happy thanksgiving 2011: Savory Asian Egg Rolls

I enjoy getting Chinese take out when I am in no mood to cook, but the one thing I never order are egg rolls. I find by the time they get home the egg rolls are soggy, oily and usually too bland for my taste. So I wanted to find a good egg roll recipe and I came across this food blog called Steamy Kitchen, by Jaden Hair. Her blog is amazing and full of gorgeous Asian recipes. I found her Mother's Famous Chinese Rolls and I knew I had to give them a try. I did make a few changes, but I was so very pleased at the end result. These were some amazing egg rolls.

You will need:
One bunch green onions chopped
2 carrots finely grated
2 cups shredded cabbage ** see note below
1 tbs of grated ginger
2 cloves of garlic minced

** here is a quick tip for the cabbage: get help from the store by buying a bag of pre-cut coleslaw

Egg Roll wrappers. This was the only kind of egg roll wrappers available in my local grocery store.

Next time I will go to the Asian Market and get the frozen wrappers that are thinner and crispier that Jaden recommends. But these are still good in my opinion.

One pound of lean ground pork. You will need to marinated the pork for 10 minutes in:
1 Tbs of soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sugar
black pepper

Heat a wok or large saute pan over high heat. In one Tbs of oil saute' pork until no longer pink

For the filling you will need to prepare the following sauce:

1Tbs Chinese rice wine
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
pepper

Add vegetables and sauce. Stir fry for a few minutes until vegetables are tender.

You must cool the filling before proceeding to make the egg rolls. A great tip Jaden gives is to put it on a baking sheet and spread it out then tilted the cookie sheet so if there was any liquid in the filling it would drain out. I luckily had no liquid in my filling. But if you do, discard the liquid because you don't want liquid to make the egg rolls soggy.