Think Yeng

Author Note: This is a personal recipe that I have perfected throughout the past 10 years from trial and error, and a tip from my sister who told me some extra seasoning that she uses on her egg rolls, that I have added into my own recipe.

*Dedicated to all who spent more time picking out the vegetables than enjoying the delicious bite of egg rolls*

There are regular egg rolls with vegetables for the average person, and vegetable egg rolls with no meat for people who don’t eat meat.

But what about those who do not eat vegetables, but still want as delicious an egg roll as anyone but with just the meat?

I absolutely love egg rolls and can eat them all day (if I can). However, I’ve grown up my whole life picking out the vegetables whenever I ate regular egg rolls. The time spent picking it out, brings no joy in being able to just enjoy biting straight into the egg rolls with no thought. The love-hate relationship I had with egg rolls, made me had a crazy thought to just…remove the vegetables.

And after years of searching for an online recipe with no vegetables, I decided one day 10 years ago, that I am just going to make my own egg rolls without vegetables.

I was not sure how it would taste, but for the first time in my life, I did not have to sit and pick at my egg rolls before taking a big delicious bite of it.

And it tasted different, a little more salty than usual, but still delicious.

As the years went on, through trial and error, I have made a delicious meat egg rolls recipe that I believe other non-vegetable eaters would love as well.

Ingredients

This egg roll is a bit on the savory, salty side, so if you want a more mild flavor, just reduce the amount of seasoning in the recipe 🙂

Also, if you use smaller portions of ground pork, then also reduce the other ingredients as well.

These are the specific brands of ingredients that I use, I cannot guarantee that if you has a different brand or type of replacement sauce that you use, that the taste will not differ, but I believe it will still be delicious.

Ingredients

• 1.72 Ib Ground Pork
• Wei-Chuan Spring Roll Shell (Super Thin for Crispier Spring Roll) Wrappers (25 pcs) x2-3 (depending on size you want to make your egg rolls)
• FunFat Vermicelli Bean Threads Grade A Glass Noodles 1 pack of 12-pack (you just need 10 of the noodle bundle)
• Ground Pepper
• Totole Granulated Chicken Flavor Soup Base Mix
• Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce
• Thai Oyster Sauce Maekrua Brand
• 3 Eggs (2 separated yolk in a small dipping bowl)
• Vegetable Oil or your preferred cooking oil
• Minced 3 cloves of regular size garlic (or 4 cloves of small size garlic)

Utensils

• Large Bowl
• Small Dipping Bowl
• Drain Bowl
• Aluminum or Oven Pan
• Cooking Pan
• Frying Pan
• Knife/Scissor

Steps & Directions

1. Soften the Vermicelli Noodles

I usually use filtered sink water but any way that you get your water to a decent warm/hot temperature is good. You want the water warm/hot enough that it will soften the noodles over time. If you don’t know, choose hot over warm.

*Warning* If the water is too hot, once you drain it, it gets SUPER sticky. If this does happen, dip the noodles into a bowl of cool water to unstick them and then drain well.

This process usually takes 15 minutes (depending on how hot your water was), you can move to step 2 while waiting.

When it is ready, you should be able to pinch with your fingers/nails and it will cut off and the inner noodle is clear.

If the water is starting to get cooler, and the noodles hasn’t soften to the point where you can pinch it off, then you have to drain the water and refill with warm/hot water to soften it some more. It usually shouldn’t take more than 2 refill to get the noodle soft enough.

2. Cook Ground Pork

While you are waiting for the noodles to soften in the water, you will start cooking your ground pork.

Set your cooking pan to hot. Put in your minced garlic, cook until a nice brown color. Then put in your ground pork.

Mix and cook until the ground pork until it is ready. Once the ground pork is cooked, add the seasoning sauce. Be very generous with the amount, I usually eyeball it, but if you want a measurement, I recommend the following amount as a start which you can adjust to your taste.

• 3/4 cup seasoning sauce
• 1/3 cup oyster sauce

Taste the ground pork, and make sure that it is more seasoned than not. This is important so that the taste does not lessen when we are mixing it with the noodle.

3. Drain and Cut Vermicelli Noodle

Your noodle should be soft at this point. Make sure that you can pinch it with your nail or finger, and it breaks and the inside noodle is clear. This will show you that it is good.

Pour and drain the water using your draining bowl. *Keep your large bowl*

Take your knife/scissor and cut the noodles into smaller lengths. I usually prefer 2 inch long, but you can have it longer if you like.

Put the noodle back into your large bowl. *Keep your drain bowl, you can quickly water wash it it to remove residue of noodles*

4. Combine & Mix the Vermicelli Noodle and Cooked Ground Pork

After you have cut your noodle to smaller pieces, add the cooked ground pork. Don’t drain the pork liquid, it adds to spread the flavor to the noodle as well.

Thoroughly mix them together until it looks mixed like the below picture.

5. Add Seasonings

After you have thoroughly mixed the noodle and ground pork, you will add more seasoning.

You will add the seasoning sauce, oyster sauce, and chicken soup base. I recommend the following as a start and you can adjust as you like.

• 1/4 cup oyster seasoning sauce
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup chicken soup base

Make sure to spread them around as you season them on the noodle and ground pork. You can mix now or after the next step.

6. Eggs (IMPORTANT)

You’ll need 3 eggs for the amount I made here. Adjust depending on the size of the meat and noodle you make.

You will need to separate 2 egg yolks and egg whites. The egg whites can go into the bowl mix, and make sure to put the egg yolk into a small dipper bowl. This will be the adhesive to close your egg roll after rolling it (see instructions for folding below).

If you were successful in splitting the 2 egg yolk, then you can just break the third egg into the bowl. However, if you’re like me and sometimes don’t make the first or second clean break, you can use that third egg to get the yolk and hopefully get it!

7. Start Folding

This takes a bit to make, so grab a nice comfortable seat, turn on a tv for you to enjoy while making this!

Depending on how big you make your egg rolls and how many wrappers you bought, you can make anywhere between 25 – 80 egg rolls with just this one batch.

8. Heat Up Oil in Frying Pan

Once you are done folding the egg rolls, it is time to start heating up a stir fry pan or regular size pot to fill to the middle of the pot. You can use vegetable or your favorite cooking oil to fry it.

Heat up your oil to a medium/high heat (around 250-300^oF). The oil should NOT be too hot as it will automatically start burning your wrapper before reaching and cooking the inside, so make sure it is a medium/high heat so the inside can be cooked while the outside nicely crisps up.

9. Fry Your Egg Rolls

Once your oil is hot, you can start frying. You will fry it and gently mix it around so that all sides of the egg rolls are cooked. Once the outside starts turning a golden brown, it is good to go. This usually takes about 5-10 minutes to cook.

I recommend not cooking all of your egg rolls, and only cook to what you think you will eat on the day.

This way, you will be able to always have warm and crunchy egg rolls. Egg rolls that sit for longer than a couple of hours and especially more than a day, will not be as crunchy. It IS STILL delicious cold and softer (some days I prefer that over warm and crunchy egg rolls).

10. Enjoy By Itself or With Your Favorite Sauce

I usually enjoy the egg rolls by itself with no sauce. But below is a fan favorite sauce that people I know really like

• Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce

My partner really likes the sauce I make for him, which is a grounded up mix of (1) Cayenne Pepper or Thai Pepper (2) Salt (3) Viet Huong Fish Sauce.

1. Put whole cayenne pepper or thai pepper into a mortar & pestle, sprinkle salt and ground away.
2. Once it is grounded into more of a mush, add a small amount of fish sauce and mix.
3. Add a small amount of water and pour into a small bowl.
4. Taste and add until you get to a taste that you like. I usually make it a bit more flavorful so that it can go well with the egg rolls.

11. Extra Uncooked Egg Rolls?

Freeze them. Wrap aluminum foil around the egg rolls and put them in your freezer to save to eat another day.

The next time you want egg rolls, just heat up your oil to medium/high heat and pop your frozen meat egg rolls in (do not dethaw). *Warning* There will be some bit of immediate splatter of the ice and oil, but it should calm down after. When the inside starts to cook, you’ll hear more popping, let it pop. Once it calms down, and the outside is a golden brown, it is once again good to eat and enjoy!

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