Egg Rolls can be used as appetizers, a side dish, or even if you like them a lot, as a main dish.
I used to wonder how they were made and how hard they could be to do. My Texas sister showed me one day. We had some canned meat (pork, chicken, turkey, shrimp seem to work best) that we shredded. She had me shred a head of regular cabbage (we didn’t want to get fancy and use Chinese cabbage). She also had some Chinese veggies in a can and bean sprouts in a can.
The shredded cabbage was slowly cooked in a pan with a little oil and seasoned with soy sauce when mostly done. The Chinese veggies and bean sprouts were also drained and then added when the cabbage was almost done. Mix it thoroughly to get all of the juices mixed. Fold in the shredded meat, add more soy sauce to taste. You could also add finely ground pepper if you want. When the cabbage is fully cooked, set the pot aside to slightly cool. When you get used to making these, you can vary the veggies used, and the flavorings used to have fun. Imagine chicken, bell peppers, onions. They would almost be like fajitas. You could add shredded cheese when rolling them up. YUM
Then get the packages of egg roll wrappers out of the fridge make a paste of flour and water for sealing the egg rolls them selves.
Sit all of this on the table and prepare to make egg rolls, and a mess.
Place a wrapper on a plate, place a spoonful of the mix on it. Slightly fold over two opposite corners on top of the spoonful of mix. Tuck a third corner over and around the mix, then roll up the egg roll until the wrapper has completely gone around. If it won’t go around, you have used too much stuffing mix, and might have to remove some in order to shape the egg roll. Use a dab of the flour paste to seal the last end onto the roll, set aside the completed roll and start on the next one.
Heat up some oil in a frying pan until it is hot. Gently place egg rolls into the pan to fry. Turning occasionally to avoid burning. When they are golden brown, they are done. Remember that the stuffing is already cooked, you are just cooking the wrapper.
These egg rolls can be frozen when cooked completely and microwaved later to heat them up. Each batch of egg rolls will make quite a few, if you have a big family, they can help with the preparation, and will probably have fun doing so. Imagination would be the only limit. Left overs could also be used when making these. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, left over turkey is handy.
I wonder if this can be done with fruit, too? Good thought…..
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