Yakisoba Egg Rolls

What comes to mind when you think of egg roll?

Chinese food?

Thai?

Lumpia?

Did anyone say With Six You Get Eggroll, the Doris Day movie?

I love Doris Day movies.

When you're making egg roll, anything goes. 

You can fill it with whatever strikes your fancy.

Usually, it's vegetables of some kind, along with some meat.

But you can fill it with carne asada, spinach & ricotta cheese, pulled pork and barbecue sauce, macaroni & cheese--the possibilities are endless!

On a lazy Sunday morning, I decided to make some egg roll with the vegetable odds & ends in the refrigerator--which turned into Yakisoba Egg Roll.

For those that don't know, Yakisoba is Japanese fried noodles.

The way we make it here, it's got more vegetables than noodles. The yakisoba package pictured is found at not only Asian markets, they have it at my neighborhood Von's.

Here's what I had hanging around in my fridge:

1 1/2 noodle packages of yakisoba noodles

4 nappa (leaves)

2 stalks bok choy

Small piece of cabbage

2 cups spinach leaves

2 shiitake mushrooms

1/4 onion

5 white mushrooms

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1 carrot, shredded

2 slices fresh ginger, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

I also had half a block of tofu that I diced.

This is tempura oil, oil made from rice bran for frying.

If you don't have this, you can use canola oil.

Slice the onions. 

I also found a quarter of a red onion.

Put the onion into a bowl with the minced garlic and ginger and set aside.

 

Put together all the ingredients that cook quickly: spinach, bean sprouts, bok choy & nappa leaves & shredded carrot. Set aside.

Thinly slice the nappa & bok choy stalks & cabbage, as well as the mushrooms.

Put them in a bowl and set aside.

 

Give the yakisoba noodles a rough chop.

Fry them in a tablespoon oil.

After they've fried in oil a bit on high heat and get a little browned, add a tablespoon of water, turn the heat to medium and put the lid on.

After a couple of minutes the noodles will be easy to separate and will be soft.

Remove the noodles from the pan and set aside.

Next, saute the onions, garlic and ginger in a tablespoon of oil.

Add the mushrooms, bok choy & nappa stalks.

Stir and cook with the lid on for 2 minutes.

Add the bowl with the spinach, carrots, etc.

Cover and cook for 1 minute.

Spinach cooks fast!

Add the tofu, yakisoba noodles and yakisoba sauce packet.

I used two sauce packages (it comes three noodle packages & 3 sauce packets in one bag of yakisoba).

The seasoning packet, and traditional yakisoba sauce, is a sweet worcestershire based sauce.

You can make it at home using: 1 tablespoon each of--mirin, vinegar, sake, oyster sauce, ketchup and brown sugar. 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce and shoyu. A half teaspoon of sriracha hot sauce is good in here too. 

Make the sauce in a bowl, then taste it and adjust the seasoning before you add it to the yakisoba. It's a lot easier than trying to adjust the flavors after it's already in the pan.

Turn off the heat and stir well to combine all ingredients.

When the mixture cools, place a small amount of the yakisoba onto an egg roll wrapper, close to one corner.

Fold the wrapper in from the corner, tucking the corner under, press ends.

This photo is a little confusing.

I am rolling the egg roll on a stack of wrappers. I should have taken one wrapper, it would have been easier to see.

Fold the right and left corners in.

If you look closely, you can barely see the upper corner.

Moisten the top corner with a little bit of water so it will stick.

Repeat until all wrappers are filled.

I like to fry outside on the patio with a butane stove.

It keeps the air in the house from becoming filled with that heavy, fried smell.

I put some newspaper down so the patio table doesn't get covered with oil.

When the oil is hot, fry the egg roll until golden brown.

You can tell when the oil is ready by putting a tiny bit of the egg roll noodle into the oil, when it sizzles right up, the oil is hot.

Drain the egg roll on paper towels.

They're best when eaten hot.

You can make them ahead of time and reheat them in the oven right before serving.

What's your favorite egg roll?

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Over the weekend I was invited to dinner at friends Laura & Poston's place in Long Beach. Laura made a delicious dinner of nabemono, kind of a cross between nishime and shabu shabu.

More about dinner with the Takemoto girls tomorrow.

And today, they're coming over to make peanut butter mochi!

No printable recipe for this one yet.