Egg Rolls with a spicy black bean sauce

I have thought about starting a blog about cooking for about a year now. As I learn more and experiment more, I find myself thinking - Hrmmm... this is really good! But what to call the blog? Well, since I'm gay and I'm mostly cooking for my (gay) husband - why the heck not?!

Cooking for Gays

Sort of like - Cooking for Days - but with a bit of a queer flare to it all.

Shall we start?

Asian cooking, I find, is admittedly tedious, but incredibly versatile. You don't have to follow my recipe to the letter - but experiment on your own. However, I found this recipe to be very delicious and it might be the first egg rolls with a Black Bean Sauce recipe out there. Here we go:

1/2 lb ground chow mein meat (ground beef, ground pork, ground chicken, ground turkey, etc)
1 whole carrot - shredded
1/2 medium red 0nion thinly sliced
3 to 4 medium sized mushrooms thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 green bell pepper diced
1 Tbsp dried lemon grass
1 1/2 Tbsp Black Bean Sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp Chinese style Chili Garlic Sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese style rice vinegar
3 Spring Onions (chopped and set aside)
1 Package of Egg Roll Wrappers

In a heated skillet, throw in the meat(s). As the meat cooks add the garlic and the onion. Simply add all of the other vegetables into the skillet at you prep each one. The Black Bean Sauce and the Chili Garlic Sauce I added towards the end but as long as everything is well cooked and mixed. Once everything is finished, add the Spring Onions last so they don't cook and get soft. (The onion is your "crunch".)

If you're not familiar working with egg roll wrappers, I have two words of advice:

• 1.) Use a kitchen towel as your work surface. The egg roll wrappers will stick to your counter tops or your cutting board unless you've heavily floured them (which is a mess)
• 2.) Rolling, or folding egg rolls are a piece of cake, especially if you follow these directions.
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• Preheat your deep fryer. Allow your deep fryer to heat through thoroughly. Try to use peanut oil if possible, as it adds a pleasant nutty flavor to the egg rolls.
• Stuff your rolls. Place your wraps on a clean surface so that the points are up and down and left and right (should appear as a diamond, not a square). Place the filling onto the rolls.
• Wrap your rolls. Take the bottom point of your wrap and fold it over top of the filling. Fold the sides in towards the middle and roll the filling towards the top point of the wrapper.
• Seal the egg roll. To prevent the egg roll from unwrapping in the deep fryer you need to seal the seams, this also prevents oil from filling the inside of the egg roll. In a small dish or bowl place a beaten egg. Dip your finger into the mixture and use this as glue to seal the top point of your wrap and any openings where you feel the wrap needs to be glued together.
• Cook your egg rolls. Since deep fryer temperatures will vary and size of the egg rolls will affect the cooking time, there is no set cooking time. Place 3-4 egg rolls in the deep fryer and allow to cook until golden brown. Roll the egg rolls in the oil to evenly brown the wrapper. Avoid overcooking the egg rolls.
• Serve immediately. Egg rolls are best served as soon as they have finished cooking. Serve with a chilled bottle of sweet cherry sauce, plum sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or anything you enjoy on egg rolls.

These will make about 10 egg rolls, which you can freeze or share with all of your (gay) friends.

Enjoy!