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Friday, January 23, 2009

homemade egg rolls recipe



This summer we got together with some girlfriends for a "Wrap & Roll" party. We all brought ingredients for delicious egg rolls, spring rolls, and lettuce wraps. Of course the fun was in the chatting and eating, but it was cool to learn how to make these delicious Asian favorites.


With Chinese New Year upon us (January 26!), it's the perfect time to host your own "Wrap & Roll" party and try out our authentic egg roll recipe. Stacy's mom is Chinese, and she graciously invited us over the other day to make a couple of batches. You don't even need a traditional wok to make them--just a large frying pan will do. Besides being so yummy, my favorite part is that you can freeze the extras (before frying) and pull them out anytime!


Chinese Egg Rolls Recipe


Ingredients:
*Spring roll pastry (you can find these at most grocery stores, but the kind at specialty grocery stores are better)
*Approximately 1 lb. ground pork, chicken, or turkey
*2 carrots, grated
*2 small onions, sliced thin
*1/2 head of cabbage, sliced thin like cole slaw (you can buy a bag of shredded cole slaw w/out sauce if you prefer)
*Bean sprouts
*Other optional ingredients: small shrimp, spinach or snow peas (sliced thin)
*2 Tbsp. soy sauce
*1 tsp. sesame oil
*1 egg

1. Slice/grate your veggies very thin.



2. Brown meat until cooked thoroughly. You may want to add 1/4 c. water to pork when cooking if you have a low-fat percentage.


3. When meat is cooked, add veggies and soy sauce and sesame oil. Cook and stir 2-3 minutes--overcooking will cause your veggies to get soggy.


4. Drain veggies in a colander and let cool, or the mixture will ruin your pastry.


5. When your mixture has cooled, open your spring roll pastry. Don't open too early--they'll dry out. Also, plan on using the entire package at once. They won't keep once they're opened. Just peel off a couple at a time.

Crack an egg in a small dish and lay out a pastry.


6. Spoon some of the mixture onto the pastry wrap near the corner closest to you.


7. Wrap fast! Fold the corner up and wrap tightly around mixture as shown.



8. Dip a finger in your egg white and wet the two corners of the wrap. (This is important to keep the wrap sealed until it's fried.)



9. Fold corners over and press to seal.


10. Continue to roll, almost to the end.


11. Using more egg white, seal the last corner to the roll.



12. Repeat until all the wraps or mixture are gone. If you want to freeze some, this is the point you need to do it. Flash-freeze them on a cookie sheet for about an hour, then place in a freezer bag in the freezer. To cook them later, allow to thaw to room temp, then continue with frying instructions below.


13. Heat a few inches of vegetable oil in a deep pan. Place a few egg rolls in the oil at a time and fry until golden brown.


14. That's it! They were so easy I might just have to make them again this weekend. We like to serve them with sweet and sour sauce, but there are lots of different Asian dipping sauces out there that would be delicious also.



Bon appetit! Or should I say sihk faahn? (That means 'eat' in Chinese!)

43 comments:

  1. Thank You! My best friends mom makes these and as much as I watch her, I can't remember how to do it when I get home. She lives far away and is not the writing it down type of cook. This is exactly like her "recipe" but with pictures. Now I feel confident enough to try it.

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  2. Yummy!!
    We have made eggrolls and wonton as well!!
    Looks great!!

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  3. Wow..those look delicious..came over from SITS!
    -sandy toe

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  4. These look delicious!

    We tried making gyoza the other day. They tasted great but they took FOREVER to make!

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  5. Oh yum! Unfortunately, the only thing I can do is roll the egg rolls from my extensive Taco Bell experience.

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  6. Hey, I'm here from SITS! This sounds amazing! I will definitely have to make them myself!

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  7. Congrats on being the Featured Blogger. This site is wonderful. I am going to start following:)

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  8. Wonderful! You made something that is so intimidating look so easy! Will you show us how to make spring rolls, too? Pretty please!

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  9. This looks really tasty. Thanks for the recipe and the detailed instructions!

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  10. now not only am i hungry, but i'm hungry for spring rolls. thanks for sharing!!
    Happy SITS Day!!!!

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  11. My hubby is Filipino and we make Lumpia(filipino egg rolls). I like to used ground chicken in them. They are awesome. We use Thai Sweet Chili Sauce as our dip..mmm.mmm.good!

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  12. yummy!!! I'm vegetarian so I'll try this recipe without the meat. Great walk-through.

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  13. congrats on being the SITS girl of the day. I already follow you!

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  14. Whoah! So delicious...

    Printing out now :)

    Thanks so much for sharing it,

    Nat

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  15. Those look SO yummy!
    It's like that Wii game Cookin' Mama - only without the lady yelling at you that you aren't doing it right. ;)

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  16. what a super idea! much more fun than picking up Panda Express :)

    congrats on your SITS day - I've already read through more posts than I have time for today... this could become obsessive :)

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  17. Those look so good! I bookmarked this page so I can come back to it later. :)

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  18. Those look awesome! Thanks for sharing.

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  19. What a terrific tutorial and wonderful blog! I'm visiting from SITS - congrats on being featured!

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  20. Xie xie (thank you in Mandarin) for the photos. I have wanted to make egg rolls for years but never had the nerve to try. These don't look that difficult.

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  21. I attempted wontons once and they were a disaster--but these spring rolls look great! I may have to give them a try!

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  22. This looks delish, I also will chop my leftover stirfry with some rice and a little sweet/sour sauce to use as filling. Yum, thank you so much, visiting from SITS.

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  23. Happy SITS day! I love your blog! And the idea of a wrap and roll party is so cute!

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  24. Yum! I have been trying to find a recipe on how to make Spring Rolls. I know the ingredients to put inside the roll but didn't know what to wrap it in. Thank you for posting this recipe!!

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  25. I love homemade eggrolls! Hubby's mom makes them all the time - maybe now I can surprise him and make them too!
    Congrats to your SITS feature too!\

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  26. I'm a little tardy for your SITS day, but I love your stuff and I will be back!

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  27. thanx for the great recipe.... have a great chinese new year.

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  28. I made these yesterday and they were very delicious. It made much more than I expected. I had filling left over after making 20 egg rolls (I couldn't find spring roll wrappers in my area). I followed the recipe exactly, just added baby shrimp. I also didn't use all my veggie mixture, only about 2/3 as an entire head of cabbage makes tons of shredded cabbage. I think I will add a little salt and pepper next time. I have to go for more wrappers to finish up my filling and more pork to make another batch using the left over veggies. These were awesome!--A little work, but, awesome!! Thanks.

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  29. I forgot to ask a question in my last comment.
    Did you use "regular" cabbage or a special smaller "chinese" cabbage? I have seen recipes for egg rolls that call for a special type of cabbage. The regular kind is all I can get in my area and it makes tons of shredded cabbage from one head. Could you maybe give a number of cups of cabbage you used and also tell how many egg/spring rolls the recipe makes? Thanks.They are very delicious.

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  30. MMM! Thank you so much for posting this! Look Delicious!

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  31. I made these tonight and they are SO easy and SO delicious!

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  32. Stacy, you are the BEST. I will have one very happy hubby, and well...me too!

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  33. I made these today, and YUM! I used half a head of napa cabbage, and added a big handful of chopped shrimp. It made 27 rolls for me, which is fewer than I had hoped. I think next time I'll double the recipe so that I can have more to put in the freezer for a busy day.

    Thanks for the inspiration and the recipe!

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  34. I made these last night for our Chinese New Year celebration and they were FANTASTIC and EASY! I'm making another batch to freeze. These will become a yearly tradition for our family. Everyone at the party asked for the recipe and I sent them here. I will link to it when I post pictures. Thanks for the recipe!

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  35. Hi Angie,
    We actually used regular cabbage. It's easier to get sometimes. Yes, this does make a lot, but we seem to eat them so fast that we need them all. Plus we love freezing them for later. So glad you left us a comment and gave us your feedback. We love to hear from folks testing out our stuff.

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  36. oops forgot to mention that how many eggrolls it makes depends on how much filling you use, etc. If you are not a huge cabbage fan, go ahead and half the amount of cabbage. It is really up to you and your personal taste. We make around 25. Of course this isn't always exact.

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  37. These sound great! I'm going to give them a go tonight--thanks!

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  38. Thanks for posting this recipe. I love egg rolls but I am intolerant of cabbage (I can't digest it). Now I can make my own and just leave out the cabbage!

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  39. It looks fantastic! Great idea for a party!

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