Corned Snow Goose and Cabbage Egg Rolls

In the restaurant business there’s a term … “value added product.” The USDA defines it as “a change in the physical state or form to the product.” That means turning pork bellies into bacon, wheat into flour, or in this case a mess of snow goose breasts turned into Corned Goose and Cabbage Eggrolls. These are easy to make out of the cheapest of ingredients, they’ve got a bit of novelty factor, and they taste ridiculously good.

I’m skipping the instructions on how to corn goose breasts because there are plenty of serviceable recipes out there. Use an insta-cure or a sugar-cure method, whichever you prefer. Beyond that its not much more complicated than assembling a few ingredients and rolling them up in an egg roll wrapper.

For real though, these are good. Really good. People will eat them and they’ll go fast and then they’ll want more. You will become popular and people will want to be your friend. You may soon realize that you have influence and power in circles that a pre-eggroll you could only have imagined. I recommend making a big batch and freezing them in serviceable numbers so you can have them on hand regularly. Take them straight from the freezer to the hot grease and have a super good snack whenever you feel like it.

Ingredients

corned snow goose breast (shredded)

green cabbage

carrots

red onion

whole caraway seeds

egg roll wrappers

coarse ground black pepper

salt

1. Shred your corned goose breast and set the meat aside.
   

2. Slice cabbage, onion, and carrots into thin strips. If you were so inclined you could run the vegetables over a mandolin. Just make sure you don’t go too thin, we are going to quickly sauté the vegetables, but we want them to retain some structural integrity so as not to be mushy.
   

3. Quickly sauté your veg in a large bottomed pot with a neutral oil. At the same time, on a separate burner toast caraway seeds in a hot pan over medium heat. Keep the ingredients of both vessels moving to prevent scorching and kill the heat on both once the ingredients start to darken in color.

4. Salt the veg to taste then add lots of fresh ground black pepper. Add the toasted caraway seeds to the veg mixture, stir to combine, and with the heat off, cover the pot. Make sure you’ve added enough so that you can clearly see the caraway seeds as an ingredient in the mixture. Allow the steam and moisture present to rehydrate the caraway seeds for approx. 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove the lid and get a face full of caraway scented steam. Spread the veg on a cookie sheet to stop the cooking process and allow the mixture to cool quickly.

5. Now it’s time to assemble the egg rolls. Lay your wrapper out in front of you oriented like a diamond (as opposed to a square). Fill with equal parts goose and veg, fold the sides in first then roll from one pointy end to the other. Seal the roll with a bit of water applied with your finger. It’ll take 2-3 rolls to get the hang of it, but its a simple affair. I usually end up re-wrapping the first couple because my skills have improved so much by the end of the batch.

6. Fry a few at a time by submerging in 350° oil for about 3 minutes. Mind the egg rolls with tongs while they cook and be ready to turn them midway and hold them in place if the have a penchant for rolling over to one side.

7. That’s it, serve with spicy mustard or homemade Thousand Island dressing. These are great at parties or for hanging out watching a movie on the coach with family. Or as my wife can attest to, stress eating while awaiting election results.