I Suck At Making Spring Rolls

yesterday was quite the entertaining experience. for quite some time, i have wanted to learn how to cook chinese food like my parents. after all, it would be a shame not to pass on that information from generation to generation, especially since a lot of family and friends consider my parents great cooks.

needless to say, i asked my mom if she would be willing to show me, karen, and karen's family how to make something. in paticular, i asked if she would be willing to show us how she made her spring rolls. now, i suck at making spring rolls. growing up, i have always watched her make them. i just have never actually asked her what she puts in them, how much she puts in them, etc. all i knew was that... well... the spring rolls were delicious. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)

anyway, my mom's face lit up with excitement when i asked. both of my parents love to entertain. so whenever they get the chance, they totally enjoy having people over their place. i think my parents were also excited because i took an active role in learning how to cook... something i normally don't do... or haven't done when i was growing up. and as my mom can tell any of you, i didn't take an active role in cleaning the house, taking out the garbage, or any of that other stuff as well when i was growing up. my mom, whenever she sees me cleaning my house these days, laughs and always asks why i never did that way back when.

regardless, it just so happens that my parents were available yesterday for the spring roll lesson. so karen, karen's parents, my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my niece (kaleigh), and karen's cousin (karlene) and her husband (tommy) attended the little cooking class.

so there we were... all gathered around the circular table as my parents demonstrated how to make egg rolls while a whole slew of appetizers floated around for everyone to eat.

my dad began by showing off... the cleaver. he took a head of chinese cabbage and started chopping away. each chop from the cleaver landed with a thud against the chopping block. THUD THUD THUD. i think the cleaver scared everyone, including kaleigh. my mom simply rolled her eyes at my dad and his cleaver. we soon switched to something less scary: a regular knife for chopping cabbage.

from there, we shredded carrots into the mix.

(the picture below is of my mom helping kaleigh shred some carrots while tommy looks on.)


that was basically it. my parents then threw the cabbage and carrot mixture into the wok and added some sea salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil, vermicelli, corn starch and water to it... and lo and behold... the spring roll ingredients were ready.

after letting the ingredients cool down, everyone tried their hand at rolling the spring rolls. that was when things got a little messy. my parents purchased a bag that contained 50 sheets spring roll pastry dough. well, needless to say, of the 50, only about 25 came out okay. luckily, my parents purchased an extra bag of 50 spring roll pastries... just for the occasion. the second time around turned out much better... 50 for 50... proof that practice makes perfect.

when all the spring rolls were complete, my dad threw them in the wok to fry. when the spring rolls were a nice golden brown, he threw them on a plate and all of us enjoyed the fruits of our labor. my parents also made some other pork dish to go with the spring rolls too.

all in all, it was fun... and messy. i think my parents, and hopefully everyone else, had a great time. i love my parents. if they could, they would probably have everyone over all of the time. they seem to immensely enjoy company. so hopefully i can convince them again for another cooking lesson. and truth be told, i can't wait for the next lesson.