Egg rolls, fried or baked

I made these last week, baking them, and my family loved them! My 4 and 2 year olds even gobbled them up. There were no leftovers! I loved them so much, I decided to try frying them. So, last night our Pastor came over for dinner, and I fried them. They were delicious! I seriously think they were better than most Chinese restaurant's egg rolls. The sauce is my mother-in-law's recipe that she got from a Laotian woman.

Ingredients

Egg rolls:
1 cup celery (about 4 stalks)
1 cup carrots (about 5 medium carrots)
3 cups cabbage
1/2 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger root
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound ground turkey
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
20 egg roll wrappers
1/8 cup flour
Cooking spray
Canola oil (for frying)

Sauce:
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
½ cup vinegar (white or apple cider)
pinch of salt
1 garlic clove, minced
Directions

Chop your carrots, celery, and cabbage in your food processor until you have very fine pieces but not pureed.

Combine celery, carrots, & cabbage in a large glass bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; vent. Microwave at high 7 minutes; drain.

Combine ginger, garlic, & ground turkey in a skillet and cook over medium-high heat until meat is cooked through. (I used my garlic press to mince the ginger. It's tough, so cut it into very small pieces to do this.) Drain excess fat off meat. Add to your vegetable mixture and mix well. Cover and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes or until the mixture is cool.

In a small bowl, combine flour & 2 tbsp of water to make a paste. Place 1 egg roll wrapper at a time onto work surface with 1 corner pointing toward you (wrapper should look like a diamond). Spoon 3 tablespoons turkey filling into center of wrapper. Fold lower corner of egg roll wrapper over filling. Fold in side corners. Moisten top corner of wrapper with flour paste; roll up jelly-roll fashion. Repeat procedure with remaining wrappers, turkey filling, and flour paste.

Heat oil at 350 degrees in a large skillet (about 1” deep) or cook in a deep fryer. Cook egg rolls, turning after 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.

For a lighter version, you can also bake the egg rolls. They are much softer but very delicious as well. Lightly coat egg rolls with cooking spray, and place, seam side down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Here is the baked version:

To make the sauce for the egg rolls, in a small pot, cook 1 cup sugar on medium, stirring constantly until it turns to a brown liquid. Very carefully, add 2 cups water to the sugar. It will bubble and possibly splatter, so PLEASE be careful. The sugar will harden, so stir until it dissolves completely. Add vinegar, garlic, & salt and then let cool. Store in the fridge. You can also add a little hot chili pepper sauce to this for a spicy, sweet dip. We usually dish out the sauce for each person and let them add however much chili pepper sauce they want for their taste.

Variation: You can use an egg white instead of flour and water to seal your egg rolls on the ends.