Cooking Egg Rolls
Hello, neighbors! This is my first cooking blog and I was asked to demonstrate and elaborate on the process of cooking egg rolls. I came across the recipe on allrecipes.com when my daughter had to bring a traditional Filipino dish for a class project. I’m sure that there are hundreds of variations on the recipe, but this is the one my friends and neighbors request from me when we have potluck get-togethers.
The first time I made the egg rolls, I followed the recipe exactly. But the beauty of cooking is that it isn’t an exact science like baking is, so I’ve been able to adjust a few things to make it easier and fit my personal tastes. The main change to the original recipe (seen below) is a shortcut of using slaw mix instead of shredding the cabbage and carrots that the recipe called for. I also use chopped garlic from a jar instead of the crushed garlic in the recipe.
The filling is super easy to make. In the video I doubled the recipe for a 4th of July cookout, so if you follow the recipe, you will have 25-30 egg rolls depending on how much filling you put in them. Make sure you use a large pot to cook everything in because until the cabbage cooks down, it will fill up the pot.
Put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the pot and brown your ground pork. Once the pork is cooked, remove it from the pot using a slotted spoon so the pork juice remains. Cook your garlic in the pork juice for about a minute before you add your yellow (or white) onion. Once the onion has cooked to translucent, add the pork back to the pot, then the green onion and slaw mix. Once the cabbage has cooked down a little (maybe 2 minutes) add the soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. You can taste test until the filling fits your personal taste.
Wrapping the egg rolls is actually an easy thing to do, but it’s a very delicate process because they are thin and tear easily. The egg roll wrapper package actually has a diagram and instructions on how to properly wrap your egg rolls, but I’ll sum it up. Place your wrapper down on a clean, dry surface (I use a cutting board) in a diamond shape. Place your filling (about 3 tablespoons) across the middle and wet the edges of the wrapper. Fold up the bottom point and the sides. Tuck in any extra wrapper on the sides and roll up to the top point. Make sure you are getting out any air so that your filling is tightly tucked inside.
Frying the egg rolls is a very fast process. DO NOT STEP AWAY FROM YOUR PAN, SKILLET, OR FRYER WHILE COOKING THE EGG ROLLS!! They only take 1-2 minutes per side, and if you’re cooking more than 1 at a time, you will need to constantly monitor them. Remove from the grease and drain. Once they cool, enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 lb ground pork
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- 1/2 chopped onion
- 1/2 cup minced carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped green onion
- 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 30 egg roll wrappers
- 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
Directions
- Use 1 tablespoon oil to cook pork. Remove pork.
- Cook onion & garlic
- Stir in pork, carrots, green onions & cabbage
- Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and soy sauce
- Remove from heat
- Fill egg roll wrappers, seal, fry and enjoy!