Hi, I’m chef Jack Irwin, your food connections host.

Today we’re bringing you some tasty homemade egg rolls and Crab Rangoon.

Stay with us.

Today we are featuring Watsana and her daughter Ailani.

They are going to be making crab Rangoons and homemade egg rolls for all of us, and we will be sampling later.

You’re in for a real treat today, folks.

Thank you.

We’re glad to be here.

Let’s get right into it.

Let’s, show people how we’re gonna make these.

Many people have never, made these at home, including me.

So I’m really anxious to see what you what you’ve got for us today.

Yes, we are excited.

So we’re going to start off making egg rolls.

and a good tip for making my egg rolls.

Usually, um I take ahead of cabbage and, you know, I’m chopping it by hand.

But today, I thought I’d give you a shortcut, and these are um coleslaw mix, so I decided to bring the coleslaw mix.

and if if you’re using the coleslaw mix, sometimes you get a large piece, so you kind of have to kind of thumb through or or or mix it through, and if you find a large piece, like, oh, like that, you know, so you just take it out and um today I’m using my cleaver.

um and you know, you just kind of chop it up a little bit, you know, and if you just kind of mix it through and find any larger pieces.

oh, well, like that, you know, the larger pieces aren’t gonna roll too well in that egg.

your egg rolls will start to, you know, have little bumps and and we we want a smooth looking egg roll.

the key is we eat with our eyes, right?

Oh, yes.

When my girls were younger, they would have trouble eating their greens or vegetables.

Oh yes As as time grew, we decided to incorporate kale for for the nutrients as they were growing.

So she always had trouble eating vegetables.

so, but we found that she liked the egg rolls, so voila, all the vegetables all in one, right?

is a great idea, and also, a lot of people aren’t familiar with using hail from anything, so I think this is a and kale is so good for you that I think that’s a great idea is to incorporate that in there.

I have haven’t tried it yet, but maybe, like finely chop a broccoli.

Oh you know?

So,what better way to get a little bit of vegetables into your kids?

Rather than a plain vegetable, a kid is probably more a lot more apt to eat an egg roll, come on.

So, um usually in the the coleslaw mix, there is not a whole lot of uh carrots.

so I do take, you know, one one carrot.

So it’s one bag of coleslaw mix, which is about a pound.

And so I just, you know, this is a nice handy little tool.

You can find this at the Asian market.

So to Jillian, you just, you know, very ever so slightly, um like that.

So, and it’s one one carrot that you’ll have to add on and and look at the color.

look at the color.

See?

Oh, yeah.

yeah, like I said, we eat with our eyes, right?

Well, by using the cole slaw mix, that is certainly saving you a lot of time from chopping the cabbage chopping the red cabbage and everything, so I think that’s the great idea.

And with your your kale, it usually takes about two large leaves, you just, you know, uh break it up like sole and wrap it.

And today, I like I said, I’m using a cleaver.

and a pro tip for our family is we like to use we like to purchase lifetime warranty products, so that, you know, it breaks, or it falls apart or whatever, and it usually it’s pretty sturdy, but I’ve had pots and pans where I’ve had to replace.

and the pots and pan, again, you know, lifetime warranty, really simple, they they were very great good at um replacing them.

I had to replace my pots and pans and all I had to do was, um, take a snap on my phone, send it to their email within two or three weeks, I got into a whole new set of pot and pans.

And I I just take it and, you know, very um roughly chop it.

like so.

like I said, we use two.

And while we’re doing this, she’s cooking up um a few egg rolls.

You know, we got a sample of food that we make.

Oh yes, yes.

speaking of her cooking up those egg rolls, what is your oil temperature that you like to do these at?

Our temperature right now is about 340 degrees Fahrenheit.

right, yeah.

And and the the way you can tell if eggg rolls are done, they float to the top and it’s usually between five to seven minutes.

Yep.

nice and golden brown color..

So I’m going to mix the vegetables a little bit more to make sure that everything is all incorporated.

And so to that one bag of uh mixture, we are going to add um one pound of pork brown pork.

yep.

and any any ground if you want to use turkey, you can use turkey.

You want to use chicken, I mean use chicken, Whatever meat you prefer.

Ground, yes, yes.

We just prefer to have um pork.

And then the other thing that we put in is the um some people call them glass noodles, some people call themerili noodles.

um some people, they’re mung bean noodles and they come hardened like this.

So you have to soak it for about 15, 20 minutes in in um warm water.. And then they they soften up like this.

And so I’ll I’ll take the knife or cleaver and just half and then half again and then half again.

So you get them in in quarters.

Okay?

And these are very sharp, so I always have to protect it.

And they’re heavy, heavy duty.

So we just put that right in there.

um the carrots and I Julian or or um just shredded there with my little tool.

We’re going to put that right in there as well.

Oh, you.

Um And then one um onion, uh green onion that is, yes.

Um So we’ve got three tablespoon of uh oyster sauce.

And that has a lot of flavoring that youami that you get from the oyster sauce is amazing.

It’s an oyster sauce is different than soy sauce.

It might look to people like soy sauce, oyster sauce is nice and thick, a lot different flavor.

Yes, yes, not so salty.

Yes.

Like I said, it’s got that Umami in the food and it’s it’s amazing.

It’s amazing.

Half a tablespoon of sugar, half a tablespoon of salt.

And I like to put it right on top of the meat.

and then um a half a tablespoon of black pepper.

Okay.

Okay, and then three eggs.

and the egg acts as a um bonding agent.

And so you do need the egg.

Yes.

So what I like to do is, like I said, when you put that ingredient onto the pork I like to mix the meat.

It’s because the meat is where we want the flavor, right?

Yeah, before we mix it all together.

Sure.

So yeah, let’s get all of that mixed in together.

okay?

And now, I’m going to take that fork out of there.

Now we’re gonna mix it all together, and this is where you really got to get in and dig in.

Yeah.

And I use use gloves.

I don’t like to use my bare hand because, you know, it could be really, really sticky here.

At home, you might use your bare hands, maybe Right.

Right, yeah.

No, our rule of thumb is if you are cooking for others, you want to have have gloves for sure.

So, but of course, you know, your hands are washed and all that, but still, so.

okay.

So you mix it really well and it’s all incorporated.

Again, if you look at the color, it’s still there, right?

It’s really nice.

Yeah, and the kids, they really enjoy seeing that.

It’s it’s great to have the family.

A family that cooks together stays together.

Yes, that’s true.

And so our final step is to have the the wrapper.

Now, these are the spring roll wrapper or the egg roll wrapper.

And they’re not the ones that are hard.

These are very, very thin, like very paper thin.

Can you get these in the regular grocery store?

Some grocery store, very few will have these.

And if you if they do have them, they’re in the freezer section.

I was wondering to the freezer.

But you’re right, those are very, very thin you can see through them.

Yes, so okay, so, we’ll show you how to wrap here.

It I the rule of them is about uh one and a half tablespoon or a I use a fork.

I’m so used to, you know, my cooking is more uh pinch of this, pinch of that.

not very much uh when you when you’re so used to cooking, it’s a lot of eyeballing it and using your hands as the tool.

Sure, you don’t by an exact recipe as you’ done it know what it takes what this is gonna taste like what that’s gonna taste like.

So um so it’s usually about, you know, a tablespoon and a half, and you’ll just take this right on over and you’ll pull back because you want you want it to be really tight here.

So you flip over and pull back a little bit, okay?

And then one, two turns, what you want to do is you want to cover this white part or this this transparent, translucent looking part, and you’re gonna take this corner and see how that covers it up.

Because if you don’t cover that area, then when you go to deep fry it, it’ll fall apart on you.parent and then you roll and tuck, you feel that the tucking part.

okay?

And we take oh, oh, forgot.

So one egg white, of course course, and just beat it up.

I use the egg white to to seal it.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

While I think some people I mean, I like, you know, where you folded the ends in before you finish rolling so that everything doesn’t come up the end once you do it.

when you bring out the wrapper, I like it to just stay in one big piece.

So what I do is I just pull the corners halfway through or when you have just a little bit of quarter.

So what you have is this this kind of like a retention look.

So when you do the tucking and rolling, you have something You kind of have something to grasp and hang on to that tuck and roll process.

Some people like to just pull it all out and but I feel like you don’t have that extra tension there to help with the the tucking and rolling.

So we’ll do this another here.

and then and then we’ll give you the um a chance to roll.

Yes, yes.

Good.

I mean, you don’t learn just by watching, right?

Yeah, yeah, and and the same thing with her, you know, I, yeah.

Now, I have to work on my rolling a little bit, she’s been doing it for years.

looks like it, yes.

It kind of looks like she has If you look at it, it’s usually like one quarter of, you know, the the wrapping, okay?

And then like I said, just roll one swipe, pull back, okay?

And then uh one, two rolls.

and then, like again, the transparent looking part, you rolled this over.

Yeah.

And usually we want to overlap these corners so that they become uniform.

So, if you can get an idea of eormity, you don’t one that’s this long and than one, that’s not long, because for presentation, again, we eat with our eyes, right?

So, we want a nice presentation.

So, if you decide to do it this size or if you decide to do it this size, you have to stick with that.

So that, like I said, you had that uniform looking Asia, yep.

So we’re gonna tuck and roll, tuck and roll, tuck.

And then you get that, so you feel that little tension there and it helps with the rolling and the tucking, so right?

And we’re gonna a little bit of eggs there, not too much.

And if you look at the signs, boom, perfect.

Yes, well, not so much perfect, but that means a uniform, yes, really uniform.

So I will step away and let you take over.

Don’t laugh at me Ailani.

Okay.

So.

Yep, about one and then a little.

bit more, yeah.

Oh, you’re a pro.

Look at that.

Well, thank you for noticing.

You’re a quick learner.

That’s amazing.

Well, I haven’t rolled yet.

That’ll be the fun part.

That’ll be the, yes.

So.

Okay, so let’s try this, so I’m gonna fold a little bit up and then pull back.

is that right?

Yes, that’s great.

Oh, you do great.

Two rolls rolls, yep, and then take your corner.

And again, if you decide to go overlapping or if you wanna be I’ gonna do it the way you did it, because I watch, absolutely.

I was trying to enroll Oh, look at that.

What do you think, Alani?

Wasn’t that amazing?

It might even be better than mine.

There you go.

There you go.

Amazing.

Oh, and then your egg.

I gotta glue it a little bit.

And then let’s see how well you did.

Let’s see, let’s Well, look at that.

Look at that.

Perfect presentation.

look at that.

sometimes I surprise myself, mine’s a little bit longer, so I could have folded a little bit more.

I think it was how I had my mixture spread up a little bit.

So, did you feel that the tuck and roll and the yeah, so that makes things tight on there, and it makes it nice and and uniform.

yeah.

so and then if you don’t tuck and roll and make it tight, then the inside, when you go to def fry, then the insides just it’s not all tucked in there.

And so when you bite into it, then it, you know, you you can see it just kind of falls apart and there, so.

and there you have it.

Well, that was easy enough, but it was fun.

Should we def fry and then try a couple of them?

Yes, I really think we should.

And and luckily we have some that were already premade for you, so we can sample that too as well.

So, yeah, let’s check let’s check the the oil.

down a little bit, we usually want it at about 30.

And of course, when you drop them in, it might lower it it’s gonna lower it some and that’s be expected, but it’ll come back to heat up.

And today we’re using a fr a fry daddy, so and you can always fry in a frying pan to it if you still desire yeah, just make sure that the oil covers.

and if it doesn’t, then you’ll have to turn every so often.. Again, it’s about five to seven minutes.

Oh, perfect..

Okay, so when you dip it in, it should start to bubble a little bit and that’s kind of how you know your oil’s ready.

and you can slide it in there and make sure it doesn’t pop on yourself.

Should we put that in there?

Yep, we’ll do two.

Two, yeah, there you go.

Am I gonna like these Ailani?

Oh, no, you’re gonna love them.

So, be careful, because you’re getting all your vitamins and minerals all wrapped up in one, you know?

I don’t know if I can handle healthy, healthy things.

Well, yes there still plenty hot, so I gotta be.

so, we’ll listen to the crunch.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Ooh.

Oh..

I mean, have him.

Hi, so now we’re gonna move on with Alani doing her crab Rangoon.

You’re in for another treat, folks.

All right, so first we’re gonna start with our imitation crab meat legs, so they come in this, like leg or long looking shape, and we’re gonna take take our cleaver again, and we’re just gonna chop it up into little circles here.

And so we have some already prechopped, but I’m kind of just gonna show you, you know, it doesn’t have to be perfect at all because we’re going to squish.

it all into the cheese at the end.

It’s the imitation crab that is used for Rangoon.

Is that correct?

Okay.

We’re gonna go ahead and add this to the bowl first, and this is about four ounces of imitation crab meat.

And then we We have our green onions and we have about three green onion stalks here.

So we’re gonna add that in two in my favorite thing thing to do is add the white part of the onion as well, because I think it It gives a little bit extra flavor.

It has a little bit more on the flavor, yeah.

Yes.

Definitely.

It’s already nice color, isn’t it?

Yes, so we got the colors and we’re going to go ahead and just mix it all together.

shake it up, give it a toss.

Yeah, look at you guys.

Oh.

Okay, and then we have some of our seasonings.

So first, we have half.

a teaspoon of sugar, and we’re gonna shake that around in here.

and then we have One teaspoon of salt.

And lastly, half a teaspoon of black pepper.

Okay.

And then we’re just gonna give this another toss here to kind of mix it around, and you can also use a spoon if you’d like.

Okay.

so moving on to our cheese.

I like to cut it into fourths, and my tip for getting perfect fourths every time.ir on the side.

And then it halves again.

just like that.

And you’re gonna get a full block.

A black of cream cheese.

So it’s 8 ounces of cream cheese to 4 ounces of imitation crab meat.

One block comes in eight ounces.

is that correct?

Yup.

And we’re gonna add that in.

Here you go.

Okay, so next, we got to grab our gloves here.

The fun part.

Yes.

getting dirty.

Oh, yeah.

And we’re going to squeeze this all together, and our goal here is to try and break up the imitation crab meat.

the cream cheese so that it’s all nice and mixed together.. when we actually wrap.

have it evenly distributed.

So you can see here we got our green onions and then you can see all of our seasoning and our Imitation crab meat is starting to break up in our mixture.

And this is a super simple and easy recipe that I love to do with my family.

It is.

It’s not it’s only a few very few ingredients.

That’s what we like.

Pretty easy to make.

Yeah.

And we always make the thing.

on special occasions.

Well, I think it’s a treat most you know, we don’t get cram crab Rangoon very many places.

I think it’s a treat for most people.

Yeah.

So that didn’t take very long, but we have all of our imitation crab and our onions all mixed together.

and that’s it for our filling.

Okay.

So, now I’ll teach you how to wrap it.

Okay.

So We have wonton wrappers here.

You can get this pretty much at any supermarket grocery store, usually in the fruit and veggie section.

And these are just your oneton wrappers.

And went down, they’re pretty thin, just like our egggo wrappers..

So I like to use a knife when I’m filling these because it’s a little bit easier to spread versus a spoon or a fork.. And we’re gonna take a little bit of filling on our Place it in the center of our wrapper just a little bit, not too much.

And then we have our egg whites once again, and I like to break these up a little bit.

So we’ll take our egg whites and just take a little dab and place it on the sides of a wrapper.

Two sides.

That’s two sides, just two.

All right.

So now here comes the wrapping part, and it’s a little bit tricky.

We’re gonna take our middle finger and our thumb and slide it under the wrapper, our other finger goes through.

in the middle, and then we bring it together to the star shape and pinch it together, just like so.

And then I like to press down on it just a little bit so it has a nice flat bottom.

stand up when you actually plate it.

Okay.

So now, when we look at this, four corners are standing up.

and it’s right flat on the bottom.

Nice.

So I’ll do it one more time again here, get a little bit of filling on our right.

right in the center.

Once again with our egg whites, placing on two sides right next to each other.

And then again, our fingers are gonna go under the wrapper.

Our other finger in the middle, and come the other, pinch it nice and tight, and then press down just a little bit to get that beautiful shape.

I don’t feel that most people would realize they’re this simple you really, but you know, I think people would think, oh boy, there’s gotta be a lot more to grab Rangoon, geez, because that’s pretty fancy.

simple recipe.

Way to go.

Yeah, but that’s that’s great.

So I’ve perfected my own You have you have.

Do you want to give rapping a try?

All right, we’ll give it a try.

Because I heard you’ve made crab reut before.

Okay, so I’m gonna pick one up.

get a little little on my knife.

Mhm.

So it look about right mouth?

Yeah, that looks good.

Okay.

Okay.

So then I’m gonna put there and there.

Now, here comes the tricky part.

Did I pay attention?

Yeah, you’re doing great.

Well.

look at that.

Very nice.

That’s like a picture a little off from yours.

Yeah, it does.

Sure, sure.

Yeah.

So, that was pretty simple and easy.

They really are.

Again, I think that would surprise a lot of people.

Now, what have you got going over here?

Right, so again, we have our deep fryer over here.

And we wanted about 300. a little bit less than the eye rolls, because they take less time to cook.

All right.

So again And we’re gonna grab the corners of this.

Does it pop on you and gently lay it down in there, so it doesn’t splash on your.

once again It’s gonna start bubbling which how you know that your oil is ready.

So we’ll drop those in, and this one only takes a few minutes to cook.

Okay.

Once they pop up like that and you see a little bit of golden brown, that’s when you wanna just pull them out.

So it’s the top the points that are gonna brown basically not the under underpart is that right basically you know The part is gonna run not gonna get as.

because the tips you see how those are sticking out of the oil a little bit.

Those won’t groan as much, but you can always press them down.

Mhm.

So.

Yeah.

So you can do this in a pan of oil on your stove as well, right?

But you’d have to keep you want to keep track of your oil temperature, of course.

And then you want to make sure that your oil is covering the corroangoon so that all of it is been deep fried at the same time.

All right.

And we have some that are premade for you.

Yeah, you want to give them a try?

Oh, boy, oh, boy.

So yeah, yeah.

She’s been beautiful.

hasn’t she?

While she’s doing that, I can show you how we take this out, so you grab one.

and what you wanna do is um shake it so that the oil or the grease comes out of that you don’t want a greasy crab Rangoon.

And then when you set it down, you just set it down upside down.

and then the grease continues to to drain that way, a little longer.

Yeah, that’s fine.

You can.

Whoa.

So we have these premade ones, we can see how they’re nice and golden brown, and they all stuck together.

because of our perfect wrapping.

Yes, it was, it was.

So let’s grab a little tray here.

Oh, they’re beautiful.

Are you ready for me to taste these?

Are you confident?

Are you ready?

I am more than ready, I couldn’t wait.

Wait.

See, no, see if we can hear a crunch.

Oh, yeah.