This is what I made for Super Bowl XLVII this year – Mini Cheeseburger Egg Rolls. They were absolutely phenomenal! I'm not gonna lie, it took a while to make these from start to finish. Depends on how many you are making – to make 45 of these little guys would probably take you about 3 hours (also depends on how good you are at wrapping). However, it was so worth it, and quite fun to make.
You might have seen this dish before on the Interwebs, but I'm pretty sure you haven't seen them done in minis! It was actually accidental. See, the store I went to didn't have any regular egg roll wrappers so I had to go with wonton wrappers instead. You might be wondering what the difference is. Well, egg roll wrappers are bigger (and usually thicker) then wonton wrappers. While egg/spring rolls (春卷) are normally fried, wontons (雲吞) are normally served in soup with noodles (a well-known dish in Hong Kong called wonton noodles 雲吞麺). Don't forget, there are also dumplings, and dumpling wrappers which are just as big as wonton wrappers in size but the thickness varies depends on what kind of Chinese cuisine you're talking about. Wait, let's save this topic for a future post...
Preparing for these egg rolls is actually pretty easy. You start out by browning and seasoning the ground beef, sauteing the diced onion and garlic. Mix all three ingredients together and let it cool for about 20 minutes, then add the shredded cheddar cheese. I ran out of worcestershire sauce so I used (low sodium) soy sauce instead. And to add a little kick to the flavor, I added in some sriracha sauce.
Now, it's time to get your hands and fingers busy! These are the wrappers I ended up getting. The white one turned out to be twice as thick than the Hong Kong style/yellow one (but that's okay, I just doubled up the yellow one to compensate). Taste wise, I couldn't tell the difference.
Time to have fun and be creative if you haven't wrapped egg rolls, wontons, or dumplings before! Try different ways to wrap your ingredients – stuff it more, stuff it less, fold it left and right. Have a small bowl of water for sealing the edges (by brushing lightly with your finger).
The tip for folding the wonton skin this way is to fold IN the sides so they are tucked in when you roll it up (and don't be shy, use a little bit of finger muscle on them).
Let's fry up these bad boys! Don't over crowd your pan, and use chopsticks to flip them around while frying (gently!)
Nom!
Dip these Mini Cheeseburger Egg Rolls in some Honey Mustard Horseradish Dipping Sauce!
Mini Cheeseburger Egg Rolls
Servings: about 45
You'll need:
1.5 lbs ground beef
3 tablespoons (low sodium) soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons sriracha sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
some extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small/medium size red onion, diced
24 oz shredded cheddar cheese
about 50 wonton wrappers (Or regular egg roll wrappers)
a small bowl of water
Direction:
- Start by dicing the red onion and mincing the garlic, then set aside. (I use this handy little tool by Joseph Joseph to mince my garlic)
- In medium heat, brown the ground beef by breaking down the big pieces with a spatula. Cook it for 15-20 minutes until brown, then add the soy sauce, sriracha, and salt and pepper. Place the ground beef in a large mixing bowl, and let cool.
- Discard the oil from the pan from cooking the beef, pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and saute the onion and garlic for about 10-15 minutes.
- Mix the onion, garlic, and ground beef together, continue to let cool for 15-20 minutes.
- Add the shredded cheddar cheese to the mix, stir to combine.
To wrap:
- Set a small bowl of water next to your wrappers.
- Place a wrapper with a corner pointing up, using a small spoon, tablespoon, or whatever you find the easiest, scoop the beef mixture onto the wrapper.
- Take the left corner then fold it into the middle; take the right corner then fold it into the middle.
- Tuck in the sides on the bottom half, then fold up.
- Tuck in the sides on the top half WHILE rolling up the wrapper to finish.
To fry:
- Using a small sauce pan, heat up about 2 inches of oil (just enough for the egg rolls to float and not sitting on the bottom of the pan).
- In medium heat, fry them until golden. (If you're like me who don't fry things very often, test different heats to see what works best)
- Use a pair of chopsticks to flip, push them around so all sides gets fried evenly. Be gentle!
- Carefully take them out and place them onto paper towels to cool.
- Now, make the dipping sauce to go with these Mini Cheeseburger Egg Rolls!