diced!: Kathryn – Crispy Reuben Roll-Ups

Today we have an entrant for the first course of the Diced! competition. Contestants were instructed to create or find a recipe for an appetizer, soup or salad containing the following ingredients: Corned Beef, Canned Corn, and Corn Flakes. They were instructed to make their dish and create a blog post about it, including pictures. You can help determine who advances to the next round. After the last post, I will post a poll where you can vote for contestants to move on. Vote for the post you like the best. You can vote because of the inventiveness, the yummyness, the use of ingredients, the quality of the writing and pictures or for any other reason. The poll will be active for one week only. Check back and vote. In the event of a tie, the Ranting Chef will choose who advances. More information about Diced! can be found here.

Due to the generosity of the following companies, we have some really awesome products as a prize to the winner of this Diced! competition. In addition to the prizes below, I am working to secure additional ones. The winner will receive:

• Mr Bar-B-Q 20 Piece Gourmet Tool Set
• The following products from Talisman Designs
  • Angry Animals Corner Spoon
  • Angry Animals Turner
  • Adjustable Pie Shield
  • Butter San
  • Butter Bot
  • Angry Animals Cheese Board
• Dodo Book for Cooks – This is a great book for anyone in the kitchen. It has places to put your favorite recipes as well as handy conversion charts.

Today’s contestant, anotherfoodieblogger (also known as Kathryn or KR Big Fish by her friends) is a transplanted Texan living in the Pacific Northwest who has been blogging about her culinary delights (and disasters!) for almost two years. Here’s Kathryn…

Crispy Reuben Roll-Ups

First, I want to thank the Ranting Chef for the honor of being in his online competition “Diced!” I was so excited when I got the email saying I had been accepted into the next round of competition, and was quite pleased with the list of three required ingredients: Corned Beef, Canned Corn, Corn Flakes cereal.  Yes, we can stop with the “corny” puns now…

Being from Texas, one of the first things that popped in my mind to make was corned beef corn fritters. I told my husband what I was thinking of making, and him, being from the Northeast, suggested a Reuben-type recipe. I angsted for over a week trying to decide which one to make, and when I couldn’t make up my mind I thought “heck, why not make both and see which one you like better?”

Well these Crispy Reuben Roll-Ups won out, and darn it I had to give credit to my husband for winning out over my idea. After taking the photographs, I sampled one then called him over to try one out. He took a big bite and said, “Hey, these are great! He sat it down on a plate then went off to get a glass of milk. I took a look at the one he bit into and thought “wow, I put a lot of corned beef in that one! I bet that would make a great photo.” I grabbed his roll-up and put it back on the appetizer plate to snap a few shots.  Next, from the kitchen I hear, “HEY, where’s my roll-up?!”  Oops! I quickly gave it back to him to finish eating.

His initial idea was to roll up the corned beef, thousand island, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese as a cold appetizer. I reminded him it needed corn and cornflakes too. I then started thinking about how I could incorporate those two and came up with the idea to mix the corn in with the dressing, roll up the ingredients in an egg roll wrapper and coat it in crushed cornflakes, then bake it. I was quite pleased with the results, and I hope you will be too! This recipe makes enough for about a half a dozen roll-ups, but I only made three since I wasn’t sure how they would turn out. Now I wish I made them all!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Thousand Island dressing
1/2 cup white shoepeg corn
Egg roll wrappers
Sliced deli corned beef
Sliced deli Swiss cheese
Sauerkraut
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup crushed corn flakes cereal

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add the dressing and the corn to a food processor, and blend until the corn is incorporated. Set aside. Place an egg roll wrapper on a plate, then top with sliced corned beef (the first one I made I only used one slice but it came out skimpy so added more to the next ones). Then add one slice of Swiss cheese, one tablespoon of the corn dressing mixture, and one tablespoon of sauerkraut to the middle. Roll up the egg roll wrapper according to package directions. Seal with a bit of the egg/milk wash. Brush the egg/milk wash evenly over the entire roll-up, then coat with the crushed corn flakes. Spray a foil-lined pan with oil, and place the roll-ups on the pan. Spray them lightly with oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until crispy and lightly browned. Remove and let cool for a few minutes. Serve with the remaining corn dressing.