Crispy Fried

Your intrepid FanLitter is not the only thing getting a little crispy in this household.  In honor of my blog title – the Restaurant part – I thought I’d mix it up a little with a recipe.
Straight off the Panda Brand package of Egg Roll Wraps, the Egg Roll Recipe as originally intended:

Do I actually follow the recipe?    Bwaaaahaaahaaahaaaahaahaaahaaaa!!!!!

So far as I’m concerned it’s all about substitution. 

For instance, we never have wine or sherry in the house.  I have simply skipped over it and come out with egg rolls that were perfectly edible.  I have also substituted a glug from the bottle of rum under my desk and found it tasted great.  Shrimp makes a good substitution and cooks up fast if you get the frozen/precleaned variety.  Over half the time I totally forget about the cornstarch.  No one has noticed yet.  And the addition of about a tsp. of oyster sauce works pretty well.  If you can marinade the pork or beef, it tastes better, but I don’t always know I’m going to be cooking egg rolls until I’ve already got the wok on the stove and the Cuisinart revved.  For the veggies I like to use the leaves of the celery along with the stalk, as it gives it a bit more flavor.  For the meat I’m finding chopped goes over better than shredded.  Not that the recipe says anything about it, just that I do.

I’ve only been messing around with egg rolls for a few months now.  Until I decided to give the recipe on the back of the package a try I was too intimidated.  Now I do them every few weeks.  It isn’t hard, but it can take a while, so pull the wok out at least an hour before you plan to serve.  It you haven’t got a wok, I’m betting a deep fat fryer would work just fine.

  Bon Appetit!

Alice