Homemade Eggrolls

We attempted a new culinary experience last night. We made homemade eggrolls. It was fun and pretty easy, so we will probably be attempting it again. What made me decide to do this? I was shopping for some bean sprouts to throw in a salad and right next to them in the produce department was this package of eggroll wrappers for $1.19. I bought them on a whim. Then they sat in my fridge for several days while a contemplated what I was going to do with them and what was I ever thinking when I bought them. There was an eggroll recipe on the back of the package and I decided that I would buy the necessary ingredients next time I was at the store.

Amazingly, the whole process of making these was fairly simple. The hardest part of making the filling was cutting up all of the ingredients really small. I used a Salad Shooter for the cabbage and carrots and some kitchen shears for the chicken.

Here is the recipe:

EGGROLLS
1 lb. lean ground beef, pork chicken OR firm tofu drained and crumbled (I used chicken)
1 tsp. minced ginger
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1/4 lb bean sprouts
1/2 cup shredded carrot
3 green onions
2 TBSP Oyster Sauce
1 pkg eggroll wrappers

FILLING:
Stir-fry meat or tofu and ginger in a wide skillet over high heat until lightly browned. (2-3 minutes)
Add vegetables and cook 2 minutes.
Stir in Oyster sauce.
Let mixture cool.

MAKING THE EGGROLLS:

Use 2 TBSP filling for each roll.
Follow folding instructions.
Deep fry at 350 degrees a few at a time, turning occasionally, until golden, 2-3 minutes.
Drain on paper towels.
Serve warm with mustard and catsup or sweet and sour sauce.

I don't have a deep fryer, but used my big cast iron skillet with about an inch of hot oil. I made some homemade sweet and sour sauce, but I won't share the recipe because I was less than thrilled with it. It tasted too strong of vinegar and didn't thicken up well. I am not sure if I messed it up or if it was the recipes fault. For now, I think I will just blame the recipe. ;-)

Assembing these babies was fun and easy. I got Elizabeth to help me and found that she is a much prettier eggroll maker. (And her egg rolls looked better that mine, too!) I followed the filling recipe rather loosely and made way too much for one package of wrappers, so I guess I will have to buy some more and do it again!

Interestingly enough, there was a recipe for Cannelloni using the eggroll wrappers inside the package. Sounds like another fun recipe to try.