Greedy Girl : Mushroom Egg rolls

Time for Takeout!

Who doesn’t love a hot crispy egg roll smothered in sauce? I love fried wontons and I also adore egg rolls. My only issue with the takeout versions is their general lack of flavor. The fillings are usually bland, but that package of soy sauce, hot sauce or duck sauce saves the day. But I dare you to try one of them without a sauce ‘no Bueno’. But these home-made babies right here are full of flavor!

Most egg roll recipes require you to cook the veggies before filling them in the roll. I feel like an egg roll with crisp crunchy and flavorful fillings trump soggy cabbage any day. Hence I marinated my veggies in vinaigrette to slightly break them down. That way they would become tender while maintaining crunch as well as absorb much flavor from the vinaigrette. Put as little or as much mushrooms in this, they will absorb all the flavor like a sponge.

To shred or not to shred that was my question:

Now let’s discuss the cabbage. Due to the face that I know cabbage holds a lot of water and when put in certain environments (the vinaigrette) it will expel a whole lot of water. So in order to combat that I left my cabbage leaves whole, they did not expel any water, the vinaigrette did tenderize them and they did have a crunch in the egg roll. However, the large pieces of cabbage did not fill up the egg roll as I would have liked and occasionally when you take a bite, hot pieces of cabbage would fall out of the roll. So my next thought would be to shred the cabbage and marinate it, but that would create a soup, just like unsalted cabbage in coleslaw. So here is what you do. Soak the veggies in the vinaigrette and use large pieces of cabbage in the soak. Before assembling the roll, slice the cabbage thinly that way you get the best of both worlds. I didn't do this to mine, but I should have.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

Marinade

2 tablespoon Soy sauce

1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon Palm nectar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Filling

2 cups Cabbage leaves

1 cup Carrot sticks

1 cup sliced Mushrooms

1 cup Onion slices

1 cup Celery slices

Egg roll wrapper

Oil for frying

Dipping sauce

Left over marinade

1 stalk Scallion

¼ teaspoon Ginger

1 chili pepper

1 tablespoon palm nectar

Instructions

Bring some oil to heat in a wok or deep fryer to about 375 degrees
If baking preheat oven to 400 degrees
Prepare all the veggies shred the cabbage, cut carrots, onions, mushrooms, celery
Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl
Allow the veggies to soak in the marinade for 20 to 60 minutes
Place the marinated veggies in a strainer, strain away all the excess liquid and reserve the marinade for the sauce
After the veggies have soaked and strained remove the cabbage leaves and slice thinly, combine with the other veggies after slicing
Place an even amount of veggies in the diagonally oriented wrapper
Tuck the first corner over the veggies, and fold in the two sides
Wet the exposed corner and roll tightly, set aside and repeat until you have used up all the filling
If baking, place rolls on a prepared baking sheet, brush with oil o coat the entire surface and bake until golden brown and crispy
If frying make sure to check the oil temp first and make sure it’s not too hot, then drop the egg rolls in the hot oil and fry until golden brown
For the dipping sauce combine the marinade with ginger, scallion and chili pepper, palm nectar