Egg Rolls

Ingredients

• Cooking oil - I used peanut and sesame
• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1 kohlrabi, shredded
• 2 T oyster sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 1 lb ground pork (or beef or not)
• 1 package eggroll wrappers
• oil, for frying (see tips below)
• soy sauce and sesame oil, for dipping

You can use any veggies or add fresh herbs that you'd like - so just experiment and have fun. We had these from the previous couple weeks of produce deliveries and put them to good use!

Instructions

1. In a medium skillet, cook vegetables, oyster sauce, and sugar in oil till vegetables are soft, 3-4 minutes. Set aside in a large bowl.
2. Cook meat in same skillet, breaking into small chunks, until fully cooked. Add meat to the vegetable bowl, mix, and let cool till you can handle the mixture, about 5 minutes.
3. Roll your egg rolls: Here is a video you can watch in case that is helpful. Fill a small bowl or cup with water or (a scrambled egg) to use for sealing the eggrolls, set aside. Lay one eggroll wrapper out on a flat surface with a corner facing you, so you're looking at a diamond, not a square. Heap about 1/3 cup filling in the center, shaping it into a left-right line diagonally across the wrapper. Leave about 1" of excess wrapper on each end of the line. Fold the right and left corners in over the edge of the eggroll, then fold the large bottom corner up and over the filling, tucking the filling into the wrapper. Dip your finger or silicone brush in a small bowl of water and wet the still exposed top corner. Roll the eggroll up onto this top corner and make sure the edge has sealed; dab with more water if needed for a good seal. Cover the roll with a wet towel and repeat for the rest of your rolls.
4. In a wide pan, heat your frying oil to 375 degrees. You'll need enough oil to come at least halfway up the rolls. Carefully place eggrolls in the pan, just a few at a time so they're not crowded. Once the bottom is nicely browned and crispy, carefully turn the rolls over to cook the other side. Remove, place on a drying rack, and cook the rest of the rolls.
5. Use soy sauce, a mixture of soy and sesame oil or any other dipping sauce you'd like.

Frying Oil Tips

We like to reuse our frying oil and typically use a mixture of coconut and olive oil because that is what we have around. Both of these have strong flavors, so you may want to opt for canola, soy, rendered leaf fat or something else. I like having some coconut in there because it is highly saturated and thus is more shelf stable. The short chain saturated fat is also really healthy for you!

Once you fry with the oil, be sure to filter it well and store in your refrigerator. You can reuse the oil for a long time. Nothing is wrong with your egg rolls having a bit of donut sugar flavor in them!

Here is a link to our deep fried celeriac recipe that has more tools and tips about frying -- highly recommend reading that if you haven't deep fried anything before because it has some nice images that will make this easier to do.