appetizer Archives - NY Foodie Family

The Mr. and I like chicken wings. Growing up in high school and college, I remember many of the local bars and pubs having 10 cent wing nights. Then when the Mr. and I were visiting a friend of his up near his alma mater, Binghamton University, we visited a local restaurant that served all kinds of different flavored wings. We were in wing heaven! Nowadays, we don’t eat wings very often and rarely, if ever, do we cook them at home. I’ve seen many different recipes for slow cooker wings out there on the internet and Pinterest and thought we’d give it a try. Instead of regular hot wings, I figured these garlic honey teriyaki flavored wings would appeal more to the kids. Slow cooking definitely beats standing over a deep fryer! And the kids did enjoy the sweet honey teriyaki sauce. We are going to need to eat wings more often though and get our son accustomed to the mess of eating them. He actually asked for a fork and knife to eat the wings with since they were “too messy!” These are a healthier and easier to cook alternative to fried chicken wings.

Slow Cooker Garlic Honey Teriyaki Chicken Wings
Recipe adapted from The Housewife In Training Files

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken wings
Teriyaki Sauce:
½ cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp honey
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cold water
Garnish: sesame seeds, scallions

Directions:

Make the teriyaki sauce by combining the water, soy sauce, honey, garlic and garlic powder in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Whisk together the cornstarch and water until dissolved. Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan.
Heat the sauce until it thickens. Add more water if the sauce becomes too thick. Set aside to cool.
Layer the wings in the bottom of the slow cooker and pour the sauce over them. Set on high for 3 – 4 hours, depending on size of wings.
Once wings are finished cooking in the slow cooker, remove from the sauce and place on baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for fifteen minutes.
While wings are baking, pour sauce from slow cooker into a medium sauce pan and heat over high heat to reduce (approximately 15 minutes), stirring frequently. Once wings are done baking, toss in the thickened sauce.
Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds and scallions.

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. In honor of the holiday we had an early celebration last weekend and made a feast of different dishes. The first we are sharing are these Awesome Egg Rolls. Believe it or not, but we had never made egg rolls prior to this. We’ve made dumplings before, but never egg rolls. This was a fun activity for the whole family to get involved in. We deep fried these egg rolls. However, with the kids helping with the filling and sealing of these, they may not have sealed the wrappers as tightly as they should have. As a result, the egg rolls may have turned out a little greasier than we had wanted. The filling and flavor was great though and we enjoyed these as part of our feast!

Awesome Egg Rolls
Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com courtesy of ROUVER

Ingredients:
6 cups green cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped onion
4 ounces cooked, frozen baby salad shrimp, defrosted
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
black pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten
cornstarch
20 egg roll wrappers
vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, and onion. Stir in the shrimp, soy sauce, garlic powder, and black pepper.

2. Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Pour the beaten egg into the pan, flipping once, until done. Remove from the skillet and let cool. Once
cooled chop finely and stir into the cabbage mixture. Sprinkle the cabbage mixture with approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Mix and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons cold water. Set aside.

4. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of the cabbage mixture into the center of each egg roll skin. Dip a spoon into the water/cornstarch mixture, and moisten all corners but the bottom corner. Fold the egg roll skin from the bottom over the mixture, making a tight tube. Fold the corners in from the sides, and press to stick against the folded roll. Finish rolling the rest of the way. Repeat with remaining egg roll wrappers.

5. Fill deep fryer with vegetable, using the manufacturer’s recommendations. Heat to 350 degrees F. If not using a deep fryer, pour vegetable oil into a deep frying pan to a depth of 3 or 4 inches, and heat oil to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Carefully place egg rolls into hot oil, and fry until golden brown. (approximately 4-5 minutes in the deep fryer). Remove to paper towels.