Egg Roles - Traditional

I love a good egg role, so much so that I learned how to make them a couple of years back. There are several steps but it is fun and something you can do with kids (just make sure they wash there hands).

1 large head of cabbage (chopped up into 2-3 inch long slender pieces)
2 carrots (use a veggie peeler to slice up into 2 inch slender pieces)
1 lb of sausage (plain sausage, don't get Italian or maple flavored)
1 large onion (chopped into 2 inch slender pieces, are you getting the trend yet)
3 inch section of ginger (chopped into 3-4 pieces)
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
package of egg role wraps
1 egg (fork it up good)

In a big pot put in the cabbage, carrots, onion, ginger and garlic. Add water to cover about an inch or so and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Brown your sausage in a skillet till done (you could add in a little soy sauce if you like, but I don't usually) and set it in a big bowl. Strain the veggie mixture of water and blanch the mixture with cold water. If you don't it is too hot to handle for about 15 minutes. It is very important that you get as much water out of the mixture as possible. If you don't your egg roles become somewhat dangerous when placed into the hot oil. This is a good job for kids, grabbing hand fulls of the mixture and squeezing it until the water is out. Put the drained veggies into the bowl with the sausage and mix together.

Take your egg role wrap and place it in front of you so it look like a diamond. Using a brush, put a little egg on the two edges and tip of the diamond away from you. Place about 2 Tbsp of mixture onto the bottom 1/3 of the diamond, fold the bottom tip over the mixture into the middle of the diamond. Fold the left and right tips into the center and then role up to create a cucumber shaped role. Do this until you run out of wraps or mixture. When you find a piece of ginger, you are suppose to eat it, don't put it in the egg role.

Heat up some oil in a wok, use a high temp oil and I try to split it 30/70 with peanut oil for the extra flavor. But peanut oil is kinda expensive and not needed really. Place your roles into the oil and fry to golden brown. Us bamboo tongs to turn the roles. Don't use anything that could pierce the role, the latent water will start splattering hot oil everywhere. Place on paper towel when done. You can freeze them after they are cooked to and reheat in the oven or fry pan. Serve with plum sauce, satay sauce, hot & sour sauce, hosien sauce or just about any kind of sauce.

I think I might make egg roles tomorrow night, now that I am hungry for them. I will follow this up with my southwest egg roles in a couple of days. Stay tuned!