A week ago one of my co-workers brought in some home-made Chinese dumplings and they were so delish! It brought back memories of my mom’s eggroll recipe, that I loved but hadn’t made in over 10 years. Saturday was the official start of Chinese New Year and I was born in the year of the rat, so what better time to make that eggroll again! It’s super easy, makes a lot, and they freeze nicely too.

Mom’s Eggroll
(her basic recipe with some tweaks from me)

vegetable/canola oil
1 lb Jimmy Dean regular sausage
2 frozen cubes crushed ginger
3 frozen cubes crushed garlic (obviously you can use fresh ginger & garlic, but I just use the Dorot frozen from TJ’s…so much easier)
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 cup soy sauce (less or more to your taste)
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt & pepper
1 TBS cornstarch
1/2 pkg tri color bag coleslaw
4 or 5 stalks celery…diced into small pieces
3 to 4 green onions, chopped
1 pkg large wontons (they come in packs of 20)
1 egg and a little water combined for an eggwash
optional: my mom always added bean sprouts, but I didn’t feel like it for this recipe

Put a little oil in a pan. Add garlic and ginger and cook for about a minute. Add sausage, breaking it up, and brown until it’s not pink anymore. Mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, S&P…add to pork mixture. Heat for a few minutes to combine. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the pork and mix together to thicken the sauce (add more cornstarch if necessary so it’s not too liquidy…too much liquid will F-up your finished eggroll).

Put the coleslaw, celery and onions in a large bowl. Pour the hot sausage over the vegies and mix it all together thoroughly (this helps wilt the vegies, but the celery still has some crunch).

Line one cookie sheet with parchment paper & have another ready with a wire rack on top. Take one eggroll/wonton wrapper and place it on the counter with one of the corners facing you. Add about 3 TBS of the sausage filling. Brush the outside edges with the egg wash. Fold up the corner near you, then fold in the sides, and finally roll it tightly like a little burritto, sealing the final corner. (you can look at youtube videos to see how to roll up eggrolls tightly) Line them up on the parchment cookie sheet until done with filling. Mine made about 17, so I had some extra wrappers to just cut up and make some wonton chips.

My mom always deep fried the eggroll, which were delicious, but so greasy. I looked up different methods of cooking eggroll and did a hybrid of sorts. Preheat oven to 425F. Pour about 1/2 inch oil in pan and get it pretty hot, but not smoking (some websites say 350F, but I just used a couple of the extra won ton triangles and threw them in to test) When it seemed the perfect temp I started adding the eggroll. I could get about 6 in my cast iron pan at a time. Fry each side for a minute or so, or until crispy and golden…flip and do the same on the other side. Transfer to the wire rack on the cookie sheet. When all of the eggroll are done, put them in the oven for about 10 minutes or so, which crisps them up even more.

That’s it! They’ll be hot, so be careful and let them sit out a bit. I froze a bunch and will recrisp in the oven when I’m ready to eat them. Had one the next day for lunch and it was as good as the day I made them! I just ate them as is, but you can also dip them in your favorite sauce.

I brought a couple over to my sister’s and she reminded me that the day I made them (Jan 25th) would have been my mom’s 90th birthday. Coincidence? I think NOT!!

Gung hay fat choy

You cannot direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails!