I used to be terrified of egg roll wrappers, thinking they would just tear and annoy me and leave me with globs of innards and shredded outers. But once I finally started to play with them because this pimiento mac and cheese egg roll recipe needed to happen, I was pleasantly surprised. Like a pancake, the first one was unimpressive, but each subsequent one got better until I realized the secret to egg rolling — tucking.
It's hard to explain with words but this video shows exactly what I mean. That first movement, the tuck to fit everything in snugly, that's the move that makes it not unfurl into a hot mess. This is my rolling setup, Gossip Girl on a nearby laptop optional. This recipe makes eight rolls, but its fairly scalable and forgiving. Plus if you make too much mac, just eat it. Look for a smaller scale pasta, like the ditalini I used here, but not so small scale like pastina, that it would get lost and mushy amongst the cheese.
Pimento Mac and Cheese Eggrolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup ditalini, small elbows, or other small pasta
- ½ cup prepared pimento cheese
- 8 Nasoya eggroll wrappers
- small bowl with water
- peanut oil
- salt to taste
- shredded cheddar cheese optional
Instructions
- Bring a medium sized pot of water to boil. Salt generously (about a teaspoon of salt) and add the pasta once boiling.
- Cook according to package directions until al dente, about 9 minutes.
- Drain the water from the pasta and return to pot.
- Add the pimento cheese, and additional grated cheddar if extra cheesiness is desired. Taste the mac now- this is how it will taste in the egg roll wrapper, so make sure you like it now.
- Set up your egg rolling station. Put down a cutting board, the small bowl with water to your left, the pot of mac and cheese with a dinner spoon in it to your right, and the egg roll wrappers further from you in front of the cutting board. egg roll set up
- Put a medium size frying pan on the burner and fill until the the pan is full. You’ll want about a ¼″ of oil in the pan — this is why a smaller size is ideal. Set a plate lined with paper towels to the side of the pan with a pair of tongs in easy reach.
- Begin wrapping your egg rolls following the easy instructions in the egg roll wrappers. Watch the video to see the tuck method that helps. Use a dab of water on your fingers, from your conveniently placed bowl, to wet the end and seal the roll. Set each roll aside seam side down until you’ve used all of the filling and wrappers.
- Heat the pan to medium high. Once the oil is shimmering, use tongs to place 2 egg rolls at a time in the hot oil. The first ones will be ready to flip within 30 seconds. Fry for an addition 30 seconds or even less on the second side. These fry up very quickly, do not walk away. Place on the paper towel lined plate when done.
- Work two at a time, frying the egg rolls until all are fried. pimento mac and cheese egg rolls
- Remove the pan from heat when finished, and serve immediately. Cut in half on the diagonal if you want to look fancy or just bite in!
