Egg Rolls from Mr Walters

 It was some time in 1962, shortly after we moved to Girard, Ohio.  We have been in America for a little over 8 months.  We were the only Japanese in the entire Youngstown area including the suburbs.  My mother and I missed our Japanese foods. Unlike today where grocery stores are full of ethnic foods, we were lucky to find a can of Chow Mein in a grocery aisle (not that we would even have attempted to eat that).  We missed everything that was Japan, and felt very homesick.  We longed to find one Japanese person - just one.
 Dad came through! I don't know how he found her, but he did.  Her name was Fumiko and she was married to Mr. Walters.  I don't remember his first name. They didn't have any children, but had one of the ugliest little Pekinese I ever saw, and they babied her like their only child.  We quickly became very close friends.  Mr. Walters was a chef at a local hospital and knew how to cook, and he shared some of his recipes with my mother.  This egg roll recipe is one of them.  So for this week, Hideko and I recreated this recipe.  The recipe also included instructions for making egg roll skins, but we skipped that and bought ours from a store.

 

Egg Roll Filling                               makes 12 egg rolls 

1/2 cup finely chopped celery                                                   4 green onion, finely chopped

1 cup shredded cabbage                                                            1/2 cup water chestnuts, chopped

3 Tablespoons oil                                                                      1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup diced cooked shrimp                                                    1/8 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup diced cooked pork                                                        12 egg roll skins

 

**You can substitute shrimp and pork with any other meats or no meat at all.  Also, you can add mung bean sprouts and/or minced ginger root if you like**

 

Put celery and cabbage in water in a medium pan and bring to a boil then drain. Heat oil in a skillet, add shrimp and pork. Fry for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredient to the skillet and fry for 3 more minutes.

 



  

 
Place 4 tablespoons of filling in center of each egg roll skins; fold two sides over edges of filling and roll up the skin.  Seal the skin by dipping a brush into a bowl of cold water and brushing the edges of the skin. 



 

 

Fry in oil until golden brown.

 



 Enjoy!