Homemade Eggrolls

from Steamy Kitchen.


For our 3rd annual December trip to Vermont with friends, we decided to do an Asian-themed night. Crab rangoon, tempura, roll-your-own-sushi...the works. I offered to make these homemade eggrolls to bring.

I'm not gonna lie...they're not easy. The recipe yields about 50 eggrolls and it took me a little over 2 hours to make the filling and roll them. However they are SO easy to pop in the freezer and just pull out however many you need and fry 'em up (or bake them, like Chris and I did yesterday). But even more importantly...they are freaking delicious. And worth every second it took to put them together.

Ingredients:

For the filling
1 1/4 pounds ground pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 head of small cabbage (about 10 ounces)
3 carrots
8 fresh shitake mushrooms (or dried Chinese mushrooms soaked overnight), stems discarded

1 tablespoon high-heat cooking oil
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the egg rolls
50 Spring Roll/Egg Roll Wrappers, defrosted unopened at room temperature for 45 minutes or in refrigerator overnight (about 2 packages) **I had to go to a specialty Asian market to get these.
Cornstarch slurry: 1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour) mixed with 1/4 cup of cool water
Oil, for frying

Directions:

Marinate the ground pork with the soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar and sesame oil for at least 10 minutes at room temperature.

In the meantime, shred the cabbage and the carrots using your food processor or by hand. Slice the mushrooms into very thin strips.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat until hot. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the garlic, ginger and fry until fragrant, 15-30 seconds. Add the pork and stir fry until no longer pink. Add the cabbage, carrots and the mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute, until the vegetables are softened. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil Chinese black vinegar, salt and black pepper. Continue to stir fry for another minute. Remove the filling to a baking sheet and spread out to cool. Prop up one end of the baking sheet so that it tilts and will allow all the moisture to drain to one end. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Discard all of the accumulated juices. Use paper towels to blot the filling to rid of extra oil or juice. Now, we're ready to wrap!

Place only 1 tablespoon of filling on one corner. Any more and you'll overstuff.

Roll up that corner until you reach the middle of the wrapper.

Fold the sides towards the middle. Make sure that you make these folds tight and leave no air pockets.

Continue rolling. See that little corner? Brush a little of the cornstarch slurry on that end.

Press to make sure that cornstarch slurry holds on tight. Place seam side down, so that the slurry dries in place. See how nice, neat and tight that roll is?

What NOT to do: see how the roll is loose and there are air pockets? Oil will enter in through those air pockets and this egg roll will break.

Keep the rolled egg rolls in neat, single layer and covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. If you want to stack the egg rolls, make sure you have layer of parchment paper in between the layers to prevent sticking:

Refrigerate up to 4 hours until ready to fry or freeze.

To fry the egg rolls, fill a wok or pot with 2 inches of high-heat cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350F or until a cube of bread will fry to golden brown within 10 seconds. Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4-6 at a time, turning occassionaly until golden brown about 1 1/2 minutes. Place on wire rack to drain and cool.

To fry frozen egg rolls, do not defrost the egg rolls - just add them to the oil frozen, frying 4-6 at a time. Add an additional 1 1/2 minutes to the frying time since they are frozen.

*I would strongly suggest going to Jaden's site to check out her other recipes! Everything I have tried from there has been fantastic. I also recommend her cookbook, which I happen to own.