Shakespeare once said, "A little fire is quickly trodden out, which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench." Luckily for me, there was not even the littlest of fires. There were, however, several firefighters.
I was peacefully putting the shrimp & cabbage filling into the egg roll wrappers while the deep-fryer oil heated up. I did two quick test runs and noticed the finished product came out a little darker brown than I'd like, so I turned the heat down some and went back to folding more egg rolls.
I didn't really notice the oil smoking a bit until Jesus and Allison wandered in and pointed out that the whole hallway was smoky. See, smoke rises, and I'm 5'0", and I'd been cooking with the door open.... So I shrugged and opened a window and turned back to the filling.
Then we heard the sirens. "Please don't stop here. Just keep moving. Please go..." No dice. Multiple firetrucks pulled up outside. So I did what any self-respecting college student whose parent was visiting would do: I ran into the other room shouting "MO-O-OM!" and woke her up from her nap. She told me to relax. For all we knew, they weren't here because of us.
Moments later, six firemen strolled into my kitchen. I offered them some egg rolls.
Yes, Michael Canaan, I know they brought the pike and the axes.
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By the way, here's my egg roll recipe.
Exterior:
Storebought egg roll wrappers
Cornstarch and water "glue" for tacking it all together
Oil for deep-frying
Interior:
Cabbage, sliced like toothpicks
Carrots--I used a Sara and a veggie peeler to get then "sliced" super-thin
Bean sprouts, chopped in half
Sliced water chestnuts
Sliced bamboo shoots, chopped like toothpicks
Minced onions
Celery, sliced super-thin
Scrambled egg or tofu fried in sesame oil and cut into itty bits
Diced cooked shrimp (de-tailed, for Pete's sake!)
Soy sauce & garlic powder to taste
Mix the filling. I had to mix several different fillings, as we had people who were vegetarian and averse to shrimp, people who were allergic to cabbage, and a cook who was absent-minded enough to forget to set some aside before mixing in the shrimp and had to make the filling over again.
Fold like this, using the cornstarch & water mix as a glue: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1250411
Deep fry. Do not overheat your oil. When it bobs up to the surface, I think it's prolly done.
Then, as my friend Linda says: Omnomnom.
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