Egg rolls, spring rolls, call’em what you will, they’re the perfect food. There’s the crispy, crunchy exterior, enclosing a filling of meaty/vegetably deliciousness, and the sauce of your choice.  One thing I love is their versatility, and that they’re infinitely customizable to whatever one likes.

The only bad egg rolls I ever got came from a local Chinese restaurant, unsurprisingly now defunct.  The filling was just shredded cabbage, and I suspect they were reheated in a microwave.  Still ate them though  🙂

I made three kinds:

(1) Pork:

(2) Chicken:

(3) Cha gio, pork and shrimp (Vietnamese):

Some egg roll recipes use raw meat/seafood, but I worry a bit about food safety and always at least partially cook things first:

You can make your own wrappers, but I’m not that ambitious.  The frozen kind are fine, but be sure to defrost them completely first, and it’s best to keep them under a damp towel while you go about your business.

Filling the wrappers itself isn’t difficult, the one guideline being that you want to gently compress the filling to eliminate any air pockets. 

Tuck those remaining bits inside!  I would highly recommend using a bit of cornstarch mixed with water on the top flap before rolling it up (again, gently compressing).  That will help to seal the wrapper and prevent oil from getting in when you fry them.

Done!

If you mess up, DON’T PANIC!  Just put the mess on a new wrapper and double roll:

Another thing to love about egg rolls is that they are as good from frozen as from fresh, and you can pop the frozen ones into the oil without thawing.  But they should be frozen individually, so they don’t stick together, before putting them in freezer baggies:

Plum sauce and hot mustard don’t seem to be authentic, but after decades of Chinese takeout, I’d miss them.  A light and unbalanced dinner, hot & sour soup and three kinds of egg rolls, plus nuoc cham dipping sauce for the cha gio.

-R