Mother's Famous Chinese Egg Rolls Recipe - Steamy Kitchen

To Make the Filling

1. In a large bowl, mix together the soy sauce, cornstarch and pork. Marinate at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, shred the cabbage and the carrots using your food processor or by hand. Slice the mushrooms into very thin strips (or you could use your food processor and pulse a few times to get a fine dice.)
2. Heat a wok or large saute pan over high heat. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the marinated pork and stir fry until no longer pink, about 2-3 minutes. Turn heat to medium-low, push the meat to one side of the pan.
3. Add the garlic, cabbage, carrots, ginger and the mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute, until the vegetables are softened. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and black pepper. Continue to stir fry for another minute.
4. Scoop out the filling to a baking sheet and spread out to cool. Prop up one end of the baking sheet so that it tilts and will allow all the moisture to drain to one end. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Wrap Egg Rolls

1. Discard all of the accumulated juices. Use paper towels to blot the filling to rid of extra oil or juice. Now, you’re ready to wrap (see step by step photos in the post for instructions on how to wrap).
2. IMPORTANT: Only use 1 heaping tablespoon of filling for each egg roll. These are slender egg rolls, the width of the egg roll should only be 1.25″ diameter.
3. Keep the rolled egg rolls in neat, single layer and covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. If you want to stack the egg rolls, make sure you have layer of parchment paper in between the layers to prevent sticking. Keep wrappers also covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Refrigerate up to 4 hours until ready to fry or freeze.

To Fry the Egg Rolls

1. Fill a wok or large pot with 2 inches of high-heat cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350°F (175°C) or until a cube of bread will fry to golden brown within 10 seconds. Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4 to 6 at a time, turning occasionally until golden brown about 1½ minutes. Place on wire rack to drain and cool.
2. NOTE: To fry frozen egg rolls, do not defrost the egg rolls – just add them to the oil frozen, frying 4 to 6 at a time. Add an additional 1½ minutes to the frying time since they are frozen.

Mama Ruthie’s Chinese Egg Rolls Recipe Rules

Mama’s Rule #1: Your egg roll filling ingredients must be drained of excess moisture and cooled before rolling. Soggy, hot filling makes soggy egg rolls.

Mama’s Rule #2: Use the right kind of Chinese spring roll wrappers. The size I get is 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm) around and come 25 wrappers to a package. These wrappers are light, paper-thin and fry up to a shatteringly crisp crunch. Oh yes, before I forget – “spring roll” and “egg roll” are interchangeable and mean the same thing. Sometimes my big-name local grocery store will have “spring roll pasta sheets” that are in the refrigerated produce section. Do not use those – they are way too thick! Let’s just say that if it has Italian writing on the package, it probably ain’t the good stuff for Chinese egg rolls.

Here are photos of my 2 favorite egg roll wrapper brands, found in most Asian markets.