Today we’re making the crispiest,
crunchiest
Egg Rolls ever,
a recipe my dad’s perfected thousands of times.
Also known as so coi ceon gyun
or literally, spring rolls,
it’s a curious story
how people started calling these Egg Rolls,
since there are no eggs to be found
in the wrapper or filling.
We’ll get to that later,
along with our sponsor, Shaker & Spoon.
But first my dad will teach us
how a Chinese chef prepares
the secret ingredients for this recipe…
These are mungbean vermicelli noodles.
50-60°C warm water to soak them.
It'll be ready quickly.
How long do they soak for?
Just a few minutes, not even 10 minutes.
Just let them soak.
We'll also use warm water to soak the dried mushrooms.
For the dried shiitake mushrooms,
my dad rehydrates them by soaking them in hot water
for around 10-15 minutes.
I already finished soaking these.
We’ll also rehydrate some cloud ear fungus in the same way
and it’ll look like this once rehydrated.
The mungbean vermicelli
has already plumped up after a few minutes.
We’ll set the rehydrated vermicelli aside to drain,
and now, my dad will show you
how he chops everything down for the filling.
With this amount of ingredients,
we’ll be making 20 egg rolls today.
8 oz of cabbage.
Cut it into thin strips.
We'll discard the center stem.
We’ll cut out the hard stalk of the cabbage with two angled cuts.
Then we’ll stack all of the leaves
and start to chop it into fine strips.
Cloud ear fungus, also thin strips.
We’ll bunch up the cloud ear fungus
and chop into similarly sized strips.
Shiitake mushrooms, also thin strips.
We’ll use the same technique
to cut our shiitake mushrooms into strips.
Celery.
Thin strips as well.
We’ll first cut the celery into 2-inch segments.
We’re using regular celery here,
but you can also use Chinese celery for an extra kick of flavor.
Then we’ll turn them perpendicular and chop them into strips.
These are snow peas.
Thin strips.
Did you grow those?
Yes, I did!
Harvested them from the yard.
We’ll chop these snow peas into strips
just like our previous ingredients.
Snow peas will make the egg roll filling
crunchier in texture.
Do you have to add this many ingredients?
You don't have to.
You don't have to follow my ingredient list exactly.
As long as you don't add meat, then they're vegetarian egg rolls.
If you want to add meat, or shrimp,
then go ahead and add meat.
Our recipe today is fully plant-based,
but like my dad said,
you're free to add whatever you like to the filling
as long as it’s not too wet
and he’ll explain why later.
Now here’s a pro tip from my dad
for cutting carrots safely.
Carrot.
When cutting carrots,
be careful, because they're hard.
First, cut off one side.
Then,
take this side,
and face it down.
This way, it won't roll around.
Easier to cut.
With already cut 2-inch segments of carrot,
we’ll first cut it into thin slices.
Then we’ll lay them down and cut into strips
like the rest of the ingredients.
Now, 2-3 cloves of garlic.
Now we’ll roughly mince 3 cloves of garlic.
Now, my dad will create the glue
that will seal our spring rolls later
by combining 2 tbsp of flour and 2 tbsp of water.
Just mix it up like this.
It's for sealing.
As long as it's thick, it's okay.
It's the glue.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Now my dad will walk you through
how to cook the juiciest filling.
Let's start cooking the filling.
Turn the heat on.
We’ll heat the wok on high until it’s hot or about a minute.
Then we'll add 1 tbsp of oil.
Spread it around.
We’ll spread the oil around the wok for around 30-40 seconds,
then add garlic.
First, add garlic.
Fry them until they're aromatic.
Put the rest in.
Once the garlic is aromatic,
add the mushrooms and fry them.
When you fry the mushrooms,
they'll release their flavor.
After cooking the mushrooms for about 20-30 seconds,
we’ll add the celery.
Next, the celery.
Then we’ll follow quickly with the cabbage.
We can just add it all at once.
The cabbage.
After adding each ingredient,
we’ll mix them thoroughly in the wok.
Now after around 30 seconds of cooking the cabbage,
we’ll add our next ingredient.
Carrot.
We’ll also add the cloud ear fungus here.
We have to cut up the vermicelli.
Then it'll be easier to wrap.
With scissors, we’ll cut the vermicelli a few times
to make it easier to cook and wrap.
After a quick mix of about 30-40 seconds,
we’re ready to add some seasoning.
Let's add some salt.
1 tsp of salt.
1 tsp of sugar.
White pepper.
That was 1/4 tsp.
Next, 2 tbsp of (vegetarian) oyster sauce.
We’ll mix in our seasoning well,
then add our final ingredients.
Add the snow peas.
Why are you adding them last?
To keep them bright green.
We’ll make a small hole in our ingredients for the vermicelli.
Add the vermicelli.
The vermicelli will soak up
all of the water that the vegetables have released.
Understand?
We’ll add the vermicelli to the hole
and mix it around the bottom of the wok
to soak up any moisture from the veggies.
Then we’ll cover the vermicelli with the veggies
and mix it in well.
The vegetables will release water as soon as you add salt.
So the vermicelli is perfect for soaking all of it up.
All right!
All that's left is to add sesame oil.
We’ll add a tbsp of sesame oil here.
The vermicelli soaked up all the moisture, see?
It's dry.
That's the beauty of vermicelli.
It's soaked up all of the water.
If you don't have vermicelli, you'd have to thicken it.
Add cornstarch slurry and keep frying it.
We’ll stir-fry for a final 30-40 seconds here
to make sure it’s mixed well.
All right, turn the heat off.
Now, give it a taste to see if we need to adjust.
Tastes good! Want to try?
Crunchy!
That's right.
Now we can scoop it up.
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Mix with a bar spoon
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It's nice and dry, right?
Without vermicelli, this would be much wetter.
"How do you prevent mushy filling?"
The vermicelli will soak up
the flavor from the shiitake mushrooms and cloud ear fungus,
as well as all the water.
Don't use vegetables with high water content.
Now, let it cool down.
Let them cool down, then we'll wrap the egg rolls.
Otherwise, the wrappers
will get stuck together.
Why are these called egg rolls if there are no eggs in them?
In Cantonese, these are called ceon gyun,
which means spring rolls, as in the season.
In the US, egg roll and spring roll are basically used interchangeably,
but they’re actually different.
Spring rolls have a long history in Chinese cuisine
with the earliest versions dating back
to the Tang Dynasty in Southern China.
Like many Chinese dishes brought over by immigrants,
spring rolls evolved
and became what we know as egg rolls.
The name is a bit of a mystery,
but one theory is that the name of a similar dish
was published in an English cookbook in 1917,
and it was then later applied
to the American version of the spring roll.
Egg rolls are generally larger
and have thicker skin than spring rolls
and ironically don’t have any egg in the recipe.
Of course, there are many different versions of spring rolls
in Asia and around the world,
which just shows how amazingly adaptable they are.
Today, we’re making the smaller,
traditional Cantonese style roll with the thinner skin,
so we should call this a spring roll.
The filling has cooled down now.
Let's start wrapping the egg rolls.
For decades, I've been using
Wei Chuan Spring Roll Shells.
This package has 25 wrappers.
If you don't use them all up, you can store the rest.
Put them in the freezer.
When you want to eat egg rolls, take them out and make some.
First, take them out and peel apart the individual wrappers.
To make wrapping easier,
we’ll carefully separate each wrapper one at a time
and make a loose stack.
We’ll only separate the amount we need.
Remember this!
Once you've peeled the wrappers apart,
you have to cover them back up.
If the wrappers dry out and harden,
then they'll crack and split when you're wrapping the egg rolls.
We have to cover or bag these up.
Put them in a container.
These are the ones you have to cover?
Yeah.
They'll crack if they dry out.
Like this.
Now,
we can start wrapping.
First,
lay out the wrapper, corners across like this.
With the wrapper in front of us like a diamond,
we’ll put about 2 tbsp of filling on the closer half.
About 2 tbsp.
You could scoop it with a spoon.
Bring this up, over the filling.
Pull the cover back towards yourself.
Pull the filling tight.
Then, start rolling.
When you're halfway across,
fold the sides in.
At the halfway point,
we’ll crease and fold in the sides of the wrapper.
Fold it.
This area here can be narrower if it's necessary.
Then, start applying the glue.
We’ll put a bit of the flour-and-water glue
on the top corner of the wrapper.
Then, roll it to the end.
Then continue rolling and it should seal at the end.
There, just like that!
"Why are some egg rolls bumpy?"
They get bumps when the wrapper gets wet.
Or, if you didn't roll them tightly enough.
Do it like I do,
pull it tight towards yourself as you roll it.
Before you start wrapping,
do you ever have to drain the veggies?
If it's watery, then you do have to squeeze that out.
Squeeze out the water.
If you wrap with wet filling,
the egg rolls will be dark when you fry them.
Because the wrapper will be wet!
When you fry wet wrappers, they turn dark.
And they won't be crispy.
When restaurants fry egg rolls,
they're usually a bit dark.
A little dark.
Because they're not all sold at once.
Sometimes they'll be sitting overnight in the refrigerator,
before they get fried,
and the wrappers will have absorbed all the moisture from the filling.
so they fry up dark.
They'll have broken up, right?
Yes, they'll crack and break.
So wrap them and fry immediately?
That's right!
It's best to wrap them, and immediately fry.
Here, okay.
That's enough.
Not in the very middle?
No, it should be here.
Like that.
Keep the snow peas in the middle.
Yes, like that!
Keep it tighter.
Okay, roll it!
Use this finger
and press down here.
This one isn't as pretty.
No, it's fine!
Same on the other side.
With your finger, yes, that's right!
Okay!
Yeah!
That's okay, it's good!
A bit loose.
It's okay!
What's my score?
B+!
Okay!
The one that Kat has,
A!
A, yeah!
Maybe A+.
Beautiful!
Wrapped beautiful, the golden color is gorgeous.
Sometimes, if you don't do it right,
and it's very, very loose inside,
after you deep-fry it, it doesn't look good.
Now, with the wrapping done,
my dad will teach us how to
deep-fry the spring rolls
into the crispiest golden creations.
All right, friends, let's start deep-frying the egg rolls!
Turn the heat on.
We’ll turn the heat to high and add our oil to the pot.
Enough to cover the egg rolls.
A bottle and a half.
We’re adding about 3 cups of oil here.
I'm dropping a bit of onion in there, something wet.
Put it in.
Now it's ready for deep-frying.
330°F?
Yes, 330°F.
It's hot enough, we can start.
Turn the heat down to low.
Put it in slowly.
When the oil reaches 330°F (165°C),
we’ll turn our heat to low and add in our spring rolls.
We’ll put in 6 at a time to not overcrowd the pot.
Don't keep the heat too high when you deep-fry.
If the heat is too high,
the outside will burn
before the inside can cook.
Cook until they're starting to turn golden,
then turn up the heat.
Flip them.
We’ll move and flip them around so they fry evenly.
"How do you prevent them from exploding?"
It depends on your filling.
If you wrap them too tightly,
the filling might expand
and burst out of the wrapper.
It's starting to turn golden now,
so we'll turn the heat up.
After about a minute and a half of frying on low,
we’ll turn the heat to high.
Now that it's cooking on high, it'll turn golden brown very quickly.
This higher heat fry is meant to crisp up the outside
and get that beautiful golden color.
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
"My egg rolls tend to stay pale
even after frying them for 20 minutes.
What am I doing wrong?"
What?!
What kind of wrapper are they using?
There's no way it would stay white after 20 minutes of frying,
unless their oil wasn't very hot.
After another minute and a half of frying on high heat
and when they’re a golden color,
we’re ready to take them out.
When you fry them, you don't have to go overboard.
The heat will keep cooking the wrapper and changing the color.
My dad is saying that the residual heat from the oil
will continue to cook the wrapper,
so there’s no need to fry for too long.
Turn the heat down for now.
On low heat, put the second batch in.
Turning the heat to low again,
we’ll put in the next batch.
Add two more,
so we can lower the temperature of the oil even more.
If you need to lower the overall oil temperature quickly,
you can also throw in a few more egg rolls.
Four people asked,
"How do you keep them crispy?"
If you leave them out for too long or keep them overnight,
of course they won't stay crispy.
The wrapper is still dry now, so they're crispy!
Also, this is a really good wrapper brand.
If you want to keep the egg roll very crunchy,
eat them right away.
But at home, if you have an air fryer,
the skin probably won't be like the original,
as if it just came out from being deep-fried,
but it'll still taste good.
Close enough.
Better than microwave.
And now, turn the heat back up.
How do you know if you've fried it for too long?
Watch the color changing,
if it's golden, then it's done.
This color is gorgeous, right?
As we remove them from the oil,
my dad likes to let the oil drain in the spider strainer
before putting them on a plate.
Okay.
All done.
The oil is still very clean.
The oil is still beautiful after using it to deep-fry.
"What do you do with leftover oil?"
I just use it for cooking.
Just pour it out
and maybe strain it a bit,
if there are bits in it.
Use a container that's easy to clean.
Most of the time, we use china (porcelain)
or also a glass container,
Do you ever funnel it back into the bottle?
You could if you want to.
The oil has to be cold.
In the restaurant,
our customers sit down,
most of the time, the first dish is egg rolls.
Brings their appetite up first.
Our Egg Rolls are complete!
I hope you all enjoy them!
Hong Doy! Time to eat!
Cheers!
That is a good crunch!
Cheers!
Is Yeh Yeh the best?
Number 1!
Yeh Yeh's number 1!
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