Give me your favorite egg-roll creation, & you'll have m

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I love egg rolls, but not the ones filled with mushy cabbage. Here's how I make mine. Joe'sfolks has had them. I hope her and her family liked them. I know we do.

This recipe makes enough egg rolls for 6 people. Adjust accordingly. It's from my own cookbook "You Can Be A Great Cook With Poultry" I hope you like it.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. cut up frying chicken
1/4 cup sliced and halved water chestnuts
1/4 cup coarsely chopped bamboo shoots
1/4 cup diced onion
2 stalks celery, sliced
 green pepper, chopped (optional)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. Ground ginger
2 tbs. Soy sauce
scant dash of Chinese 5 spice powder
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 package egg roll skins
1 cup peanut oil + 2 tbs.

Skin and bone the chicken. Place the skin and bones in two cups of boiling water and cover. Turn heat down to simmer. While the chicken skins and bones are cooking, finely dice the chicken meat into 1/4 inch pieces.
Heat 2 tbs. of the peanut oil in a steel wok, or large heavy skillet (I prefer seasoned cast iron if Im not using my wok). Add the chicken and half of the salt. Cover with a lid and cook for about seven minutes, stirring frequently. Remove the cooked chicken to a large bowl (very large) and pour any juices from the pan into the boiling chicken stock.
Return the wok to the stove and reheat. Add the onion, garlic, peppers, bok choy, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots. Stir fry on highest heat setting for five minutes without lid. Remove the cooked vegetables to the bowl with the chicken. Add the spices and soy sauce to the bowl and mix well.
Place the bean sprouts into the wok and cover. Add 1/2 cup water to the wok. Cook for seven to ten minutes until the bean sprouts turn white and loose there translucent quality. Add to the meat and vegetable mixture and toss thoroughly. Place bowl where you can easily reach into it and let cool for ten minutes.
Remove the skin and bones from the broth and discard. Add water to make two cups of broth. Use the broth as the basic stock for pineapple sweet and sour sauce.
Frying egg rolls is best done with an assistant, or partner. As the egg rolls are made, they should be immediately placed in hot oil. As the uncooked egg rolls sit, the water and vegetable fluids will cause the skins to become gooey and hard to work with. Working with a partner will also reduce the work load and total cooking time.
Put a finger bowl filled with water within easy reach. Place an egg roll skin onto a clean dry surface. Put one tbs. Of the chicken mixture onto the egg roll skin center. Dip your fingers into the water and use them to wet all four edges of the egg roll skin. Fold two opposite sides toward the center until they just begin to cover the filling. Grasp one of the unfolded edges and place over the filling. Continue rolling into a complete cylinder. Set aside. Make as many egg rolls as you desire. Experiment with the amount of filling you add. Deep fry in hot peanut oil immediately until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil. Serve with pineapple sweet and sour sauce and mustard sauce, and with fried or steamed brown rice.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Juliev]

this isn't very ethnic.. just american.. lol

sausage egg rolls:

1 qt cooking oil
15 each cloves fresh garlic, peeled
1/2 cup real mayonnaise
1/2 cup softened cream cheese
2 tbsp prepared mustard
4 each polish sausages
1 egg
1/4 tsp milk
8 large egg roll wrappers
1 chopped parsely

Heat oil in frying pan to medium-high. Combine
garlic, mayonnaise, cheese, and mustard in blender until smooth.
Remove from blender. Cut each Polish sausage into two shorter halves
and score lengthwise. Beat egg and milk with fork until smooth.
Place each sausage half at end of egg roll wrapper, add a dollop of
mustard sauce and roll sausage into wrapper, sealing ends with egg
mixture. Fry in hot oil until lightly browned on all sides. Garnish
with chopped parsley and serve with extra mustard sauce.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Well. Egg roll skins seem to be an all around favorite. I have made egg rolls, lasagna, manicotti, and ravioli (both with fruit and with savory fillings) from egg-roll skin. And now, I have another wonderful sounding dish to try out.

Juliev, your recipe sounds wonderful. I will be trying it, in spite of the blood sugar (I'll just have to watch it for a day or two before so that it won't make much difference.

Seeeeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Claire]

I often make up huge batches of won ton wrappers filled with ground meat(pork would be most authentic, but chicken or turkey, dark meat, works well enough), garlic, onion. I keep the filling simple enough that I can pass off the stuffed won tons as pierogi, won ton, mandoo, potstickers, ravioli. All depends on the sauce or soup I plop them into. A big bag of them in the freezer gives you a gourmet meal in an instant.

 

[spryte]

Lumpia - Filipino Eggrolls

Ex-Hag-in-Law's Lumpia

1 lb ground beef
1 sm bunch green onions (snipped or diced)
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 Tbls soy sauce
shredded cheddar cheese (about a cup)
wonton wrappers (usually in the produce section of the grocery store)
cooking oil

Combine ground beef, green onions, garlic, cheddar cheese and soy sauce.

Place about 1 or 2 tsp meat mixture on a wonton wrapper and roll. To roll, place wrapper on flat surface orientd like a diamond. Place meat in center of wrapper and mold into a horizontal strip in the middle of wrapper, but not all the way to the corners. Fold in the side flaps, snug against the filling, fold up the bottom flap, snug against the filling, moisten finger tip with warm water and slightly wet the top egdes of the wrapper. Gently roll upward and seal with moistened finger tip (I hope that made sense) Heat cooking oil to 350 degrees. Fry lumpia until they float and are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with sweet and sour sauce or soy sauce.


Spryte's Lumpia

package egg roll wrappers
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 medium onion minced
1/2 lb pork (I slice thin pork chops into 1/8 in by 1/4 in little pieces)
1/2 shrimp (tiny shrimp or diced bigger shrimp)
2 C chicken broth
1 C shredded cabbage
3 carrots diced
1 sweet potato diced
2 small potatoes diced
1/4 lb green beans diced
2 Tbls soy sauce
cooking oil

In large skillet, heat a bit of cooking oil and cook garlic & onions until translucent. Add pork, shrimp and broth. Simmer 20 minutes. Add cabbage, carrots, sweet potato, potato, green beans and soy sauce. Cook until veggies are tender. Set aside and cool until it's not too hot to touch.

Place about 2 or 3 Tbls mixture on an eggroll wrapper and roll. To roll, place wrapper on flat surface orientd like a diamond. Place mixture in center of wrapper and shape into a horizontal mound in the middle of wrapper, but not all the way to the corners. Fold in the side flaps, snug against the filling, fold up the bottom flap, snug against the filling, moisten finger tip with warm water and slightly wet the top egdes of the wrapper. Gently roll upward and seal with moistened finger tip (I hope that made sense) Heat cooking oil to 350 degrees. Fry lumpia until they are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with sweet and sour sauce or soy sauce.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Spryte; In San Diego, I knew of several places where I could purchase Lumpia wrappers. You may be able to find them in Pittsburgh as well, especially if you have any Phillipino population. If not, spring roll wrappers more closely approximate lumpia wrappers. They are thinner and more delicate. Other than that, I love Lumpia, especially with a pineapple and tropical fruit sweet & sour sauce. The Phillipinoes sure know how to cook. They are a remarkable people.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Yakuta]

Goodweed here are two ways I make eggrolls. One is savory and is normally a filling that my mom makes her awesome samosas with but I am not patient to make triangles so I make eggrolls with it.

Another one is a sweet version which you did not ask for but when I first tried it at a party I thought it was very clever and decadent.


Savory Eggrolls

Ground Beef 3 pounds
3 tbsp of oil
1/2 tbsp of ground ginger
2 tsp of ground cayanne or red chilli powder
1 tsp of freshly roasted and ground cumin powder
1 tsp of freshly roasted and ground corrainder powder
2 tsps of paprika
1 tsp of garam masala (basically a blend of cinnamon, clove and black pepper)
salt to taste

In a saute pan, add the oil. Once it's hot add the ginger and dry spices and saute it for a few seconds. Next add the beef and cook until browned and cooked through.

Now add the beef mixture to a bowl and let it cool completely. Next add the following to the beef mixture. 2 large yellow onions extremly finely chopped, handful of mint leaves finely chopped, 1/4 cup of cilantro finely chopped and if you like your food super spicy another jalapeno or green chilli finely chopped.

Stir to combine. Place 2 tbsp of this filling in the eggroll fold, fry and enjoy.


Sweet Eggrolls

Ricotta Cheese one small carton (I am bad with exact measurements)
1 cup of dry milk powder
1/2 stick of sweet butter
1/2 cup of sugar or more if you like it sweeter
1 cup of assorted chopped nuts. I like to use a mixture of blanched almonds, unsalted pistachios and cashews (unroasted, unsalted kind)
1 tsp of ground cardamom (optional but highly recommended)
zest from 1 lemon
zest from 1/2 and orange
1 tsp of almond extract

In a saute pan add the butter. Once it melts add the Ricotta cheese and let it cook until most of the water evaporates. Next add the dry milk powder and sugar and cardamom powder and cook for another 5 - 7 minutes. Remove from the stove and add the zest, nuts and extracts. Stir and let it cool completely.

Stuff eggrolls with a few tbsp of this mixture. Fry them up and serve them with a pistachio sauce.

To make pistachio sauce

Blanch the pistachios (unroasted and unsalted kind). Next puree them in a food processor with some sugar and a tiny bit of honey (1 tbsp). I also add a little water to the mix (1 tsp or so). Once the pistachio is all powdered and pasty keep it on the side.

Next whip some heavy cream. Once it's at soft peaks slowly fold in the pistachio puree and let it chill in the refrigerator.

Serve hot eggrolls with chilled pistachio cream.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Yakuta; Wonderful recipes. I have a grand meal with some freinds from Sault Ontario, every New Years Eve. We make lots of food and always try to make both some traditional (for our meal) and some adventurous things. Your egg-roll recipes will fit right into the theme we use. Usually we have scallops and shrimp, stir-fried in garlic butter, the egg-roll recipe I posted, with the pineapple sweet & sour sauce, a bit of rice, won tons folded as a triangle around a filling much like your savory filling, sometimes I'll make a home made pate' with freshly cooked poultry livers and hearts, and either my daughter's caramel apple pie, or my New York Cheesecake.

By the time we're done eating small amounts of everything, we're generally so stuffed, we stay at the host's house overnight. Peter and I watch hockey while the wives watch a movie. Sadly, the kids are mostly grown and have their own New Years traditions in the making.

We alternate whose home we do this at every year. Often, we invite another family to come and share our meal. It's a great way to spend New Years Eve.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Yakuta]

Hey Goodweed I am glad you liked the recipes and it sounds like such a wonderful New Years Eve tradition to include tradtional with the not so traditional.

One thing I struggle with is that balance as well and with my kids being rather young I would like to expose them to many different traditions and what better way to teach them then cook alongside with them and expose them to various flavors.

 

[Alix]

How did I miss this thread? Wow. I am going to go out and get some wrappers. Are all of these things freezable? If I try out these recipes can I freeze them and serve later? They look like they would be OK, just want to check.

 

[Yakuta]

Hi Alix my two cents on freezing:

The best is to make them fresh and fry them and enjoy them.

The next best is to make them, place them on a cookie sheet freeze them for an hour, take them out place them in large ziploc bags and freeze again. When ready remove, fry and serve

I have also fried eggrolls ahead of time, frozen them and then when ready I fire up the oven and the eggrolls go straight from the freezer to the oven. They crisp up in the oven. This is my least preferred option because they don't remain as crisp as freshly fried ones. I use this method though when I have to cook for 50+ people because that's a lot of frying to do at the last minute.

 

[Alix]

Thanks Yakuta. That is exactly what I was planning. I thought I would make a big batch and have a bunch fresh and freeze the rest for Christmas entertaining.

Thanks for the recipes and the tips. If you have more, I would love to see them. I especially like the savory recipes, but will try the sweet ones too.

 

[jkath]

I just bought wrappers for the first time lately (planned on making a chicken canneloni, but had too many unexpected things come up). Anyway, I made appetizers for my folks when they came to visit a couple of days ago. I just used ingreds I had on hand & came up with these:

Set 1: ricotta cheese, Salt & Pepper, Nutmeg, sliced chives
dipping sauce: marinara
Set 2: mozzerella, green chiles, sliced in half
dipping sauce: guacamole
Set 3: chopped cranberries (nuked for 2 min to soften), a bit of sugar, brie
no dipping, just powdered sugar on top

I made these in advance, wrapped each in a different shape and refrigerated them (covered) for about 4 hours. When the company arrived, I plugged in the "fry daddy" and each batch took under 5 minutes.

Now I'm dreaming up new recipes for thanksgiving....pumpkin perhaps?