Asian Recipes
We decided to post this egg roll recipe after one of our readers asked us how to make them. It’s been a very long time since I made them in my parents’ takeout restaurant, and I’ve never actually made them at home. But we figured there were probably more curious people out there who’d want to give this recipe a try.
I first attempted to make these beside my father, who was a Chinese chef working at the Holiday Inn restaurant in upstate New York before he became a business owner working in his own restaurant. Back then, chefs and kitchen hands were judged by how many pounds of egg roll wrappers they could go through in one hour. If you were any good, you could tear through 25-30 pounds of wrappers per hour, and all the egg rolls would look like perfect little clones of each other. I wasn’t particularly good at it (25 lbs/hour was a far off dream), but I could make them well enough. It’s a relatively easy process, and you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
You can make these using the traditional ingredients in this recipe or get creative yourself with just about any fresh vegetables and meat. Make a good sized batch. They freeze and reheat nicely for after-school or game day snacks. You can even cut the egg roll wrappers into smaller squares, and make minis for party snacks. Need I say more?
You’ll need:
8 cups shredded savoy cabbage
8 cups shredded green cabbage
2 cups shredded carrot
2 cups shredded celery
3 scallions, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder (optional)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3 cups shredded or diced roast pork
2 cups cooked shrimp, chopped (optional)
1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 pieces)
1 egg, beaten
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the cabbage, carrots, and celery into the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes. Transfer the veggies to an ice bath and drain. Thoroughly squeeze out all the excess water from the vegetables (you can put the drained veggies in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the water). This is a very important step because if the filling is too wet, you will have a wet filling and soggy egg rolls!
Once dry, transfer the veggies to a large mixing bowl. Add the scallions, salt, sugar, sesame oil, 2 tablespoons oil, five spice powder (if using), white pepper, roast pork, and cooked shrimp (if using). Toss everything together. The filling is ready to be wrapped!
Back in the day, the egg roll wrappers at the restaurant used to come in 5-pound bundles. Each person would start with one and work their way down the stack, which made about 120 egg rolls. We were pretty expert at making sure we had enough filling so that there’d be no leftover wrappers. It’s not an exact science, so play it by ear.
The way to wrap these egg rolls is to first take a small fistful of filling, squeeze it a little in your hand until it is compressed together, and place it on the wrapper. Check out the photos below to see how to wrap them. Basically, it’s similar to the method you’d use to wrap a burrito. Just add a thin layer of egg to make sure it stays sealed. Line them up on a lightly floured surface, and continue assembling until you run out of ingredients.
In a small pot, heat oil to 325 degrees. You don’t need too much–just enough to submerge the egg rolls. Carefully place a couple egg rolls into the oil, and fry them for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Keep them moving in the oil to make sure they fry evenly.
My father used to tell me that frying egg rolls was a fool-proof task. You just slide them gently into the oil, and keep them moving while they are frying. When they’re done, they’ll “call” you with a slightly louder sizzling noise. That splattering noise is signaling that the filling is getting hot inside. The steam is escaping, causing the oil to bubble up.
You can serve them after they’ve cooled a bit.
Freeze leftovers in freezer bags and reheat them in the oven. Enjoy folks!
Egg Rolls
Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
8 cups shredded savoy cabbage
8 cups shredded green cabbage
2 cups shredded carrot
2 cups shredded celery
3 scallions, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder (optional)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3 cups shredded or diced roast pork
2 cups cooked shrimp, chopped (optional)
1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 pieces)
1 egg, beaten
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
Instruction:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the cabbage, carrots, and celery into the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes. Transfer the veggies to an ice bath and drain. Thoroughly squeeze out all the excess water from the vegetables (you can put the drained veggies in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the water). This is a very important step because if the filling is too wet, you will have a wet filling and soggy egg rolls!
Once dry, transfer the veggies to a large mixing bowl. Add the scallions, salt, sugar, sesame oil, 2 tablespoons oil, five spice powder (if using), white pepper, roast pork, and cooked shrimp (if using). Toss everything together. The filling is ready to be wrapped!
The way to wrap these egg rolls is to first take a small fistful of filling, squeeze it a little in your hand until it is compressed together, and place it on the wrapper. Check out the photos below to see how to wrap them. Basically, it's similar to the method you'd use to wrap a burrito. Just add a thin layer of egg to make sure it stays sealed. Line them up on a lightly floured surface, and continue assembling until you run out of ingredients.
In a small pot, heat oil to 325 degrees. You don't need too much--just enough to submerge the egg rolls. Carefully place a couple egg rolls into the oil, and fry them for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Keep them moving in the oil to make sure they fry evenly.
My father used to tell me that frying egg rolls was a fool-proof task. You just slide them gently into the oil, and keep them moving while they are frying. When they're done, they'll "call" you with a slightly louder sizzling noise. That splattering noise is signaling that the filling is getting hot inside. The steam is escaping, causing the oil to bubble up.
You can serve them after they've cooled a bit. Freeze leftovers in freezer bags and reheat them in the oven.
This recipe and image sources are reffered in website: Thewoksoflife.com. Thanks so much!
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