Well seeing as I am a chef by trade I figure I'll share some of the easy and simple recipes I've picked up over the years that you may enjoy making yourselves some day, and that I make for :wub: Chex :wub: on a regular basis cause she adores my cooking :P. I'll share these a couple at a time.
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Real Easy Greek Ribs:

Need:
-ribs (any animal of choice, I like pork)
-seasoning salt
-garlic powder (or garlic salt...but then you gotta ease up on the season salt)
-lemon or lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to broil, or highest setting (this may not work for some gas ovens)
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cleanups a snap!
3. Cut and separate the ribs and line on cooking tray (any storebought unseasoned side, back, or spare rib will do - but this doesn't work well with riblets)
4. Sprinkle garlic powder and seasoning salt over the ribs (if you don't like garlic you shouldn't be eating greek food)
5. Cook em 8 minutes on one side
6. Pull em out and season the other side (garlic and seasoning salt)
7. Cook em 8-10 more minutes (or until cooked without burning)
8. When they're done lightly season with lemonjuice and/or garnish with thin lemon slices.

mmmmmmmmmm
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Real Easy Chicken Fried Rice (like chinese restaurants, I swear it!)

Need:
-1chicken breast (boneless preferred)
-couple onion slices
-1 crushed garlic clove (not an entire bulb of garlic!!)
-oil (canola or other)
-soya sauce
-rice (NOT CHINESE STICKYRICE AKA Sushi rice, or Uncle Bens)
-frozen pea/carrot mix
-1 egg

1. Precook some rice. This works best with chinese longgrain white rice (not Uncle Bens or minute, although you COULD use minute if you have to. BUT PLEASE DONT USE STICKY RICE! I CANT STRESS THIS!). Let it cool a little.
2. Fry or grill a chicken breast. When its partially cooked dice er into cubes or shred it!
3. Throw the chicken into a frying pan on medium heat. Add a couple slices of onion, and a crushed ( or minced) clove of garlic. pour in some oil, and a dash of soya sauce. Throw in a few frozen peas/carrots and a beaten egg. (the egg will stick to the pan and everything, dont worry about it. Just try not to let it burn.)
4. Cook until chicken is mostly cooked. Don't let it burn! You gotta watch it it cooks fast!
5. Add the rice. The rice wants to stick to the pan so pour in some oil (canola or other) and soya sauce. Keep stirring it. You can stop adding soya sauce when it reaches your desired color. You can stop adding oil when it starts to look like chinese restaurant rice. (oil and soya amounts depend on how much rice you use - you'll know when its enough)
6. Because the rice is already cooked, just cook it til the rice is warm and it smells yummy!

A. Unless you got a real good frying pan, rice and egg will cook to it. So let it soak for a while while you eat. You could also cook this in a Wok if you got one. It works the same.
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Frenched Rack Of Lamb

Need:
-rack of lamb (alternatively, this recipe also works great with thin-cut pork chops, because lamb is an aquired taste)
-cartoned orange juice (NOT TANG OR KOOLAID :P ). The unsweetened stuff works nice.
-regular white sugar
-Franks Hot Sauce, or REDHOT sauce (or any hot sauce you can buy in a store or get with your KFC :D )
-Tabasco sauce
-Chipotle sauce (not neccessary if you cant get it) (there are similar products with similar names that are curry sauces. The one I'm thinking of is a pepper-paste. Its brown in color. It tastes a bit like hickory. It lasts forever in the fridge and goes great mixed with barbecue sauce!).


1. a glass of Orange juice in a frying pan. (these are easy recipes because theres no real measuring needed :D ). Put it on medium heat. Gotta watch this one too because the sauce can boil over. (alternatively you could use a small pot or sauce pan, but it will take longer)
2. add 1-2 cups of sugar, depending on how big the glass of orange juice is you used. (as the sauce cooks, if it seems to be taking a long time to thicken, add more sugar. If you add too much sugar, add more orange juice. It works out in the end!)
3. add the hot sauce, 2-3 big squirts!
4. add 3 dashes of Tabasco sauce
5. add half a teaspoon of Chipotle (pronounced Chip-pole-tay) paste (if you dont have any dont worry about it its not neccessary for much flavor)
6. While the sauce cooks you can fry or grill the rack of lamb (by this I assume you bought it sliced, like pork chops. If not, then good luck slicing it! :lol: And if you have to slice it on your own, cut it into slices and cut any protruding bones from the meat. Its not fun to cook with a big hunka bone sticking out!)(Lamb can be cooked rare to well done so its up to you how you like your meat)
7. When the sauce is thickened or caramelized (should appear a brownish orange, or nutty color, and be syrupy), throw the lamb right into the sauce and let it sit for a few minutes to absorb flavor.
8. Serve on plate, cover with as much sauce as you desire.

You're a chef by trade?
Cool!! B)

This is a great idea, MrP!

I love recipes!!

Thanks for the fried rice recipe, now can you give us the beef and broccoli recipe?

That's the best way to eat broccoli other than with lots of cheese sauce! :P

Woo-hoo!

Keep it up, k??!

Thanks!!
Ess :D

Good recipes Mr. P

i will try them as I am the cook in my family. My wife doesn't cook that often but she does the cleaning. I like the arrangement.

We have just the opposite arrangement here, Micon!

Dishes! :(

*shudder*

:P

Dishes :( :wacko:

I hate dishes but my wife enjoys cleaning so it works. I love cooking so no probs here.

by immediate request, the beefnbroccoli recipe :D :

Ginger Beef And Broccoli done easy!

Needs:
-Beef (a cheep round of beef should do)
-Broccoli
-optional veg: Carrots, celery, bok choy, gai lum, water chestnuts
-optional other: corn starch, sesame seeds
-couple onion slices
-1 crushed or minced clove of garlic
-1 small ginger root
-oil
-water
-soya sauce
-oyster sauce
-sugar

1.Slice the beef. Chinese cooking uses really thin slices of beef (this is the first secret of chinese beef dishes) "So if you can't cut the beef, stay out of the kitchen!" jk. Whatever you do don't cut yourself. Cut it as thin as you can without cutting yourself.
2. Wash and cut the brocolli.
3. Other chinese stirfry veg that are used in chinese cooking (and can be added to this if you just don't want to use broccoli): Carrots, sliced thin at an angle (look all chinese-ish). Celery sliced small at an angle (chinese like things cut at a steep angle. So just assume you're cutting all vegetables at an angle and you'll do fine :D ) Gai Lum (Pronounced Guy-Lom: chinese broccoli - easy to find at any grocery store produce section), Bok Choy (Pronounced Bock-Choy: kinda like little chinese brussel sprouts or cabages. They use these a lot in chinese cooking. Easy to find too). But your domiant veg should be broccoli. Alternatively, you can add waterchestnut if you'd like.
4. The same way the fried rice is done, fry the beef in a pan on med high heat with oil, a couple onion slices, and a crushed clove of garlic (pretty much the starting point of all chinese dishes ;) )
5. If you want a crisper beef you can dust the beef in cornstarch then fry it (What the chinese dont like you to know is that 90% of all beef they serve you in a restaurant is cooked MED-RARE. So if you like chinese food, cook your beef rather rare. This is secret #2. THIS NEVER APPLIES TO GROUND BEEF, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD :o !!). If you use the cornstarch you need to cook the beef longer in the beginning, because the cornstarch will get soggy when you add water.
6. Add ginger - 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of well minced ginger. (When you buy ginger from the store it should be peeled then minced. Not many people know that so just a warning) Add the vegetables.
7. Add about 3-4 tablespoons of oyster sauce (you CANT make chinese stirfrys WITHOUT it. It doesn't taste like it sounds, unless you eat it raw!), a squirt of soya sauce, 1/2 a cup of water, and 1/2 a cup of oil. Oil and water and heat dont mix well. So expect a few flames. This isn't a big deal so long as you dont panic. Remove from heat and mix well until it stops flaming.) Add a dash of sugar.
8. Stir it around a few times and cover it as to steam the veg. It doesn't take long to cook, the vegetables should be relatively crisp. And they will shrink and shrivel while cooking. Just dont burn em.
9. Garnish with sesame seeds (a personal choice ^_^. lightly roasted sesame seeds are good with lots of foods! ).

A: This can be cooked in a deep frying pan or a wok. Either way, expect it to splash some water and oil around your stovetop. Keep a lid or cover handy to steam the veg as it cooks. try not to burn yourself too much (splashing oil stings a little)

B: Slicing beef against the grain makes the beef cook and taste more tender. This is easy to do. Which ever way the fibres of the beef run, cut it at an ajacent angle. (ie: FIBER>------------------------, CUT> l) I cant illustrate it simpler lol. Sorry)
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Bok Choy:


Gai Lum:

Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! :D

I will let you know when I've made it!

I love bok choy, but have never heard of gai lum. :huh:

Will have to check it out! :)

Thanks again!
Ess :)

Thanks.

Does the oyster sauce have oyster in it. I need to know because of the seafood allergy thing. I won't have a problem but some friends of mine would.

Kung Pao Chicken

What you will need:

Boneless skinless chicken
Garlic Chili sauce
Soya sauce (Kikkoman, none of that other shit)
Unsalted cashews
Carrots
Celery
Green onion
Garlic
Rice
Cornstarch
Chicken broth

This is a real simple recipe to make, and can be adjusted for volume and preferred taste.

1. Dice chicken and place in a bowl that will accomodate its volume. Add soya sauce until a liberal coating can be seen on the chicken. Add chili sauce (as much as you want), and let marinade for about thirty minutes.

2. Chop carrots and celery to roughly the same size as chicken. For celery, break the ends off slightly and then pull along the back side of the stock to remove as much string as you can. Place vegetable son the side.

3. Heat the wok with about two tablespoons of vegetable oil and roast the cashews. ALWAYS turn the cashews. If you stop they will burn. When slightly browned, remove from oil, but retain oil.

4. Place about a tablespoon of cornstarch in the chicken and rub with your fingers into the meat until well mixed, sauce should turn almost brown. Put into wok with a few garlic cloves. Don't turn too often, and cook until meat is white all over. When done, take chicken out and place on the side.

5. Next heat up the wok with a little oil, add vegetables. Cook for about five minutes until slightly soft, then return all of the remaining ingredients. Mix well. add a little chicken broth. If mixture is watery, add cornstarch to ticken (the secret ingredient of chinese cooking).

6. Serve over rice, garnished with diced green onion.

(George likes his chicken spicy)

One more today cause now I'm craving it:

Really Easy Garlic Cream sauce that doesn't taste like mass produced crap, and can be used for virtually anything! (pasta, pan fried fish (except salmon, blah), chicken, pasta with fish or chicken ^_^

Need:
-1 clove crushed garlic
-oil
-white wine (any white wine really)
-whipping cream or halfnhalf
-salt
-pepper

1. in a COLD (not put on the stove yet) frying pan or sauce pan mix a dash of oil, the crushed garlic, and a couple dashes of wine (not too much, unless you like wine tasting sauces or you plan to cook for many people). Heat on medium low heat (if a fire starts pull away from heat and let it go out on its own - shaking it helps)
2. Heat the mixture until the wine and oil start to fizzle and spatter a little. Keep an eye on the garlic, it cooks fast and you dont want it black.
3. Stir in the cream (half and half has a bad habit of curdling so I suggest whipping).
4. add a dash of salt, a dash of pepper, and stir and heat until the sauce thickens to your liking. Keep an eye on it so she don't boil over or burn to the bottom of the pan (keep it on a medium low heat and you shouldn't have a problem).

This is an alternative to those grainy cheesey sauces you can buy in the store, that taste like oregano and garlic salt. You CAN add oregano and/or grated parmesan cheese if you'd like (and stir til the parmesan melts and disolves into the sauce). But i'd try it without first. Its plain but tasty. Add more salt if you'd like

yes. its a very fine pureed oyster sauce. its brown like soya sauce but really thick and very salty. You can leave it out but I guarantee you it wont be the same. If you've ever wondered why chinese dishes have such a unique flavour its because of the oyster sauce and/or sesame oil.

mmmm, good stuff. but VERY VERY VERY HOT!! If you ever want to make your own chicken wing marinade and your friends want it "extra hot", mix your regular hotsauce with a few teaspoons of the chilli and oil sauce (garlic chilli sauce), and a couple teaspoons of cayenne pepper.

Unless you have your own habanaro sauce you keep on hand, in which case stay the hell away from me! :P

Thx for the recipe!

Here's one for you. Chiken dinner.

1) Open box;
2) Pierce box several times;
3) Open Microwave door and place in centre;
4) Set 6 minutes;
5) Serve

Oh yes. A banquet for one.

ROFLMAO :lol:

You rock!

Hey man, I'm a geek! Detracts less from the current activity (whatever that may be...) ;)

You comment here reminds me so much of a very funny cable show here called the trailer park boys. One of the guys his favorite meal is Chicken Fingers cooked in a toaster oven on his car.

I hope you don't take offense to that comment cause the show does not put the people in this show in a very good light.

Actually it reminds me of the recipes on oddtodd.com

Well, you'll need to get some vegetarian recipes, if I'm gonna eat what you cook!!!

Sorry checkers but meat rules. If I was forced to be vegetarian I would die.

Sorry Micon but meat sucks. If I was forced to eat it, I would kill myself. :P

If you had to do my job you would probably kill yourself then. I have to inspect Abbatoirs, food processing plants and the like. If you don't like meat what can I say you would hate it.

Yup, I probably would...

At this time, I invite everyone to read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. It was a turn of the century look at slaughterhouses. Very chilling little book.

What is the summary of the book?

It is a review of the industry back in 1907, and tells fact based tales of workers who lose limbs, fall into vats of acid, and other gruesome things.

sounds interesting.

Same with my hubby!

I told him years ago that I hate doing dishes, so he does them a lot, and because he's so good about it, I do them a lot more!

hmm...maybe he's using reverse psychology?? <_<

I lived on farms growing up.
We generally killed our own animals for meat.
I love beef, pork, chicken and a few seafoods.
Lamb - ick!!

I read about that stuff in a book called Fast Food Nation (you've probably heard of it, it was on the bestsellers list for a long time)....a lot of shit like that still happens today.

No offence taken whatsoever. I'll admit I'd prefer a micro-meal,because it's convenient. That's not to say that I can't cook however. (I actually considered becoming a chef at one point!!!)

Reputable places are good. Very clean and humane to the animals. Its the ones that don't give a shit to you, I or the animals. Those are the ones we have to straighten out.

Great job, shitty industry. I'd love to be someones personal chef but I will admit I can't and won't hack it in the modern era of restauranting. It's a painful business, you get stomped on a lot, and the pay isn't worth it. Now if I owned my own restaurant. I'd run it very socially. I'd take a cap off the top, a modest salary, and then offer the rest to the staff as incentive to make me great. And it'd be a mediapoint as well. Free advertizing. But this whole "make a profit, treat people like crap" when we already have to deal with rude customers...there should be a law against it. There should also be a law against going to a restaurant in a bad mood. I've seen so many servers go home crying its ridiculous how people treat them.

Other than that its a fun hobby.

Ah - but I wanted to incorporate it with Youth/Community Work so it wouldn't be 'in the industry' as such.
By the way - love the new avataar Micon. :D

Thanks, Like I said in the other thread I pinched it fron the North Pacific. Look at the things you can do when you have time to spend on the computer.

Personally, I think plants are on equal status with animals, so if I am going to go on an ethics-based diet, I would die. (Still, I would like to eat less meat as it takes more resources to feed people with meat than vegetables)

Okay, I can't cook anything but breakfast, so:
Uneven Egg Recipe
1. Make sure pan contains no water
2. Add oil to pan (almost cover bottom of pan with oil)
3. Break egg into pan
4. Add pinch of salt and as much pepper as you like
5. When notice egg white turning white, scramble the egg (you can wait half the egg white turns white for that pouched egg taste)
6. Continue cooking as scrambled eggs
Now you have scrambled eggs in yellow and white!

Roti Bread

Need:
-flour
-salt
-baking soda
-water
-margarine

1. add a couple dashes of salt into some flour in a bowl (about 4 cups flour)
2. add a couple teaspoons of baking soda
3. mix well
4. heres where you get a choice. add about 4 tbsp of margarine into the dough, and then add water and knead until the dough is not sticky and forms a nice little ball
OR
leave the margarine out of the dough, and mix it with just the water, and save the margarine until later.
5. Knead the dough for a while. Make sure it is not sticky, but not too floury. It should be a soft firm ball without being sticky at all.
6. Break off pieces of the dough, roll them into a ball then flatten them with a rolling pin so that they are thin without falling apart when you pick them up. They should be the size of small tortilla/burrito shells/wrappers.
7. If you have a good nonstick frying pan you can cook them on there. A wok works fine too. Traditionally, roti is baked in an earthen oven.
8. If you mixed the margarine in with the dough then cook them immediately as is, cooking each side until they spot with golden bubbles (like a tortilla)
OR
If you saved the margarine (I like to not mix in the margarine), then melt the margarine in the microwave and brush each side of the roti generously with margarine before frying. Cook them immediately, cooking each side until they spot with golden bubbles (like a tortilla).
9. Depending on how much dough you made, this makes quite a few Roti. And they are filling. So if you made quite a few, you can save the dough in the fridge it will keep fine for a few weeks.

A. Roti is good with pretty much any dish. It's just a thin bread that is served on the side with most east indian cuisine. I like eating roti with rice dishes, or bean dishes, or meatloaf (yeah I know I'm wierd). To eat roti in a traditional way, break a piece off, and use it like a scoop or spoon to wrap your food in and place it all in your mouth. Then make sure the women do the cleaning while the men socialize in the den :o B) :P B) . lol DONT HIT ME!

Vegetarian Stirfry done easy!

(for beef, pork or chicken or seafood stirfry, add thin sliced beef(from a round) or thin sliced pork (from a round) or chunks of chicken breast or shrimp (without the tail, and if you add pizza shrimp then you are a cheap lazy bastard! :P *shakes fist at Humptys restaurant*). Add the meat in at the beginning with the onion, so that it can cook a little before adding the vegetables)

Needs:
-Broccoli
-Carrots
-Celery
-Bok choy
-Gai lum
-Wong Baak (chinese cabbage - picture at the bottom)
-optional: water chestnuts
-optional other: sesame seeds
-couple onion slices
-1 crushed or minced clove of garlic
-1 small ginger root
-oil
-water
-soya sauce
-oyster sauce
-sugar


1. Wash and cut the vegetables. (chinese like things cut at a steep angle. So just assume you're cutting all vegetables at an angle and you'll do fine) Don't cut em too big, or too small. The leaf vegetables shrivel and shrink as they cook so don't worry if you cut them too big of pieces.
2. The same way the fried rice is done, fry in a pan on med high heat with oil, a couple onion slices, and a crushed clove of garlic (pretty much the starting point of all chinese dishes ) (add meat here if desired. Make sure chicken is always cooked before adding the veg, and beef and shrimp can be served rather medium rare if desired - If you want a crisper beef you can dust the beef in cornstarch then fry it )
3. Add ginger - 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of well minced ginger. (When you buy ginger from the store it should be peeled then minced. Not many people know that so just a warning) Add the vegetables.
4. Add about 3-4 tablespoons of oyster sauce (you CANT make chinese stirfrys WITHOUT it. It doesn't taste like it sounds, unless you eat it raw!), a squirt of soya sauce, 1/2 a cup of water, and 1/2 a cup of oil. Oil and water and heat dont mix well. So expect a few flames. This isn't a big deal so long as you dont panic. Remove from heat and mix well until it stops flaming.) Add a dash of sugar.
5. Stir it around a few times and cover it as to steam the veg. It doesn't take long to cook, the vegetables should be relatively crisp. And they will shrink and shrivel while cooking. Just dont burn em.
6. Garnish with sesame seeds (a personal choice . lightly roasted sesame seeds are good with lots of foods! ).

A: This can be cooked in a deep frying pan or a wok. Either way, expect it to splash some water and oil around your stovetop. Keep a lid or cover handy to steam the veg as it cooks. try not to burn yourself too much (splashing oil stings a little)

Wong Baak

I don't think you want to start that again! :angry: :D :P

Vegetarian Lasagna (of the creamy - non tomatoe based variety)

Need:
-eggplant
-mushrooms
-green peppers
-red peppers
-red onion
-2 cloves of garlic - crushed or minced (not 2 whole bulbs of garlic, just the small cloves off of one bulb) or 1tbsp of garlic powder.
-cherville spice or leaves (can get in local grocery store spice section)
-dried oregano (not the powdered stuff)
-dried basil
-white wine (any kind)
-oil (any) or olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-whipping cream
-lasagna noodles
-cheese (personal choice)
-grated parmesan cheese

1. Chop half an eggplant (wash it first) (not a lot of people like eggplant. I don't know how to do the recipe without it). Chop it into bite sized (size of your finger tip to the nail) chunks.
2. Wash and clean 1 bell red pepper and 2 bell green peppers (regular not hot peppers from a store). Cut into bitesized chunks. (anyone not familiar with cooking with peppers - remove the seeds and core, and cut off the ends. The part you want is the fleshy sides of the pepper) Dice up 1/4 of a peeled red onion.
3. How ever much eggplant you cut, cut the same amount of fresh white portabella mushrooms (regular storebought white mushrooms from the produce section) Cute them into quarters (cut them in half, then again in half the other way). Wash them
4. Put them in deep a pan or wok with slightly less than 1/4 cup oil or olive oil, slightly less than 1/4 cup white wine, 1 tbsp cherville (a leafy spice - if you cant get it dont worry about it), 1 tbsp oregan, 1 tbsp basil, a couple dashes of salt and a couple dashes of pepper. Also add the crushed garlic or garlic powder (I prefer fresh garlic).
5. stir and fry until veggies are tender. Drain any excess oil or juices.
6. precook your lasagna noodles while cooking the above. Boil them. The drain them and place them in cold water to cool.
7. Grate cheese (its your choice of cheese. A nice combination is Edom, Mozza, and Provolone - edom and mozza can be found preshredded together in your "pizza cheese" section of your local grocery store). I also like using swiss and mozza combination. I don't recommend cheddar for this recipe but its your choice.
8. When the veggies are cooked and drained, place 1/2 of them in the bottom of a baking pan, cover with noodles and then add another layer of veggies, then another layer of noodles. You can keep layering it if you have more veggies. Or just make the layers bigger. It all depends on the size of baking pan you use. If you DONT have enough veggies (you can tell before you cook it -and remember they shrink when cooking) , then add more. The top layer should be the cheese. Add as much or as little as you want. Add/pour in some cream just to cover the bottom of the lasagna. (Dont add too much as it gets soggy). Sprinkle lightly with grated parmesan. Bake it in the oven on about 350-400 until the cheese is melted and lightly golden (shouldn't take too long cause the noodles are precooked).

*starts drooling*

Ever wonder how they make springrolls?

Springrolls

Need:
-a couple pounds of ground pork. If you can get it in less than 5 pound packages. (metric: 5 pounds equals approximately 2.5 kilograms (x pounds = 1/2 x kilograms).....APPROXIMATELY (this is the wrong but easy formula))
-1-2 carrots (depending on how much meat you got)
-1-2 onions
-1-2 bags(or nests) of ricenoodle (also called Vermicelli).
-1-3 packages of springroll wrappers (available usually in the refridgerator section of the store along with tofu, fresh perogies, pastry wrapped meats, etc. If there is a choice, get the larger packages they are easier to wrap with.)
-oyster sauce
-salt
-optional: chilli and oil sauce
-3 clean dishtowels and a couple plates
-Oil (for frying, if you bake them, lightly coat them in oil first)


1. Pell and grate a carrot or two with the cheese grater
2. Fine-dice some onions. If you're like me and you don't like onion stank sticking to your hands (for up to 3 days, smelling like rotten ham lol - sensitive nose) use a latex glove, or cut the onion into 6ths and put it in a blender or food processor. The onion can be blended so long as you dont completely liquify it!
3. Set a package of ricenoodles to soak in warm-hot water until soft. If they don't soften then boil them for a little bit. When soft, cool them in cold water, and cut them up really short and small. You can use clean sharp scissors and do it right in the bowl or pot.
4. Mix together in a bowl the cut noodles, grated carrots, and diced onion.
5. Heres where it can be tricky. Depending on how much meat you used: 1-5 teaspoons of salt, 1/4-1 cup of oyster sauce, 1-2 cloves of crushed and minced garlic, 1-3 eggs.

This is hard to guage, because all meat is a)mixed different, and b)weighed different. I reccomend using less of everything than more, until you've tried the finished product and know for next time. Mix it all in really well. For a spicier springroll, mix in the chillies and oil right into the raw mix, 1-2 tbsp)

6. Know that this makes a lot of springrolls, just because you can't get meat in "extra small". So whatever you don't want to use of the mix, refreeze it for another day.
7. Beat an egg in a small bowl. Wet 2 clean dishrags and ring them out. (the rags keep the wrappers from drying out, which the do fast). Place one rag across a plate. Next open one of the packages of springroll wrappers and start carefully pealing them apart (I dont know why they package them like this its such a pain!). Place them on the wet rag as you peel them, and cover them with the other rag.
8. How to roll a springroll: Place a wrapper in front of you. they are square, so place the diagonal to you (shaped like a diamond from where you stand) Take a scoop (an icecream scoop works fine for this) of the meat and place it near the corner close to you. Spread it out a little. Now roll the corner over the meat and tuck it under and keep rolling until you reach the middle. the roll should be tight. Then fold the side corners inso they tighten against the meat. The rest of the wrap should be folded to the size of the chunk of meat. use a fork to rub some of the beaten egg on the rest of the wrap, and finish wrapping the roll tight to the end. Put this ona plate under a third wet rag. Roll more. Put extras away in the freezer covered with saran wrap until you want them. You could wrap all the meat and freeze them if you had the time.

8. this is optional, but preferable: Cover the springrolls with saran wrap and put them in the microwave. Don't put in too many at a time. Cook them for 2-3 minutes, let them cool for a couple, and then cook them for another 2-3 minutes. This helps them cook better.
9. Now you can either bake them at medium heat, pan fry them in oil on a lower heat (keeps the oil from smoking), or deepfry them (method of choice). Whichever method you use, cook them only until the wrappers are golden on all sides. Don't burn the wrapper.
10. Important step. Before serving them cut them in half down the middle. If the meat is still pink it is still raw. the thinner and longer you roll them the better they cook. The easy way to fix this setback is to microwave them until the pink goes away, usually only a couple minutes. If you baked them earlier, you're going to want to heat some oil and panfry them a couple seconds after microwaving or they will be chewy or crunchy. They should be relatively crisp, but soft.
11. Serve them with plumbsauce, or soya sauce, or plain, or chillie and oil sauce, OR:
*********************
Make a Fish Sauce(fish sauce is great stuff. Lots of asian people like it on everything! But it has a strong smell, especially when cooking. It doesn't smell like fish tho. It just has a strong smell.

Need:
-Fish Sauce (its a dark tan sauce you can get in most grocery stores near the same spot they sell the soya and other oriental sauces. Don't eat it out of the bottle unless you like to vomit! It's got a nasty taste in bottle form)
-Water
-peeled Clove of garlic (whole, don't dice it this time)
-1-2 carrots
-sugar
-a lime

1. Peel and grate the carrots
2. cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice into a container. remove the seeds. Alternatively, if you have lime juice available....
3. peel the garlic clove. Poke it with a fork
4. fill a pot with several cups of water (depends on how much fishsauce you want to make. Note: It won't last the month in your fridge, throw it out if it starts to stink or become syrupy)
5. for each cup of water, add 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of sugar (can add more later if needed). Drop in the garlic clove
6. bring the water to a boil
7. for each cup of water, add 1 tablespoons of the raw bottled fishsauce
8. add the juice of the lime, and the grated carrots.
9. Tastetest. This will help if you know what fishsauce is supposed to taste like. If not, tastetest it and see if you like it. Not everyone does. Add more sugar/fishsauce/or lime as you see fit. It should be an orange/tan color when finished. Serve it cold. But you can serve it warm if you need to. For a spicier fish sauce, add a few tablespoons of the chillie and oil sauce.

(fish sauce is a watery dip. You generally get it when ordering springrolls or other vietnamese foods. It's also great with coldrolls!)
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Coldrolls (vegetarian). For chicken or shrimp coldrolls, buy precooked shrimp or a chicken breast. Shrimp should have the tail removed and be cut in half and placed in the coldroll. Chicken should be fried chinese sytle - in chunks with onion slices, crushed garlic, oil, and oyster sauce in a pan until cooked and placed in the cold roll. In chicken/shrimp coldrolls, leave out the cucumber.

Need:
-sprouts
-vermicelli aka rice noodle
-leaf lettuce, diced.
-cilantro (fresh from the produce section, very cheap for a bunch which is more than enough. I'll provide some cilantro recipes tomorrow to use the rest)
-grated carrots
-diced cucumber (with or without the peel, your choice)
-rice paper (available at the local grocery store in the asian food section. They are round rice paper wraps. After th package is open and you use what you want, seal it with saran wrap and put it in the cupboard for best keep - so they don't start to curl and crack)
-optional: dried fried onion (can get in the asian food section of the store)
-water

1.cook the rice noodle. Boil it in a pot with water until soft, then drain it, and then place it in cool water. Once they are cool, drain it. Coldrolls use cold noodles and the cooling of the noodles in water keeps them from sticking together too much.
2. warm a pan of water on the stove. The pan should be about an 1/2 an inch or more deep with water and as big or bigger than the rice paper. Bring the water to a boil and let it cool a second.
3. This is tricky so careful not to burn yourself. Soak a single rice paper in the water. The water will be hot but shouldn't be scalding. alternatively you could use hot tap water in a plate (not sure how well that will work tho). Soak the paper until it is no longer hard, but isn't overcooked. this takes less than 10 seconds usually. If you pull it out it will stick to itself and may burn your fingers a little. place it on a dry plate and spread it out. If you're lucky it won't be cracked or falling apart. It takes time to master. It will stick to the plate a little but don't worry to much about that it comes off.
4. Place a handful of noodles in the middle of the paper. Put a couple sprouts (5 or 6) on the noodles. Put a similar amount of grated carrot. and a similar amount of diced lettuce and a similar amount of cilantro, and a similar amount of cucumber. If you have the dried fried onion, sprinkle a few of those onto the pile. You hsould have similar amounts of vegetables vs. noodle. (if you have the chicken or chrimp, put a couple peices of shrimp and/or a couple peices of chicken before putting on the noodle. Then add the rest, except the cucumber)
5. Now the hard part. Wrap the rice paper. (How to wrap a coldroll: Pull one part of the ricepaper over the middle pile of noodles and such. Pull in the sides tight, and tuck the end of the roll under the noodles and such. Now carefully tightly roll the rest of the coldroll until it is all wrapped. If the rice paper is cooked right and you had luck wrapping it, it should stick and make a nice tight roll without cracking or spilling. More often then not though the rice papers crack and everything comes out and then the paper is useless and you have to reroll it ona new paper, whcih will probably do the same thing. Don't worry. rice paper is relatively cheep and worth it to learn if you love coldrolls)
6. Now that the pain in the ass part is done you can serve this with any sauce of your choice. You can also serve it with crushed peanuts (dip it in the sauce, then the peanuts). Normally they serve coldrolls with Hoisen sauce (a brown peanut sauce). But its a pain to make and I can't stand the stuff so unless you beg me I wont provide the recipe here. Its easily found online. Look up "Hoisen/peanut sauce recipe"