There was rejoicing! EGGROLLS!

You guys!  I did it and it was amazing, and my husband liked them, too!  We ended up making pork and cabbage eggrolls, tempura chicken, and sweet and sour sauce.  The flavours and textures were all perfect!

You guys!  I did it and it was amazing, and my husband liked them, too!  We ended up making pork and cabbage eggrolls, tempura chicken, and sweet and sour sauce.  The flavours and textures were all perfect!

I literally started to salivate at those pictures!  Congratulations! I know how long you've been lusting after them! 

I literally started to salivate at those pictures!  Congratulations! I know how long you've been lusting after them! 

Saturday night, even before they were done, I could see that they were coming out right, and I just kept saying, "I'm so happy!"  I was practically babbling with joy.  And then I bit into one of the eggrolls... there were tears.

Oh, and I cut the scraps of leftover wonton/eggroll wrapper dough into strips and told my husband to drop those into the hot oil until they crisp up, too, because the best Chinese restaurants always have fried wonton strips.  When the strips puffed and crisped in the hot oil like they were supposed to, he stared at it in wonder and kept saying how impressed he was.  We ate all of the eggrolls and chicken, but couldn't finish all of the scraps.  My husband insisted we save the ones we couldn't finish, and he's been snacking on them with leftover sweet and sour sauce for dipping since Saturday night.  He REALLY liked the food!

Saturday night, even before they were done, I could see that they were coming out right, and I just saying, "I'm so happy!"  I was practically babbling with joy.  And then I bit into one... there were tears.

Oh, and I cut the scraps of leftover wonton/eggroll wrapper dough into strips and told my husband to drop those into the hot oil until they crisp up, too, because the best Chinese restaurants always have fried wonton strips.  My husband insisted we save the ones we couldn't finish, and he's been snacking on them with leftover sweet and sour sauce to dip them in since Saturday night.  He REALLY liked the food!  And when the strips puffed and crisped in the hot oil like they were supposed to, he stared at it in wonder and kept saying how impressed he was.

Beautiful! 

To say I wish you lived closer would be a HUGE understatement!!!!!

So happy it turned out well for you!

To say I wish you lived closer would be a HUGE understatement!!!!!

So happy it turned out well for you!

I need to sort out how I might make some for long-term storage.  The frozen burritos thing worked to a satisfying degree, but I don't know how I might make eggrolls that stay crispy on re-heating.  They were double-fried... maybe I could do everything up to the first frying, then freeze them at that point... Hmm.  Or maybe I'll just make a bunch of wrappers and freeze those and just make fresh filling every time.  That's probably the better option.  I miss convenient junk food! 

Recipes. We NEED the recipes!

Recipes. We NEED the recipes!

Happily!  I want everybody to experience the joy!  I did just steal these off of various internet posts, and kind of hacked them together.  These were the ones that looked most like what I wanted to achieve:

If you're making your own wrappers, start them early because there is resting time involved. Store-bought are quicker/easier, but I haven't been able to find them so I watched a Youtube video and made my own.

Ingredients for the wrappers:
300g plain flour
2 eggs
60ml water
1 tsp salt
Some cornstarch (cornflour) to keep the dough from sticking.

Ingredients for the filling:
4 oz. Pork mince
1 head Napa cabbage, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled then grated
1 tablespoon of water
1-1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper

Here are the videos for the methods:
Wrappers:


Filling:


I don't know which recipe we used for the sweet & sour sauce because it is in my husband's phone's tabs.  It used pineapple juice, ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, and a few other flavours, and thickened with a cornflour & water slurry.

Our tempura batter was 140g of plain flour, 2 tsp of baking powder, some salt, and soda water (we didn't have any, so we used sparkling lemonade after debating between that and beer).  Dredge the chicken in corn flour then coat in the batter, then into the hot oil to cook.

Man, that looks really nice. 

We draw the line at frying stuff in our house even though it would be heaven. 

Man, that looks really nice. 

We draw the line at frying stuff in our house even though it would be heaven.

Before we ate-too-much, my husband said it smelled like a Chinese takeaway in the utilikitchen.  At the time, it was a fine thing.  After we ate-too-much, it smelled like a Chinese takeaway in the utilikitchen, and this was no longer a fine thing.  But the smell is gone now  (or I'm used to it?!).

We currently use a stock pot for frying, so most of the splatter is contained by the high walls of the pot.  When we have our real kitchen, we're strongly considering a built-in fryer... we won't have the high walls to shield the kitchen from the splatter, then.  BUT I'll be able to reach to fry things myself, so it'll be an improvement, even if I have to clean up more mess.

*drools* those look SO good! Did you make your own sweet & sour sauce too? I've been using the organic one I found in Sainsbury's but I know making your own isn't too hard.

Do you think this would work in an air fryer? 

*drools* those look SO good! Did you make your own sweet & sour sauce too? I've been using the organic one I found in Sainsbury's but I know making your own isn't too hard.

We did make our own sweet & sour sauce, following an "easy" recipe online.  I don't know which one we followed, but they're mostly similar (except John Torode's super complicated one that has weird things in it that don't seem like "authentic American-Chinese" badness.  Basically, one with pineapple juice, ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, etc. as the start will get you in the right direction.  Thicken it with a cornflour and water slurry.

Do you think this would work in an air fryer? 

I know absolutely nothing about air fryers and how they perform.  But in my recipe researching last week, I saw a lot of "baked eggrolls"* recipes (shocking!), and I would think that an air-fryer would be better than baked, at the very least!

Are you able to control the temperature in an air fryer?  I think the question is whether you can plunge the eggroll in at 140C to replicate the first "fry" for the bubbly texture.  The second fry is when they go golden brown, and I assume that part would be fairly straightforward.

Edited to add: * The baked eggrolls shown in the recipes' images did not have the bubbly texture.

Do you think this would work in an air fryer?

I'll bet if you brushed the egg rolls lightly with oil they would. I've been debating an air fryer... Let me know if you end up trying these. I think I could make GF wonton/egg roll wrappers with Cassava flour.

If we had a built in fryer, we would quickly devolve to eating fried pizza and mars bars for most meals.