Eggrolls

Eggrolls!  Homemade eggrolls!  The best kind of eggrolls!  And I would know - I'm on PEI, the place where eggrolls are everyone's favorite Saturday night snack (along with the rest of Special Plate C).  Some say the Canton Cafe is the best Chinese food here, some prefer China Garden, some love Blossoms, but my favorite Chinese food are the eggrolls that come from Souris West.

My parents make these every year.  This year, they waited for me to arrive home-from-away before the annual event.  I always heard about these eggroll-making nights but was never witness to one.  Until now.

So, up until now, I was under the impression that the delicious crumbly filling, the one with the perfect balance between meat and vegetable and just the right amount of saltiness, was my father's own creation.  After my inclusion in the ritual, however, I came to realize that the filling is made using the recipe on the eggroll-wrapper box.  Wong Wing.  No matter, the stuff is still just as delicious!  This year, Dad added a few diced shrimp to the pork recipe.  I also realized it would be super easy to make an all-veggie version of the eggrolls.

The eggroll wrappers come in packages of approximately 50.  They come apart easily.  The "glue" that sticks the wrapper together in all the appropriate places is egg white.  Get it?  Eggroll!  Take a little silicone or nylon brush (the kind you might use for BBQ sauce), dip it in the egg white, and paint three borders of the square wrapper.  The borders should be about an inch thick.  You then add a dollop of filling (not too much, not too little - you'll get the hang of it).  Make sure to not get any filling on the outside edges of the egg white border.  The moisture of the filling prevents a good seal and then you get a lot of snap, crackle and pop during the (spoiler!) deep frying phase.

Directions for wrapping the eggrolls:  first fold the non-egged edge in towards the middle of the wrapper, over part of the filling (this is one of your long edges), then pinch one end of that folded-over piece, to hold it in place.  Fold over the other long edge, overlapping the first edge by about 1 cm, and press down lightly to seal.  Now press each end tightly to seal.  You can also use a fork to really crimp the edges down (as shown above).

Your wrapped products should look like this.

Now they are ready for the oil (we used canola).  I prefer not to really provide instructions on how to heat the oil.  I just have to say *do it safely*.  You may have a deep fryer, or you may have a pot like we do.  *Do not leave the pot unattended at any point*.  Read a few deep frying tutorials on line, or ask an experienced deep fryer for tips.  I am not an experienced deep fryer.  I am a little scared of hot oil, not gonna lie.

Here they are, frying away to a sizzling, golden brown.  Prior to frying, make sure all of the edges of the rolls are still sealed - as I mentioned above, if the filling comes in contact with the hot oil, you will have some noise and some spatter.  As far as cooking time, you have to play around and get the feel for it.  After a few minutes, one side will be brown enough.  You then flip it, and fry the other side until done.  Use a metal slotted spoon to remove the rolls from the oil, and place onto paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Now, after all the scariness of the hot oil, we are rewarded with some amaaaazingly delicious eggrolls!

As delicious as they look.  We made 100.  Wonder how long they'll last over the holidays?