.egg rolls.

Whenever I make Chinese food, I *have* to make eggrolls. These aren't your typical cabbage filled rolls with the egg roll wrapper. The recipe I use requires an almost crepe like wrap made of egg, cornstarch, and water. Then it's filled, dipped in a tempura batter and deep fried. It is so yummy. It's a nice variation from the traditional ones you find in most Chinese restaurants or take out shops.
If you have a Pampered Chef food chopper, you'll want to use it. It makes prepping for this thing so much quicker!




Crack 4 eggs in a bowl.

Add 2 Tbsp cornstarch.

Add 1/4 cup water and whisk, working to get rid of any lumps. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the cornstarch to dissolve, so if it's lumpy at first, don't worry... they should dissipate soon enough.

Heat up a crepe pan. This is a pretty big one. My husband got it for me for my birthday and it was so big, I had to make double the egg mix. If you don't have a crepe pan, use your small saute pan. It will cause the edges to curve up a little, but it will be just fine. How do I know? Because that's what I used to use before I got my lovely crepe pan. :)



Ladle some of the egg batter into the pan. Tilt the pan in a circular fashion to coat the entire thing. When you feel it's cooked on one side, use a spatula to flip it. Cook for only another minute and then remove from pan. Repeat until your batter is all gone.

Put the cooked "crepe" on a plate to cool.


Now for the filling!














Finely chop 1/2 cup carrot.

Finely chop 1/2 cup celery.

Finely chop 1/2 cup onion.

Finely chop 1 Tbsp water chestnuts. (I did more than that in this picture because I needed more chopped water chestnuts for another dish.)

These are bamboo shoots. Bamboo shoots come from bamboo! The bamboo is harvested in the spring or early summer. It's then sliced thinly and boiled until tender. The flavor is rather distinct and is an important component for these eggrolls.

(NOTE:You can find bamboo shoots in your grocery store down the asian foods aisle. They're in a can usually next to the can of water chestnuts.)


Finely chop up 1/4 cup.



Take 1 cup bean sprouts and cut them up. These don't need to be finely chopped. Mix all the veggies together in a large bowl.

In a small bowl put:


1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Mirin
1 tsp Soy sauce
and 1/4 cup water







Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wok. When hot, add 1/2 cup ground pork and fry until cooked.
















Dump in the veggies and toss to coat with whatever oil there might be left in the pan. Saute for about 5 minutes until you think the veggies are cooked.

Add the soy sauce/mirin sauce. Cook for another minute.



In that same little bowl, whisk together 1 Tbsp cold water and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. This is going to be our thickener. Add it to the wok and bring to boil. The sauce you added will start thickening up.




Once thick, pull from the heat, transfer to a bowl and let cool.

To assemble, put one of the egg crepes on the counter or cutting board. Put a large Tablespoonful of filling in the center.

Fold in the sides.

Roll up like a burrito. Make sure you have the seam side down so it doesn't unroll.

Repeat until all the wraps and/or filling are used up.



These can be individually wrapped with saran and put in a large ziploc at this point for freezing. I normally make it to this stage and wrap well and hold in the fridge overnight until I need them the next day. Makes it easy when I have company coming.


Before we can cook these, we need to make the dipping batter. In a bowl, mix up 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 3/4 cup cold water. Whisk everything together so there aren't any lumps.




Dip an egg roll in the batter and coat well.

Carefully put the eggroll in a wok of hot oil (350*) and fry until nice and golden on one side. Turn and fry the other side. When it's golden all the way around, remove from the oil and put on a paper towel to drain.

This is a finished egg roll. You can see that the batter makes it nice and puffy on the outside.


Serve these babies hot with some soy sauce.



Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_64gbpb9hhr