Week 5: Egg Rolls

Believe it or not, this week was my first time ever making egg rolls, a.k.a. spring rolls. Apparently, the terms can be used interchangeably, although spring rolls also refer to the fresh rolls wrapped in rice paper where the filling is visible, while egg rolls are always fried. It is not entirely known why they are called “egg rolls” as they do not have any eggs in them, but some theories include that the wrapper recipe used to call for eggs, but that they were phased out.

I am always a bit nervous before trying these weekly challenges since these are recipes I have never tried before and my perfectionist nature comes out, but I was able to draw comfort from the familiar feeling of rolling like I do with kimbap or stuffing like I’ve done with dumplings (pssst stay tuned for a bonus post about how to throw a dumpling party!).

Making the Dish
In searching for this week’s recipe, I came across the YouTube channel Pailin’s Kitchen, or Hot Thai Kitchen and followed her Ultimate Veggie Spring Rolls recipe, minus the taro root since I did not have any on hand. I was talking about her with another friend who’s familiar with her videos, that I enjoy her thoroughness and her personality.

I particularly appreciated how accessible most of the ingredients are, that for my fellow Texans you can even find dried shiitake mushrooms at H-E-B (or at least the one near me). For glass noodles, I ended up using vermicelli noodles, which probably gives my egg rolls more of a Vietnamese influence. The filling included a lot more prep than I’m used to between julienning the carrots, slicing cabbage, chopping garlic, etc. The rest of the recipe was fairly straightforward with cooking all the ingredients together in a pan, cooling, stuffing and rolling into wrappers, and then frying.

I ended up making a bunch for the dumpling party that I threw the day after and had a few helping hands to finish the batch. Up until then, I had been rolling them by pulling the bottom of the wrapper up and then folding over the sides, but my friend actually used a reverse order by folding in the sides first before rolling from the bottom – her technique might be more desirable to ensure that your filling stays in!

The other tidbit I found interesting about making egg rolls is that you use an equal parts mixture of flour and water to act as the “glue” when wrapping the rolls.

Eating the Dish
These were soooooo addicting! As soon as I bit into one, I was hooked – I could understand what Pailin was talking about when she said these have so much more flavor than the ones you order at a take-out restaurant. Technically, you could eat these without a dipping sauce, but I personally love the traditional sweet chili sauce that pairs well with them. You also can’t beat the freshly fried texture of these CRONCHY rolls.

Summary
I am definitely saving this recipe in my repertoire for a future potluck or gathering. Given the high reward with the simplicity of making these, I would recommend giving these a try, although it may be worth enlisting a helper or two to speed up the process.