Dear Mr.Egg Roll, you made my day..

Egg rolls or Spring rolls? Chinese folks call them egg rolls, but Thai folks call them spring rolls. For me, they are the same! I'm not sure why Thai people call them spring rolls. Maybe they are made in spring time? They also call the fresh non-fried rolls Fresh rolls or Summer rolls. Funny. They're everywhere at Asian restaurants; Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Laos, etc.

This dish was introduced to me when I was a kid. I remembered 2 types of pastries; one is what I'm using in this recipe, another one is what they use for fresh rolls. The latter, when you deep fry it, becomes sticky and burns easily too. I like both types! My in-laws had egg rolls for a Thanksgiving Dinner Party 3 years ago. To be honest, I was surprised to see it at an American Thanksgiving Dinner! A year later, my girlfriend and I made this dish for Thanksgiving Dinner.



I gave this recipe the green light to make since I haven't made it for a while and also to seduce my lovely friends to do work for me - haha. I'm evil. It was the first time we used the digital deep fryer we got from one of our good friends, Ken Khoo, at our house-warming party in Nov. 2008! It's actually easy to make but time consuming. When you make this, you can't make a few, you know? The digital deep fryer becomes an awesome thing ever!. It's worth it for me! If the egg roll was a person, I can imagine myself writing a letter to him..(yes! I expect the egg roll to be a guy)

Dear Mr. Egg Roll,

                   

                     I just wanted to let you know that you made my day.  I spent half my weekend making you. It was fun and I was excited to share you with my friends. Thank you for turning out good.  I had eaten so many of you! I won't be thinking of you for a while. Hope you don't mind.

Best,

Tanantha

Egg Rolls -Tanantha Version

Yield: 75 egg rolls

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground pork
1/2 medium head cabbage, shredded
10 oz. shredded carrots
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 package dried fungus as shown in the photo below
3 bundles bead thread noodle
3 packages egg roll pastry as shown in the photo
7 cloves garlic minced
4 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 splash Siracha (Chili sauce)
1 egg white
Black peppers
Vegetable or Canola oil

Preparations:

• Soak the dried fungus in a bowl of water for about 2 hrs until they all full and bloom
• Soak the bean thread until they're soft. Cut them to about 3" long.
• Shredded cabbage and carrots
• Separate the pastry one by one and keep them in an air tight container to prevent from drying. This will make the rolling process easier. I used damped paper towel at the bottom and cover the pastry with it.

Directions:

• Heat up the wok with 2 tablespoons vegetable/canola oil. 
• Brown the garlic, the add meat. Stir it till the meat is cooked through.
• Add bean thread and fungus. Stir well.
• Season with oyster sauce, soy, sauce, sugar, white vinegar, black peppers, and Siracha. 
• Add cabbage and carrots. Stir well. Turn off the heat. Add cilantro. Mix well. 
• Prepare a cookie tray. Spread out the filling to cool down and to dry it out. The filling should be dry not smoochy. Set aside for 15-20 mins
• Prepare the working area. Take out the pastry one at a time. Place the filling on the triangle corner (see photos). Roll from the corner to the middle, then fold both sides.
• Use egg white as a glue. Use your finger to rub it on the triangle edges. Keep rolling til the end. Seal it with egg white again.
• If you need to stack up egg rolls in 2 layers, use a parchment paper as a layer division. It will help egg rolls stick to one another.
• Heat up the oil to 375 degree F and fry for about 5-6 mins or until golden brown. If you are not eating them right away, keep them in a freezer! When you're ready to eat, heat up the oil to 375 degree and this will take a few mins longer than 6 mins.

Starring by...

Even the pastry I used called spring roll pastry! Maybe Thai folks were right?

Dried Fungus

Soak them up!

Separate the pastry one at a time and cover with damped towel

Shredded cabbage

Brown the garlic and get the meat in!

Add fungus and bean thread noodles

Add carrots, cabbage, and all seasonings. Stir well.

Spread out on a cookie sheet to cool down and dry out

Place the filling in between the triangle corners up side down

Roll it to almost the middle, and start folding both corners

Like this..you see the triangle corners? Glue it with the egg white. Once it's rolled to the end seal with egg white again.

I used parchment paper as a layer before started stacking more egg rolls

375 degree F, place them in a deep fryer and here they come! Golden brown.

I had eaten so many of you Mr. Egg roll!

Place them in a Chinese take-out box and give them to your lovely friends and family! They will love you more =) Who doesn't like food right?