Shrimp and Vegetable Egg Rolls

Finished Shrimp and Vegetable Egg Rolls

Egg Roll Wrapper

Uncooked Filling

Cooked Filling

Placing the filling a little below the center of the wrapping

Folding in the bottom corner

Folding in the sides

Rolling the egg roll

Sealing the egg roll with water

Wrapped Egg Rolls

Egg rolls are delicious, but deep-frying them can add more inches to your waistline than desired. Well, here I got a recipe that will enable you to enjoy the treat without the excessive calories as compared to deep-frying it. To reduce the fat, I cooked the filling and then pan-fried the wrapper as oppose to dumping the egg rolls in a pot of oil. Now, I can feel a little less guilty for eating these egg rolls.

Below is the recipe I used. Similar to the potstickers, I am not going to state the amount of ingredients I used. I am just going to list them. You can essentially put anything you want in them. I mainly used shrimp and vegetables because my brother is a vegetarian that eats seafood. An idea that my brother suggested that I might consider next time is using taro instead of jicama. He didn’t like the crunchiness of the jicama. Taro is actually softer and would yield to a more binded filling. I do recall my aunt using them in her egg rolls and them tasting good. Next time, I shall try it.  If you get a chance to pan-fry egg rolls, please let me how it turned out and if you liked them.

Also, if you don’t pan-fry all of them at once, you can freeze them and save it for later.  When you are ready to cook them, you can thaw them in the refrigerate a day before or put them in the microwave to defrost. Once they are defrosted, add 2 tbsp of vegetable oil to a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is heated, add the egg rolls and roll them around the oil. Then make sure you put the lid on. This will help heat up the center of the egg roll. Keep the lid on for about 3 minutes. Then lift the lid and turn the egg rolls to the other side.  Then put the lid back on for 3 minutes. Then lift the lid and cook all side to obtain crispiness.

 Ingredients:

Minced dried and fresh shrimp

Bean sprout

Shitake mushroom (soaked 4 hours to overnight, drained, and diced)

Wood ear fungus (soaked 4 hours to overnight, drained, and chopped)

Chopped Chinese cabbage

Shredded carrots

Diced Jicama

Chopped Shallot

Diced Onion

Minced Garlic

Soy sauce

Garlic powder

Black pepper

Seasame oil

Egg roll wrappers

Vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. To make the filling, mixed all the vegetable, fungus, and protein together along with the seasoning in a big bowl. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
2. Heat skillet over medium heat. Add the filling  to the skillet. I didn’t add any oil to the skillet since I already used sesame oil in the filling, but feel free to add 1 to 2 tbsp of cooking oil to the skillet before adding in the filling.  Cook the filling by flipping it with a spatula and putting a lid over. Let it cook under the lid for 2 minutes, then flip the filling and then cook under the lid for 2 more minutes. Repeat until the ingredients are tender.
3. Drained the filling in a colander and let it cool for about 20 minutes. It is important to drain and cool the filling because if not, it would be difficult to wrap the egg rolls. The heat and moisture will break the wrapper.
4. Wrap the egg rolls. Refer to the pictures above. Lay out the egg roll in a diamond shape. Place about 2 tbsp of filling below the center of the diamond. Fold in the bottom corner. Then fold in the right and left side and then roll. Wet the edge of the top corner with water or egg wash.
5. Heat about 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat on a skillet. Add about 10 egg rolls to the pan and roll it the oil. Fried one side until golden crispy and flip to fry the other side. Repeat until the egg rolls are to a desired crispiness. Serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce. Enjoy!!!