Recipe Review: Egg Rolls

When I make stir fry, which is fairly often, I always have egg rolls for the family. I get the pork ones from Aldi, which are $2.50 for a package of four. They're 170 calories each, so I usually skip them.

I saw that 400 Calories had a Vegetable Egg Roll recipe up that looked good and was 162 calories for two, so I decided to try it. It turned out pretty well (the filling was great, and I'm going to start buying more cabbage), except for the cooking. I decided to pan fry with cooking spray  instead of bake, because I'm always looking for things to be as crispy as possible. The problem was getting even browning on all sides. It just didn't happen. They were still tasty--in fact, mine didn't even make it to the table, because I ate them up while I was cooking the rest of dinner! I shallow fried the ones for everyone else, and had the same issue.

The next day, I decided to try again, this time baking in the oven. I also added a little shrimp to the filling to make it a more complete meal instead of a side dish. Again, tasty. But again, not the texture I wanted.  Baking made the edges a little tough.

I do think that deep frying is the way to go on something like this. You get more even coverage, and if the oil is hot enough and you take it out at the right time, the food doesn't get greasy.

Deep frying is something I don't do often, merely because of the large volume of grease necessary that you then have to dispose of. And I certainly won't do it every time we have Chinese for dinner. But as a special treat, I'll certainly make these again.