Jack in the Box Egg Rolls

Home reconstruction

Egg rolls burst in the fryer, and it is always the same two causes.

The filling was warm. Heat inside a sealed wrapper turns the filling's moisture to steam, and steam expands. The wrapper is the weakest point and it gives way.

The filling was wet. Cabbage releases a lot of water as it cooks. If that water is still in the mixture when it is rolled, it has nowhere to go except through the wrapper.

Cook the filling, drain it, spread it on a tray, and refrigerate it for an hour. Then roll.

Squeeze the cabbage after cooking

After stir-frying, tip the filling into a sieve and press it. A cabbage-heavy filling will give up several tablespoons of liquid, and every one of them is a future burst egg roll.

Do not skip this because the mixture looks dry in the pan. It will release more as it cools.

Rolling: tight, and seal with a paste

Filling on the lower third, fold the bottom over, fold both sides in, then roll up tightly.

Tight matters. Air trapped inside expands in the oil exactly like steam does.

Seal with a flour-and-water paste, not with water alone. A tablespoon of flour mixed with two tablespoons of water makes a glue that actually holds. Water alone re-wets the wrapper and the seam opens.

Egg wash works too. Flour paste is more reliable.

Wrapper, not spring roll pastry

Egg roll wrappers are thicker, egg-based, and fry into the blistered, bubbly, substantial shell these have.

Spring roll pastry is thin and shatteringly crisp — good, and a different product. Filo is wrong for this entirely.

What you need

• 12 egg roll wrappers
• 300 g pork mince
• 400 g white cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 carrots, grated
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp flour mixed with 2 tbsp water, to seal
• oil for frying

Method

1. Brown the pork in a hot pan, breaking it up. 5 minutes.
2. Garlic and ginger, 1 minute.
3. Cabbage and carrot, 3–4 minutes only — they should still have some bite.
4. Soy, oyster sauce, sesame oil and white pepper. Spring onions off the heat.
5. Tip into a sieve and press out the liquid.
6. Spread on a tray, cool, then refrigerate 1 hour.
7. Mix the flour and water into a paste.
8. Wrapper as a diamond, 3 tbsp of cold filling on the lower third. Fold the bottom over, fold the sides in, roll tightly, and **seal the final corner with paste.**
9. Fry at 175°C for 3–4 minutes, turning, until deep golden.
10. Drain on a rack.

Keep the wrappers covered

Egg roll wrappers dry out in minutes and become brittle, and a brittle wrapper cracks as you roll it — which is a third route to a burst egg roll.

A damp tea towel over the stack, and take them one at a time.

175°C, not hotter

The filling is already cooked, so you are heating it through and colouring the wrapper. At 190°C the outside is dark before the middle is warm.

Storing

Uncooked, three months in the freezer. Freeze them on a tray, then bag them. Fry from frozen at 170°C for 6–7 minutes. This is arguably the best way to do it, since a frozen egg roll is guaranteed cold.

Cooked, two days in the fridge. Reheat at 200°C for 8 minutes.