Having grown up on Asian- particularly Polynesian- food, for years I lamented the fact the only Asian restaurant in Evansville used to be so expensive, a once in ten years dinner was all I could expect. So I bought a book on Asian cooking way back when such things were hard to find, and I started to make one dish after another until it was second nature.
One of my favorite foods is egg rolls. They are amazingly easy to make, quick, and the clean up is nominal. Here's what you do:
First, decide what you like in the way of veggies, fruit, combos, and extras, because the egg roll is just a wrap. What goes inside it can be as nominal as collard greens and bologna. They can be as personalized as bean sprouts and walnuts.
Next step is to divide your veggies and other ingredients into fast and slow cook. If you intend to use chicken or other meat, cook meat first. The meat should be cut fine or ground or cooked all the way through before you add other things.
Any meat can be used in egg rolls. Ground sausage, hamburger, pork bits, chicken, beef, turkey, and even cold cuts.
And don't forget fish! Shrimp is marvelous in egg rolls, but you don't cook the fish first, only the meat. For fish, cut it up in small bits - shrimp need to be cut into three or four pieces and set this aside.
Make sure your meat is cooked first. Then cut your veggies into small bits but don't shred or grind. Your harder veggies like onions, celery, carrots, broccoli etc should be placed first into a fry pan with a little olive oil and some soy sauce and sauteed. When these are half cooked, add the quicker cook veggies like summer squash, mushrooms and zucchini. These veggies should be pre-cut into small bits, but not ground. Add some ground ginger and black pepper and some curry powder if you like it. You don't need salt because of the soy sauce. Don't over cook. At this point add your fish. It will take less than a minute to cook fish bits.
When the meat and veggies are sauteed but not cooked to death take the whole pan off the heat and add your lettuces. Any lettuce will do. This needs to be shredded. You can use kale, iceberg, collards, mustard greens, bokchoy, Chinese cabbage, parsley - anything that strikes your fancy. Don't cook the greens, just toss them lightly with the other cooked meat, fish and veggies.
Next step: Leave your wrappers in a stack. Pour a little water into a small bowl.
The wrappers will be thin and two might want to stick together.
Turn one of the points toward you so that the shape of the stack of wrappers looks like a diamond. Add a heaping teaspoon of your veggie meat mix to the front center of your stack of wrappers, fold the point of the first wrapper - nearest you - over the mix of veggies and meat. Fold the right side over and then the left like an unsealed envelope. Then paint the last corner with water from the bowl with fingers just like you would lick the sticky part of an envelope. Roll into a roll and place on paper towels.
You will probably need between four and six egg rolls per person depending on appetites.
Last step: heat about two cups of vegetable oil, canola is the best, in a wok or pan deep enough to engage deep frying safely! When the oil is very hot but not smoking, carefully drop the rolls into the oil until the wrapper is crisp -about 20 seconds. Turn for twenty more seconds, and then lift roll onto fresh paper towels.
These are ready to eat right away. Serve with mustard, horseradish or different kinds of jelly like apricot or cranberry.
Delicious!
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