Green Enchilada Sauce

Last week's farmers market found me with a bag of tomatillos asking to be made into something tasty.my first foray into the husked tomatoes....  I remember when I first heard of these magical fruits. I had just moved to Texas. At the time knew tacos and were Mexican and may have just begun to enter the beautiful fried world of the chimi a few months before. We grew up pretty sheltered on that front. Tacos were ground beef, hard shells, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. That was it. So my friend Emily and I went out for Mexican at Chuys. I got to pick my sauce and I was introduced to this amazing thing known as the deluxe tomatillo sauce. Fast forward 12 years and I've still never used a tomatillo. That all changed today. I took the sauce from Our Best Bites and modified it slightly. 

Materials

3/4 lb tomatillos, coarsely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, minced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3/4 tsp cumin

1 tbl olive oil

1/4 bunch cilantro

Methods

Started out with the onion and garlic cooking down in the oil in a small pan until translucent to release their fragrance. I added the remaining ingredients and done water and simmered them away. Finally, immersion blend until all texture is gone and it is suitable for consumption. If too liquid, I would have simmered off more water here. 

We used this sauce on chicken and bean enchilladas. It was a little sweet, with no real heat since I didn't put the jalapeño seeds in the sauce.   Still won much approval. We have some leftover to use as salsa later in the week :) I have a feeling I may make a ton more and freeze it!  This could be the gateway to my first canning adventure. 

Irish Eggrolls

A few weeks ago we went to the Irish Pub, Claddah, with the Illini Club to watch the basketball game.  One of the guys in the club introduced us to Corned Beef and Cabbage Eggrolls.  They were beyond absolutely amazing.  I decided I had to re-create these, so this is my take. 

Materials

1/4 lb deli corned beef, cut thick.

1/2 cabbage, chopped

4 slices swiss cheese, chopped
Salt and pepper.
Eggroll wrappers

oil.

Methodology
I chopped up the corned beef into chunks.  I heated them up in my nonstick pan with a little bit of oil.  I added the chopped cabbage an salt and pepper to my taste.  I cooked up this mixture until the cabbage was softened.  At that point I mixed in the cheese.  I took a spoonful or two of the corned beef an cabbage mixture an placed it in the middle of the eggroll wrapper an wrapped up the eggroll, placing it seam side down on a greased cookie sheet.  I  repeated this until running out of corned beef an cabbage.  I sprayed the tops with oil and baked until crispy on the outside.

Verdict

Amazing!  It was definitely good stuff!!!  You could extend this with more cabbage (I probably would next time... it was actually a little heavy on the corned beef).  You could also use it as a delivery method for leftover corned beef with St. Patty's coming up soon.  These were a total win!!!!  I would eat them with a coarse ground mustard or a thousand island dressing dipping sauce.  Definitely enjoy the concept of doing non-traditional eggrolls!