Growing up, family vacations consisted of a lot of historical sites. I’ve seen quite a few battlefields and Presidents’ gravesites in my day. That’s what you get when your father is a historian. My brother and I were not always thrilled – we longed to visit Disney World or a water park instead of spending our vacation stuck in a museum. But every few years we took a trip that I always looked forward to, even though the destination varied. Dad’s job required him to attend a two-week conference every four years, and my brother, mother and I would tag along to stay in the hotel and play during the day while Dad worked. He would bitterly remind us that “it’s no vacation for him!” but we still loved it all the same – we’d get to swim, shop, eat out, and most importantly, no battlefields!
Except one.
When Dad’s conference was in San Antonio, Texas, my brother and I found ourselves at the site of another historic battle. But one that I, for the first time, was enthused for. Maybe it was because of the Disney Davy Crockett videos I used to watch – sing it with me now, “Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier!” – but I couldn’t wait to go to the Alamo. And it didn’t disappoint. To this day, the image of the Alamo is haunting, tragic, and strangely beautiful to me, probably a result of the romanticized version of the story that Disney colored for me.
San Antonio, which was the site of two of Dad’s conferences, ended up being one of my favorite vacation destinations. I loved the Alamo, SeaWorld, the River Walk, and the food.
Mmmmmm, the Tex-Mex. In fact, on this blog, I tend to make quite a few Mexican-inspired recipes. I definitely trend in that direction in terms of cooking. One of my go-to recipes, my green enchiladas aren’t authentic, but my own variation of enchiladas suizas.
So for this week’s Game Day Grub post, I took a page from the Tex-Mex cuisine of San Antonio, and fused my “Mexican” recipe with another cuisine, Asian. I used the same filling that goes into my green enchiladas for these egg rolls – chicken, cream cheese, green chiles, corn, and black beans – then I rolled, sealed and fried the egg rolls and served them with a dipping sauce. I intended to make a tomatillo-ranch sauce from scratch, but was feeling lazy, so I took a short-cut and mixed the rest of my green enchilada with ranch dressing. Amazing. In fact, I won’t even bother making the dipping sauce any other way. It was so simple and delicious. And the snack received rave reviews from all who sampled it.
Watching NBA basketball this weekend? My Enchilada Egg Rolls go perfect with Friday’s game when Charlotte plays at San Antonio at 8:30 ET.
Looking back, I do appreciate my pops taking me to so many historical sites. Though Disney World would’ve been nice too.
Enchilada Egg Rolls
By Rachel Ingersol
Prep Time: 25 min. Cook Time: 15 min. Yields: 12 eggrolls
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can green chiles
1/3 block of cream cheese
1 8 oz can or package of green enchilada sauce (I love the brand Frontera). Reserve a ¼ cup of enchilada sauce for dipping sauce
Egg roll wrappers (found in the refrigerated area of the grocery store)
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 cup Ranch dressing
Directions:
1) In a medium-sized sauce pan, heat the first six ingredients. Mix well until the cream cheese has melted. Then remove from heat.
2) Create a workspace for assembling egg rolls – I line a table with a 6′ section of wax paper and then set a small bowl filled with several inches of water nearby.
3) Heat approximately 2-3 inches of vegetable oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
4) Place six egg roll wrappers on the wax paper and 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each egg roll. Roll the corner closest to you over the filling. Fold in the two touching sides of the wrapper and continue rolling . Wet finger in the water bowl to seal the final corner.
5) Carefully place the six assembled egg rolls in the oil and fry until golden on both sides. This takes about 3 minutes per side. Remove and place cooked egg rolls on paper towel-lined plate to absorb grease.
6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remaining six egg rolls.
7) Mix together reserved enchilada sauce and ranch dressing until well blended. Serve egg rolls with enchilada-ranch dipping sauce.
