keeping her in eggrolls

Hi, girls (and boys)! It's Andy again. Alicia has been working on some stuff over the weekend and I have had it pretty much off, so I promised to "keep her in eggrolls." She thinks that sounds obscene, but I vaguely recall the priest saying ". . . in sickness and in health, through crochet patterns and in eggrolls, through the Superbowl if the Bears ever go again . . ." I could be wrong.

These are from The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook that Ali got me for Christmas. The book is already in heavy rotation. One of my favorite parts about using this book is making the trip to the Asian supermarket. I am fascinated by all the crazy seafood and strange cuts of poultry. The recipe, thankfully, doesn't call for chicken feet, but if you need those they have them there. The main thing that you need is barbecued pork, eggroll wrappers (from the freezer section), sweet-and-sour sauce (the stuff we got is called "Thai spring-roll dipping sauce"), and Chinese cabbage (though regular cabbage works, too). So here is everything you'll need:

1–2 cups of Chinese cabbage, chopped up
2 stalks of celery chopped up
about 4 inches of that barbecued pork (they, like, shrink-wrap it), cubed as small as you can
about a half a cup of cooked, baby shrimp, chopped up really small. Who are we kidding, use the whole package.
a can of bamboo shoots, chopped up
half of a can of water chestnuts, chopped up
3 tablespoons of oil
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
large pinch of salt, small pinch of pepper
the white of an egg

First, get some water boiling while you are chopping these things. Then get your eggroll skins out of the freezer. They thaw amazingly fast; by the time you need them, they'll be ready. Once the water is rolling, blanche the cabbage and celery. I throw it all in until the water starts boiling again, then drain it into a colander. While it is cooling, I chop the other stuff up. Keep the shrimp and pork separate from the veggies (which can all go together). Squeeze as much moisture out of the cabbage and celery as you can, then roll it up in a dish towel. It is important for these to be as dry as possible.

Get the oil going over medium-high heat and add the pork and shrimp, enough to get them hot. Then throw in the veggies, soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir fry to get them hot. Pour this stuff back into the colander. Go check your email or something while the mixture gets cool, because you will be handling this mixture. After 20 minutes or so, it'll be ready.

Next is the extremely fun part, rolling them. See the pictures above for how I did mine. You take a bit of the egg white and use it as glue, to keep the eggrolls, uh, rolled. I haven't had one break open in the wok yet (knock on bamboo). You know, you should really buy this book. It tells you all about these things and how to make all different kinds of fillings. And they have hand-drawn pictures of lots of crazy seafood and strange cuts of poultry.

Next, get the oil going in the wok. I just use vegetable oil over medium-high to high heat. Fry them like this, four at a time, on all four sides. You'll know when to turn them. When they're bubbly and brown. Use tongs instead of your hands. Trust me on that. I have experience with that.

Then transfer them to a cooling rack with a paper towel under it while you fry up the rest of them. So good.

Here ya go!

Now for the hard part, finding a spot for this food on her coffee table filled with crafts in various states of completion. Goes well with that sweet-and-sour sauce from the Asian market. Oh, and I know how everyone loves the corgi, but look at what she did while we were out, see that coffee splattered all over the pattern? Picture her with her back legs on the couch and her front legs on the table drinking Alicia's coffee while looking over her shoulder to see if we're back yet. Audrey, it isn't that you aren't cute, it's just that some of the things you do aren't cute. Thankfully, she hasn't discovered eggrolls yet. (By the way, for those reading the magazine article, we don't give her any scraps!!! She is strictly a dog food/coffee dog.)

Have you ever made eggrolls? Any tips for me?

Comments

[pam]

My dogs try that kind of shenanigans as well. Mmmm love the eggrolls.

[Alicia P.]

Honey your egg rolls are the BEST!!! You rule, babe.

[sara jane]

Hey thanks, Andy! Think I might just whip some of those up for our Superbowl enjoyment this weekend. Love the jersey. Go BEARS!
(which is not something I thought I would ever be typing on the Posie site)

[Tricia]

wow, you cook for Alicia?! Can't wait to show this post to my fiance!!
sorry, no eggroll tips here, but they look scrumptious, i don't think you need any tips!
your corgi drinks coffee~he looks more like a tea-drinker hehehe!

[Helen]

Go Bears!!

[Lilli]

Wow, Andy! Those eggrolls look really Fab! Alicia's lucky to have a great guy like you to take care of her.

I've never made eggrolls before, but I've made gyoza. I guess that comes close.

I've never heard of a dog drinking coffee before. Audrey, you take the cake :)

[Morgan]

Thanks for the recipe, Andy. The food looks Delish!

[Tomoe]

YUM! Can't wait to try them!

[claire]

Those look so goood! I really don't think we could offer you any advice. YUM!

[Colleen]

Oh to be kept in egg rolls! They look scrumpdillyicious.

[Beth]

Love this!

We have our favourite chinese restaurant that makes the best springrolls (we test this at every other restaurant and every city we visit) and your recipe is actually the closest I've seen in terms of contents to our favourites. (I think there is some bad grammar there somewhere...)

Anyways, I will be trying this recipe at home to save us the inevitable pig-out that happens when we get a craving for those springrolls ('cause y'know the rest of their menu isn't shabby either, and it seems a shame to leave without eating more than an appitizer, wouldn't want to offend the cook...)

Thanks!

[susie]

scrummy! they look fab! what are you serving them with? i'm hungry.

i make something like this too, but i use wonton papers instead of egg roll wrappers, and i either bake them (my favorite) or you can also just eat them uncooked completely like vietnamese summer rolls. yummy!

[Beth]

You are the greatest! I have not made eggrolls since I was in Home Ec, when I was 13. We had to cook for our grades. I made eggrolls one weekend. Now I have made spring rolls since then. I think I actually like them better, especially with the Thai dipping sauce. I make mine, but I almost have to blindfold myself when I get out the fish sauce. You know you can buy it with the darn fish, head and all in it. Just freaks Emma out : )

Audrey likes coffee? Wow! My past puppies would not touch it. Now, I will say, I have had to grow my tomatoes in cages. Appears Cocker Spaniels have a preference for them when they are just not quite ripe, still a little pink. Both of mine ate tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon... strange stuff!

Oh, and love to cruise our local Asian markets here.. you are right, there is some strange stuff in there!

[tiffany]

I have never seen a corgi on coffee. Sounds kinda funny. Sorry. :) Love the egg rolls!

[Vanessa]

What A love!!!!!!! You deserve that kind of a wonderful boy. How fantastic!! And those eggrolls. Andy, you are a treasure.

[Ursa]

hmn, I love your spring rolls. We (my family) usually resort to boxes at Sam's club. But might have to try your recipe as we resolved to make one new recipe per week. So far we are on week three and doing pretty good. Would you mind sharing some rice recipes? I can not make a good rice for the life of me.

[Mama Urchin]

Hi Andy! Love that you call Alicia, Ali.

Alicia - Isn't it wonderful when your guy can cook.

Audrey - Coffee? Were you up all night turning circles so you could get comfortable on the pillow?

[stephanie s]

ahh yes, dogs. mine will eat or drink anything given the chance. but not unadorned coffee or tea, but put a little cream and sugar in there and he is all tiptoes on the tables. the eggrolls look fantastic. i have glued them together with cornstarch and water, and used a cast iron skillet rather than a wok and both work as well... i want eggrolls for lunch...

[Sarah]

Andy! NICE JERSEY!!! I'll take a picture of the lions outside the Art Institute for you..they have GIANT HELMETS on!!!

PS, yum!

[Shelley (Pink House)]

Thanks Andy! And now we'd like your pork-fried rice recipe too. These were nice photos to go with the how-to. Love it.

Your dog-drinking-coffee story reminds me about the time I came around the corner from my living room to my family room and saw my Italian greyhound, Rocco, with his snout down in my coffee cup that I'd left sitting on the floor beside my favorite chair. Yuck! It had never occured to me that he might drink it, and then I got to wondering how many times I'D drank out of Rocco's leftovers. Yucky yuck. Now I try to remember to pick up my coffee cup when I leave the room.

[carolyn]

Well Andy you can come and cook for me anytime,oh sorry Alicia I didn't know you was listening!Seriously the Asian Supermaket is great fun but beware Stuart bought this huge fruit the size of a watermelon form ours, following a recommedation from a Chinese member of staff, and it was foul. Absolutely ghastly, in fact it stank so bad that we had to open all the windows and the sun roof in the car just to get it home. Tasted awful too.

[Daphne]

Hm, no egg roll tips, but I'm happy about that draining rack over paper towels tip. I'm going to pass it along to my chef, who plays a similar role, especially when it comes to edging away crafts for dinner plates to fit on the coffee table.

[stacy]

Those eggrolls look fantastic. I'm going to have to give these a try - thanks for the recipe.

[lucinda]

Oh crap! I just spilled my morning coffee all over the place because I'm throwing my hands in the air in shock that I'm reading of a man who is willing and able to cook in the kitchen. Pardon me... goodness. Sorry.

[lucinda]

Oh, by the way Andy... they look fabulous. Mmmmmm.