Saturday, January 2, 2010

Rosie And Mr. Hawthorne Check Out A New Restaurant And Rosie Recreates One Of Their Dishes.

Mr. Hawthorne and I were out and about the other day
 and decided to try out a restaurant 
we haven't been to before - South Beach Grille 
on the beach road in South Nags Head, 
just north of Jennette's pier. 
You can check out their menu here.
 
For starters, we ordered the Southwestern Spring Rolls.
 Corn, black beans, and cheese on the inside, 
served with a tomato cucumber salsa and a Barbecue Ranch dressing. 
Excellent choice. 
 And that's what I made for lunch a day later. 
Photos to come. 
 Thanks South Beach for the inspiration.
Mr. Hawthorne had the Sesame Chicken Wrap
 which was wrapped in romaine lettuce 
and served with Jasmine rice
 with scallions,  a soy sauce, and a sesame ginger dipping sauce.
 The chicken mixture included carrots, cucumbers, and cabbage.
 A messy package, but quite delicioso. 
 This was light, flavorful, and tasty.
I ordered the Sesame Ginger Beef Wrap. 
The beef mixture had red peppers and broccoli 
and it was served with jasmine rice with scallions. 
Wrapped in a real wrap, not lettuce.
This was good, but a tad too salty for my tastes. 
The service was excellent and the waitress was quite helpful
 when we asked her about what was in the sauces.
 I knew when we left 
I'd be recreating the Southwestern Spring Rolls.
Rosie's Southwestern Eggrolls: 
 black beans (about 2 cups) 
 1 can corn, drained 
1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies, drained 
 pepper jack cheese, grated
Mix together the beans, corns, and tomato/chilies.
Stir in the cheese.
Mix well.
I used egg roll wrappers.
 Brush outside edges with water.
 Center the egg roll diagonally.
Pile filling in center.
Pull bottom corner over.
Pull edges over and roll up.
For my dipping sauce:  
1 cup mayo  
2 TB ketchup 
 4 TB BBQ sauce
  juice of 1/2 lemon 
1/4 cup chopped red onion 
1/4 cup parsley, chopped 
less than a teaspoon Stubb's Hickory Liquid Smoke 
 
I tasted as I went along 
and ended up adding more ketchup and BBQ sauce than I started with.
 Note: The recipe above is final with all the tweaks.
 Like I've said, blend, mix, taste, adjust, season, re-season,
 and add as you go along.
For the dipping sauce,
 I mixed the mayo, BBQ sauce, ketchup, and lemon juice together,
 tasted, and decided to add in some chopped red onion, chopped parsley,
 and a tiny bit of Stubb's Hickory Liquid Smoke.
I added in the onion and parsley.
I used less than a teaspoon of the Hickory Smoke.
 Mix well. 
And remember, always, to taste as you go along.
I fried them three at a time. 
Never crowd your frying pan - 
it lowers the temperature of the oil and gives you greasy, oily food. 
 Fry for about a minute, until lightly browned.
Drain on paper towels.
And serve.
With dipping sauce.

Now tell me you don't want a bite.
Oh, these were so good.
 Nothing like some other Southwestern eggrolls I've had before:
This is a Southwestern eggroll 
I was actually served at Chilis 
 on one of our road trips.
I took one bite and I had to spit that out.
 Check out their menu to see what it was supposed to look like.
 This was just plain nasty.

3 comments:

Kathy said...

I think this is a landmark moment for Rosie. Perhaps it's the beginning of a new year that prompted the change. But I had to read through twice to make sure I wasn't wrong.

Rosie liked EVERYTHING THEY ORDERED!! ;-)

Donna-FFW said...

Another one of your creations on my to make list for the coming year.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Well Kathy, my wrap was a bit too salty.

You don't think I'm becoming soft in my old age do you?

If it will make you feel better, I'll go back and find fault with whatever I order.