4 Levels of Egg Rolls: Amateur to Food Scientist

[pin rolling]

[food crunching]

[oil sizzling]

[drum beat playing]

I'm John, and I'm a level 1 chef.

I'm Lorenzo, and I'm a level 2 chef.

I'm Chef Chris,

and I've been a professional chef for 20 years.

[drum beat playing]

I'm making crab rangoon egg rolls.

They're really simple ingredients

that you could buy anywhere.

I'm making coleslaw and pork egg rolls.

I did say coleslaw.

It'll be fine, I promise.

Today I'm making three-egg egg rolls

with salted duck eggs, caviar, and poached runny eggs.

[chimes playing]

I have this handy-dandy imitation crab.

This says it's surimi,

which is a former fish meat with a lot of other add-ins.

So I have some beautiful king prawns here.

Head on, shell on, lots of flavor.

Shells come off pretty easy, especially on the large shrimp.

You just pop the head right off.

Then the last thing I want to do is devein it.

Take a slice right down the back and you want to remove

all the stuff that you find after you slice it.

Then I'm going to chop up the shrimp

into slightly larger pieces because I want

a nice big bite of shrimp in every egg roll bite I take.

[John] First up, I'm gonna top up my greens.

I have some beautiful celery here.

[Both] Scallions.

[John] Or green onions.

I'm using both the whites and greens.

Yes, the more the merrier.

[John] The scallions just give it that nice kick.

And traditionally with a crab rangoon,

it's usually crab, cream cheese, and some greens.

Yummy.

I have my garlic.

That's basically all you want.

And I'm going for the sausage next.

So Chinese sausage, they actually are sun dried.

So a little bit more firmer from the regular sausage.

Paired with shrimp.

Hey, surf and turf.

That's why you're level three, sir.

This is the iconic salted egg.

This salted egg is usually cured for about 60 days,

and it's also a duck egg.

Duck eggs tend to be slightly gamier,

slightly larger, and slightly more full flavored.

I am adding ground pork.

Chinese cooking uses high heat to meld the flavors

as quickly as possible.

And the wok does that perfectly.

Medium high heat, little vegetable oil.

Add my onions first and you get that nice sizzle.

Gently.

[speaking Spanish]

And you're just sweating the onions for a minute.

And then I'm going to add the rest of my aromatics.

Since the wok is very hot,

you have to keep things moving around

in the wok as much as you can.

I was just trying to brown it slightly.

I'm not looking for any major texture on it.

Ginger, garlic, in the shrimp goes.

These shrimp are big, but they're gonna cook pretty quick.

I'm adding in my Chinese sausage.

It just needs to get hot and soften up a bit.

Dried shiitake mushrooms

that have been reconstituted in water.

Next goes in the salted egg.

The salted egg is going to add a real depth

of savoriness to the filling.

I'm gonna start adding my other vegetables.

Coleslaw mix, what a wonderful thing.

Just buy it at the grocery.

I'm gonna add my scallions now- all of 'em.

Right now I'm just gonna wilt it.

I'm just trying to heat it through a little bit.

Combine it with my pork.

Shaoxing wine.

It goes well with so many Asian dishes

because it's made with rice and that is the taro of China.

Much like you would use grapes in Europe.

Next is mushroom soy sauce.

The addition of mushrooms in soy sauce

just actually makes it even deeper in the savoriness.

I'm gonna do a tablespoon of-

[All] Soy sauce.

For that saltiness that I love.

And the tablespoon of Worcestershire.

It just adds another dimension of flavor

to the filling.

And then I'm adding my hot sesame oil.

A little goes a long way. [laughs]

I'm sorry it was hot as [bleep].

Oh! I'm sorry!

I'm turning off the wok.

The MSG is gonna bring out all that flavor

and that extra depth of savoriness that you want.

All I have to do next is strain it.

If you don't, it's gonna make the wrapper very soggy.

Please save whatever is coming out,

and make a sweet and sour sauce with it.

That is liquid gold, folks.

I'm gonna let this sit in the fridge overnight.

Tomorrow, it's gonna be ready to put into my wrappers.

[John] When I bite into it,

I want to taste the flavor of each bit.

My egg roll is loaded with eggs.

I'm gonna poach an egg and also put that in my egg roll.

This is not your brunch poached egg.

I'm just cooking it lightly so it doesn't break

when I put it in my egg roll.

I'm pulling the egg yolk out of the water

and it's lightly coated with the egg white.

It should have a little bit of a bounce to it

and in the ice water it goes.

So my filling's pretty much done,

but I want to add some of this fresh spring onion.

It just provides a crisp, fresh

flavor and texture to the filling.

I've got my egg roll wrapper.

Lorenzo's using store-bought wrappers.

So, see? We are all in this together.

The very first step I like to do when making egg rolls

is to make the egg roll dough.

And then we make that into a wrapper.

All-purpose flour, salt, sugar,

and then I'm gonna crack my eggs.

I like mixing it with my hands

because you start to feel the texture.

You're looking for a smooth but slightly tacky dough.

Generally you knead it until your arms fall off.

But 10 minutes we'll do.

I'm gonna rest my dough overnight.

It's been in the fridge overnight.

It's a lot more pliable and that's what I want.

And then I'm gonna cut nuggets out of it.

And then you want your wrapper to look like this.

Look at that. Isn't that like heaven?

It almost reminds me of pie crust.

Maybe a little thinner than a pastry dough.

So it's very pliable and easy to work with.

So I like to put my egg roll wrapper down on a diagonal.

I take a nice spoonful.

I put it right from the middle, closer to me,

on the lower diamond quadrant.

[Chris] Right below the center line.

So then I'm gonna take my tobiko caviar.

Caviar. That's just fancy.

[Chris] I wanna make a little well with the caviar

so it holds the egg yolks better in the egg roll.

And we're gonna be daring here and do two eggs.

I wanna put some shredded Napa cabbage

right on top of the eggs.

You wanna fold the edges in and then...

[John] Give it a roll, tuck in my sides,

to make a little envelope that you gonna sand to Santa.

[Chris] And then I wanna seal it

with just a little bit of water.

Egg wash.

And look at that- little egg roll!

[laughs] Let's do it again.

And then I'm just gonna brush the egg rolls

with the egg wash.

[Chris] That'll provide a nice color when frying.

I've already preheated the air fry to 400 degrees.

So I'm just gonna gently place my egg rolls

into the basket of the air fryer.

I'm gonna do it in a single layer

so that none of them touch each other.

[Lorenzo] Let's go for it.

Wee.

[Chris] The larger the bubbles, that means

there's still water content, and the smaller the bubbles

meaning that most of the water has started to cook out.

What I'm looking for is

for the wrapper to turn golden brown.

It's gonna be bubbly.

There'll be nice and crispy bits in there.

It almost looks like it has warts.

Only takes a few minutes.

I actually take them out when it's this golden brown

because sometimes I do like to refry them and heat them.

This is the one time warts

are a really yummy and good thing.

[gasps] Whoa.

These look great.

Every great egg roll needs a great dipping sauce.

I'm about to make my sweet and sour sauce.

You know, I'm not surprised

that we're all doing sweet and sour sauces.

I'm going with a Thai sweet chili sauce.

It's really yummy.

You could buy it at most Asian supermarkets.

And I'm gonna add my water, then sugar.

I'm gonna heat up my oil.

I'm going to bloom my red pepper flakes a little bit.

And all that is, is I'm just gonna let that infuse the oil

with its heat and spiciness and yumminess.

Ketchup. This is the staple ingredient

in all sweet and sour sauces, I have to say.

Okay, don't, nope

[makes funny sounds]

Bop-bop-bop-bop-bop-bop-bah!

Chinkiang vinegar- very fragrant dark vinegar.

Oyster sauce gives a level of savoriness and depth.

This is black soy,

so it's a much darker, thicker, more intense soy sauce.

Tzatziki soy sauce.

It's always good to add salt.

Bring those flavors out.

[Chris] In Chinese cooking,

you don't normally put salt into food.

This is our sauce for salt.

And I'm just gonna kick up the store-bought chili sauce

with some add-ins like scallions.

It's just gonna add another dimension of flavor

to the sauce,

kind of like when you add things to your marinara sauce.

Garlic, half a teaspoon there.

I love jarred condiments in Asian cooking so,

there's no harm, no foul in that.

Mmm.

So good.

The scallion adds a little bit of crunch.

The garlic enhance in the flavor.

It just punches up this already super tasty sauce

that I bought from the store.

This is my chicken stock.

And then this is my secret ingredient.

[maniacal laughter]

This is the juices of the sauteed vegetables.

My coleslaw mix, my garlic, my scallions, and the pork.

Granulated sugar, which is the sweet

of my sweet and sour sauce.

Where is the sour?

Right here- my distilled vinegar.

That is the sour.

So this is sweet rice that's fermented.

It's gonna give a really nice tang and add to the sweetness.

Get a little bit of the juice.

White vinegar.

We're gonna put our garlic in there, our ginger,

and we're gonna put our dry chilies.

I like to crack the dry chili as I put it in there.

It makes it that much more spicy.

I want to infuse the sauce with a pineapple flavor.

So you could see that it's separated a bit,

but that's just the fat

from the strained juices from my filling.

It will dissipate and incorporate into the sauce

when I add my slurry.

And a slurry basically is corn starch mixed with water.

[Lorenzo] It should be one-to-one typically.

[Chris] And then you add that corn starch slurry

to your sauce, bring it up to boil,

and it'll thicken the sauce.

Oh, I love it!

I love it.

That pineapple, it really kicks it up a bit.

I cannot wait.

I am ready to plate my egg rolls.

It's actually kind of a good look thing

if you have a lot of pineapple in your sauce.

So, let's have extra pineapple.

I have a little extra coleslaw

and it's just to create a bed.

I'm using it as drainage so the egg rolls

don't just sit in their own oils.

[Chris] First thing on the plate are the egg rolls.

I'm just gonna make a starburst.

See, I'm an artist too.

I'm gonna put this beautiful sweet and sour glaze

with these nice specks of ginger and garlic,

and the fermented rice

right into the ramekin and on the plate.

And then I'm also putting that beautiful jus

from the filling, which I can drizzle

onto the egg roll after they're cut.

And

voila!

These are my egg rolls.

These are my egg rolls.

And these are my egg rolls.

It looks like goosebumps.

I'm getting goosebumps 'cause I'm so excited.

Chihuahua.

Oh, it's beautiful.

[Chris] I'm loving how this looks.

Last thing left to do is to test these puppies out.

Dip right into the sweet and sour sauce.

Oh my God.

Mmm.

Yee-haw!

The cream cheese is all melted.

It's covering the imitation crab.

It's just me, so I'm allowed to double dip.

Mmm.

I can't stop.

The sweet and sour glaze, this kicks.

I don't think you could stuff more flavor and texture

in an egg roll than this.

This is actually the best part.

I got a little pocket that I can put some sauce in.

Get the pineapple.

I love it.

I'm sorry I said yee-haw.

You're looking at Brooklyn's best egg rolls right here.

Egg rolls are a delicious, crispy appetizer,

snack, or meal popular all over the world.

Let's see how each of our three chefs made their version.

[loud drumming]

John used imitation crab as his main ingredient.

Most versions aren't more than 2% real crab meat

with extracts added for crab flavor.

Instead, it's a blend of ground fish,

usually pollock, made into a paste with added starch,

sometimes sugar, and proteins to imitate the real thing.

It's cooked before packaging,

so it needs no further treatment prior to consumption.

Lorenzo used shredded coleslaw mix.

Cabbage can stay persistently crunchy

at higher heat compared to other vegetables

due to active enzymes that can withstand higher temperatures

before becoming denatured.

Chopping cabbage increases generation of flavor molecules

by releasing them from precursors.

Chris incorporated Chinese sausage

that is made from hogs that have darker meat.

It's combined with various spices.

Additional pork fat is added,

which is neutral in flavor, and doesn't melt or separate out

as the sausage is ground and processed.

Chris' filling was intensely aromatic.

He added monosodium glutamate, or MSG,

a compound that adds a savory quality

due to an active compound called glutamic acid.

He also added chopped salted duck eggs.

The eggs are soaked in brine

or sometimes covered in salted charcoal.

The salt from the brine cures the egg

through the process of osmosis over time.

The resulting texture is a firm, salty white

and a round, slightly gelatinous yolk.

[loud drumming]

John and Lorenzo used store-bought wrappers.

These wrappers, made mainly with wheat flour and water,

are versatile and convenient.

When you open a package, you'll find a white powder

dusting each wrapper.

That's corn starch,

and helps to keep them from sticking together,

because the dry corn starch doesn't easily absorb water

without adding heat.

Chris made his wrappers, which is not easy to do.

He used wheat flour, water, and eggs.

The addition of eggs adds a golden color

from the carotenoids in the yolks.

Egg whites add water and proteins

that aid in browning when they're fried.

Egg rolls fried in hot oil blister a bit,

adding to their distinctive look and crunchiness.

They may blister slightly in an air fryer,

but only if the temperature is hot enough.

[loud drumming]

John cooked his egg rolls in an air fryer,

a popular roasting method that mimics

the effect of frying in oil

without the calories that come from the addition of oil.

Hot air is circulated around the egg rolls

at a high velocity in close proximity,

quickly dehydrating and consequently crisping the wrapper,

while simultaneously causing browning.

Both Lorenzo and Chris fried their egg rolls

in hot vegetable oil-

the traditional method of preparation.

Frying is a combination of convective

and conductive heating.

[loud drumming]

All three chefs made a sweet and sour dipping sauce.

Taste is a chemical sense caused by chemicals

fitting into specific receptor cells on our taste buds.

Sweet and sour balance each other out

in such an inviting way, especially when combined

with savory flavors from the egg roll filling,

and the crunchy texture from being fried.

Lorenzo used the intensely flavorful drained liquid

from his egg roll filling.

This reinforces the savory pork flavor

in his sweet, sour, and savory sauce.

Chris made a cooked sauce, thickened with corn starch

and flavored with black soy sauce,

which is very dark and includes molasses.

He also added Chinkiang vinegar,

which is very dark in color,

made from glutenous rice, and aged for at least six months.

It's sour, as you would expect from vinegar,

but also earthy and very slightly smokey.

Egg rolls are so yummy and satisfying,

filled with anything from vegetables,

shrimp, pork, or imitation crab.

You're gonna love these dishes from our three amazing chefs.