simple egg rolls for the year of the tiger…

We were lucky enough to welcome in the Chinese New Year with our daughter’s homemade egg rolls. She loves Chinese take-out---being a vegetarian, however, she usually has to skip the egg rolls. So she taught herself how to make them sans any of the bits of meat.
Egg rolls are one of many foods eaten during Chinese New Year because they are a symbol for wealth due to their golden elongated shapes which resemble gold bars. We eat these because these are delicious; I especially love the flavor of the fresh ginger.
We offer you her recipe which meat eaters and non-meat eaters alike have raved about, with many warm wishes for a prosperous and healthy year.

--- excerpted directly from a compilation of her favorite recipes she gave family members as a cookbook one Christmas.

Egg Rolls

These are delicious! And they are just as good the next day, cold and right out of the fridge. When I can’t find fresh bean sprouts I usually use grated celery instead. You do miss the bean sprouts, but celery is a good substitute. Sometimes I use won ton wrapper instead of egg roll wrapper for a change. They’re basically the same thing but smaller.

2 tsp. sunflower oil
1 pkg. firm tofu
2 tsp. graded fresh ginger
Half a large head of cabbage
1.5 c. bean sprouts
2 carrots
3 green onions
2 TBS. soy sauce
1 pkg. square wrappers
Vegetable oil for frying

In a wok or large pot fry crumbled tofu with oil and ginger. Do not let it brown. Add diced cabbage, graded carrots, and sliced green onions and let cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in soy sauce and transfer mixture to a glass bowl to cool. Rinse out wok and begin to heat vegetable oil over high. Meanwhile, spread a couple spoonfuls of the mixture down the center of one wrap from corner to corner. Fold one corner over mixture horizontally, followed by the opposite two ends and roll tight. Repeat until all the wraps are used. Fry rolls in heated oil turning to let them cook evenly. Let cool on rack or paper towel where they can dry. Enjoy!









I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Jeff and I would like to leave you with a link to a blog post of some stunningly beautiful photos of preparations for and the celebrating of the Year of the Tiger from around the world. Take a peek into an up-close, personal and huge colorful window to the far reaches of our very small world.

peace,
~dale

2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing these! I am allergic to peanuts, so I can't go anywhere near Asian food restaurants. I miss egg rolls so bad. I am going to try these out.

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  2. These look delicious! Great job on the tutorial :) Book marking this one right now.

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