Mother's Famous Chinese Egg Rolls

Egg Rolls, yes they are a lot of work, and yes they are totally worth it.  I was again perusing Pinterest for dinner ideas when I cam across the recipe that I am about to show you, I immediately emailed the Hubby to see if he was interested because we do love Chinese food, and he told me that sounded great.  As I have said before finding certain ingredients up in this area is not always the easiest task, but we did find/already have everything on the ingredients list.  Just and FYI in our grocery store the egg roll wrappers are not frozen, and we found them in the produce section....go figure.  The recipe does say that they have to be frozen wrappers but I work with what I can get.

Ingredients:

50 Spring/Egg Roll Wrappers (about 2 packages), defrosted unopened at room temperature for 45 minutes or in the refrigerator overnight1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour) mixed with ¼ cup of cool waterOil, for frying

FOR THE GROUND PORK1 pound ground pork1 tablespoon soy sauce1 teaspoon cornstarch1/4 teaspoon sugarfreshly ground black pepper

FOR THE VEGETABLES2 to 3 cloves garlic, very finely minced½ head of cabbage (about 11 ounces)3 carrots, shredded1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger10 fresh shiitake mushrooms (or dried black mushrooms soaked overnight), stems discarded1 tablespoon cooking oil (canola, vegetable, peanut)1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine1 tablespoon soy sauce1/4 teaspoon sugar1/2 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon sesame oilFreshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. For the filling, combine the ingredients under FOR THE GROUND PORK, and let it sit marinating for at least 10 minutes.  While that is marinating, shred the cabbage and carrots, and slice the mushrooms into thin strips.

2. Heat a large pan over high heat, add the cooking oil and coat the pan.  Add the pork and cook until it is no longer pink.  Turn heat down to medium-low, and push the meat to one side of the pan.  Add the garlic, cabbage, ginger,a dn mushrooms and cook for about a minute, until the veggies are softened. Ad the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and pepper.  Cook another minute, and then scoop out the filling and place it on a cookie sheet to cool.  Make sure to drain any excess liquid off.  Let it cool for at least 15 minutes.

3.When filling each egg roll, make sure to only use one heaping tablespoon of filling, and make sure not to over stuff them.

4.  To fry the egg rolls, fill a wok, pot or deep fryer with about 2 inches of oil.  Heat the oil to 350 degrees,  Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4 to 6 at a time, turning occasionally, until golden brown, place on a wire rack to drain or cool.

http://steamykitchen.com/13029-my-mothers-famous-chinese-egg-rolls-2.html

I used a deep at fryer cause I have one and it is convenient and I don't have to dispose of the oil in the same way as I would with a pan with oil in it.  
The best thing about the website that I used was that it gave a step by step guide...granted I only remembered that after I got about 2/3 of the way through the egg rolls but once I did remember it was very helpful.  These egg rolls were light on flavor and delicious, the wrappers that I found made the wrapping crisp and perfectly matched the filling.  I would definitely recommend making these, just make sure you have plenty of time and maybe even a helper to handle the load, cause it is a lot.


Have fun making these and don't get too down trodden if you can't wrap the rolls perfectly right away, it does take time!

ENJOY!