Do You Roll Your Own?

The entire time I’ve been married (almost 16 years), my darling husband has been bragging about how he and a friend, in high school, used to make won-tons.  I’m skeptical because my husband knows how to cook approximately 3 things and I have never seen him make won-tons.  So, when our friends, the Ragsdales, invited us over for an eggroll party, we eagerly accepted.  You see, Mrs. Ragsdale would not just be making eggrolls for us, but TEACHING us how to do it ourselves.

Now, I’ve had the occasional, tiny, meager, greasy eggroll in chinese restaurants and haven’t been very impressed.   The skinny little cigars of pasty dough didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.  Nevertheless, Mrs. R assured us that we would be pleasantly surprised by her homemade creations.  I bought my assigned package of eggroll wrappers (available in the produce section) and we headed over for the party.

The party had around 12 guests and we all sat around rolling up our dinner and letting our host fry them in a turkey fryer in the back yard.  They were delicious.  What a difference from what I’d been served in restaurants over the years.

Over here in Romeroville, I’ve made them twice.  The first time, I added green chile (after all, we’re in NM, so we eat chile on everything) and I made them again last night with spicy sausage.   So, here you go…Mrs. R’s eggroll recipe and my peanut sauce recipe for dipping.

Eggrolls

1 pkg. eggroll wrapper

1 lb. breakfast sausage (I like the ‘hot’)

1 pkg. shredded cabbage

1 pkg. shredded carrots

1 T. freshly grated ginger

vegetable oil for frying

salt and pepper

In a large pan, break up the sausage and cook until almost done.  Dump in the carrots and cabbage with a little oil and cook for about 8 minutes, or until the vegetables start to soften.  Add the ginger and some salt and pepper.   Set aside to cool for a bit.  Meanwhile, put a pot of rice to cook and start making your peanut sauce (recipe follows).  Heat about 3 inches of vegetable oil in a heavy pan until a piece of eggroll wrapper sizzles and rises to the top when dropped in.  While your oil heats, make your eggrolls using the directions on the back of the package.  Make sure that you have sealed every opening and secured the flap with a swipe of beaten egg (EGG ROLL, get it?).  Place all of your rolls on a clean sheet pan and get ready to fry.   When your oil is hot, carefully drop about 4 rolls into the pan and fry until GB&D (about 6-8 minutes).  Drain on a paper towel and start a new batch until you’re done.

Amy’s “asian” Peanut Sauce

In a small container with a lid combine:

3 T all natural peanut butter

1 T soy sauce

1 T asian hot sauce

the juice from one lime

2 T brown sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 T. water

Put the lid on the container and shake until smooth.  This is a delicious dipping sauce for the eggrolls.

Cooking the filling.

Roll ‘em up baby!

I can bring home the eggroll…fry it up in a pan…

Ahhhh…perfection!

[Via http://biteblog.wordpress.com]