Egg Rolls

I love to cook! I also enjoy photography so I like to combine the 2 at times. I have an album on my facebook of pictures of food I have cooked. I plan to put together a cookbook for my kids sometime of not only recipes but a picture of the finished food to go with it. I recently made homemade egg rolls and decided to take pictures of the step by step process. I don't always take step by step pics but I know for something a little more complicated like this, it can help. They really are SUPER easy to make but they do take a little time. (I'll include the recipe at the end).

First, marinade the ground pork with soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar & pepper. (I mixed it all up after I took the pic but this was just to show the ingrediants)

While that is marinating, you can work on chopping all your veggies up:

I love my salad shooter. Kevin found this for me at Goodwill years ago for about $4. I've used it heavily since for veggies & shredding cheese & it's held up well.

Mmm garlic! I always add plenty (I love my mincer)! You will always find lots of fresh garlic in my kitchen, I put it in a lot of things. Not only does it taste good, it's really good for you.

Time to cook the meat

Once the meat is cooked, the veggies get tossed with it to cook for just a few minutes

Once everything is cooked, spread it out on a cookie sheet (with sides) to cool. I prop it a little tipped in the fridge so all the excess juice drains off of everything. It's important not to have a soggy filling or it will mess up your eggrolls. I often do all this prep work one day, then assemble the egg rolls the following day.

Take your egg roll wrapper and place a heaping amount of filling like shown on the one corner.

Taking the bottom corner & folding it over the filling, tightly start rolling it towards the top.

Once you reach about the middle, take the right side & tightly fold it towards the center.

Then fold the left side tightly towards the center

Continue rolling toward the top. Using the cornstarch slurry, dip your finger in it then moisten the top of the roll before folding it over to finish it up. This is what it should look like when tightly rolled:

From here, you can put them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet to flash freeze in the freezer (then place in a ziploc bag) as they keep great in the freezer. Or you can fry them up to go with your meal. Using a frydaddy or small pot of oil, heat it up and carefully place your eggroll in it. It should only take a few minutes until it gets a nice crispy brown. ( I didn't take pics of this process as I didn't want to get oil splattered on my camera lol)

Here's a pic of my chinese meal I make that my family loves along with the egg rolls.....

Enjoy!

1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour) mixed with ¼ cup of cool water (cornstarch slurry)

Oil, for frying

FOR THE GROUND PORK
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE VEGETABLES
2 to 3 cloves garlic, very finely minced
½ head of cabbage (about 11 ounces)
3 carrots, shredded
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
10 fresh shiitake mushrooms (or dried black mushrooms soaked overnight), stems discarded (or whatever kind you have on hand)
1 tablespoon cooking oil (canola, vegetable, peanut)
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil (it's ok if you don't use this, still tastes great)
Freshly ground black pepper

1. To make the filling, combine the ingredients for the ground pork together. Marinate at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, shred the cabbage and the carrots using your food processor or by hand. Slice the mushrooms into very thin strips (or you could use your food processer and pulse a few times to get a fine dice.


2. Heat a wok or large saute pan over high heat. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the pork and stir-fry until no longer pink, about 2-3 minutes. Turn heat to medium-low, push the meat to one side of the pan. Add the garlic, cabbage, carrots, ginger and the mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 minute, until the vegetables are softened. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and black pepper. Continue to stir-fry for another minute. Scoop out 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.

3. Discard all of the accumulated juices. Use paper towels to blot the filling to rid of extra oil or juice. Now, you're ready to wrap (see photos for instructions on how to wrap).
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. Keep wrappers also covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Refrigerate up to 4 hours until ready to fry or freeze.

4. To fry the egg rolls, fill a wok or pot with 2 inches of high-heat cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350°F (175°C) or until a cube of bread will fry to golden brown within 10 seconds. Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4 to 6 at a time, turning occasionally until golden brown about 1½ minutes. Place on wire rack to drain and cool.

NOTE: To fry frozen egg rolls, do not defrost the egg rolls – just add them to the oil frozen, frying 4 to 6 at a time. Add an additional 1½ minutes to the frying time since they are frozen.