Tags
adopted, adoptee, adoption, american, asian, asian american, china, chinese food, cooking, family, food, holland, italian, italian food, italy, japan, japanese, korea, korean food
Why did I make Korean filling for mandu with Italian breadcrumbs for Chinese eggroll wrappers? Because it was delicious and I’m apparently all of these things plus a little Japanese. Growing up adopted with an Italian Dad and Russian Mom I always thought I was 100% Korean and now through 23andme I’ve talked to biological relatives for the first time ever. And some of them are Chinese and some are Japanese, so I’m more of a melting pot than I thought. And so are these eggrolls. My family has been making this filling for years and years…
Ingredients:
- 1 cup shredded cabbage: squeeze out as much water as possible
- 1 cup shredded zucchini (can substitute yellow squash or bean sprouts): same as above
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs: you certainly don’t need to use Italian like me 😉
- 1 pound ground pork (can substitute ground beef or a mix)
- My family’s not a big fan of food that’s too spicy, but I had some Holland red hot peppers from H-Mart so I threw a few in, you can substitute with jalapeno)
Seasonings:
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Pan-fry before filling in wrappers since the eggrolls will be thick and the meat will not cook through otherwise.
Good thing the eggroll wrappers came with handy instructions:
Roll away:
Deep fry in vegetable or canola oil, maintaining the temperature around 350/375 degrees. The temperature will go down when you add in the eggrolls, so you may need to turn up the flame, but too hot and you’ll get burning. Strain out any excess wrapper or filling that gets loose so it doesn’t burn as well.
If you have any wrappers left over, slice them into strips and fry them up also and you’ll have nice fried wontons too. A little dipping sauce can include soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar and sesame seeds like this recipe I like from The Kitchn. Enjoy…
Jen Kim Made 