Mini Eggrolls

so, haven't done a recipe post in a while (nor any kind of post), and today while cooking, i thought it would be fun to take photos of the process for my experimental recipe today. and thus i present to you the process of making mini egg rolls.

starting materials are rather simple. wonton wrappers, onion, & cabbage.

since i was kind of just making this up as i went along, i deferred to something simpler, and just had a filling of cabbage & onions. i could have conceivably added pork, or really any protein cut up small enough. so, mince up about a quarter of an onion, and a quarter of a head of cabbage. you really want whatever your filling is to be as small as possible, so this is a great way to work on your knife skills. speaking of knife skills...

time for an aside!

on the left, 8-inch chef's knife. in the right, yellow paring knife

these are the proper examples for cutting board to knife size ratio. the knife should always fit comfortably diagonally on the board with at least 2 inches from the corners to the knife.

danger! danger! danger!

if you are using a knife that is too big for a cutting board, like shown above, then you are putting yourself at risk. there is not enough adequate cutting space to allow for the full extension of the knife, and therefore you will feel cramped while cutting whatever it is you are cutting. NEVER use a cutting board that is too small for you knife. you will be asking for trouble.

now, back to the regularly scheduled program.

so, we have our cabbage & onion minced. take a medium saute pan and put it to medium high heat. once hot, add a few tablespoons of sesame oil (if you have it, if not just vegetable oil) to the pan. immediately add your vegetables, along with just a few shakes of soy sauce, and lots of black pepper. cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes, until the cabbage is cooked through. transfer to a mixing bowl, (& save that pan) & prepare your wonton wrappers!

for those that don't know wonton wrappers are the raw pieces of dough that if you fry, you get the crispiness that is found on the outside of an eggroll, or those random crunchy things that chinese restaurants serve with their soups. the ones i have are about 3x3 inches, but if you can find bigger ones to therefore make larger eggrolls, be my guest.

we have 6 wonton wrappers, a small container of water to the left, and a bowl with our cabbage mixture to the right

 

so, just to not confuse people, i am using plastic cutting boards, but that is because those are infinitely easier to clean than a wooden cutting board. but i always use my plastic cutting boards on the wooden one.

alright, now take a smallish spoon and get some of your filling. place it along the middle of the wonton, with just a little bit of space between the filling and the edge of the wonton closest to you. then it is just like folding up a present! fold the two sides over the filling, and on the far side of the wonton, take your finger & get it wet in the water. then just wet the far edge of the wonton. that will help seal the little thing closed. now, just do your best to roll the wonton up, and seal the edge. repeat until your run out of filling.

i ended up with 24 mini eggrolls, which was actually the perfect amount for dinner, since they are so small.

now, remember that pan you cooked the vegetables in? well put it back on the heat! no need getting another pan dirty, that'd just be silly. heat the pan on the higher side of medium high heat, and add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan. then just add your little eggrolls to the pan, flipping around every minute or so, until brown on all sides.

if all goes well, you have something that looks vaguely like this

and there you have it! a photo recipe (& aside) that is informative, and i feel relatively easy to follow. and don't forget, at the top of my blog, there is a tab for all the recipes that i write up or use. very handy.

hey, look at that! i did all of this in a semi-professional manner! hooray!

almost made it...