Cantonese Chicken Egg Roll (广式鸡肉春卷)

Prep:

1. Place dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl and add warm water to cover. Let rehydrate for 20 to 30 minutes (10 to 15 minutes if using sliced mushrooms). Gently rub mushrooms to remove dirt. Discard the liquid.
2. Combine oyster sauce, rice wine, sugar, salt, and white pepper in a small bowl (leave chicken broth out). Mix well and place near the stove.
3. Make two bowls of slurry (one for cooking the filling, one for assembling the rolls). Combine potato starch and water in two small bowls separately. Mix well. Place one bowl of slurry near the stove.
4. Slice bamboo shoots, carrots, and rehydrated shiitake mushrooms into thin strips. Transfer them to a bowl and place near the stove.

Cook filling:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until warm. Add garlic and stir a few times, until fragrant. Add ground turkey and ground pork.
2. Cook, stirring and chopping the meat into smaller chunks.
3. Push the ground meat to one side of the skillet. Add bamboo shoots, carrots, and shiitake mushrooms to the other side. Cook meat and vegetables on each side of the skillet. Stir and chop the meat into smaller chunks with a spatula. Cook bamboo shoots and mushrooms on the other side. Stir occasionally. When the ground meat is cooked on the surface, mix the meat and vegetables and continue cooking, until the liquid in the skillet is fully absorbed.
4. (Continue cooking until liquid is absorbed.)
5. Add sauce. Cook and stir for a minute, until the sauce is evenly mixed with the ingredients.
6. Add chicken broth. Cook until the ground meat is cooked through.
7. Stop heat and swirl in cornstarch slurry. Continue to mix with spatula and cook with residual heat, until there is no liquid left in the skillet.
8. Transfer the filling to a plate and place in the fridge to cool completely.

Assemble the roll:

1. While the filling is cooling, take spring roll wrappers out of the freezer and allow them to thaw, 20 to 30 minutes. After the wrappers are thawed, transfer them to a cutting board. Cover with a damp cloth (or wet two pieces of thick paper towel with a spray bottle and place them on the wrappers) to prevent them from drying out.
2. Mix the dipping sauce.
3. Slice green onions into thin strips. Transfer the filling to the working surface. Place the potato starch slurry nearby.
4. Work on the spring rolls one at a time: gently peel a spring roll wrapper from the stack and place it on the working surface, a pointed end facing you. Add 1 tablespoon of filling and two slices of green onion onto the lower third of the wrapper. Fold the lower part of the wrapper upward to cover the filling. Fold both sides in to secure the filling inside. Tuck and roll the filling tightly upward until it forms a roll. Stir the potato slurry again. Rub a thin layer of the slurry onto the top point of the wrap. Gently fold and push to seal the roll. Place the roll on a cutting board. Continue with the rest of the rolls in the same way.
5. When you finish assembling half of the rolls, cover them with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out. Continue to work on the rest of the rolls.
6. Add 1 inch (2.5 cm) oil into a wok (or deep heavy pot) and heat over high heat until the oil reaches 350 to 370 degrees F (about 180 C). Place a strainer on a bowl (or cooling rack on a baking tray) and set it nearby the stove.
7. Fry spring rolls in small batches of 5 to 7. Fry until the bottom side turns pale golden. Flip and continue to fry, until both sides are golden. Transfer the rolls to the strainer to drain and render the extra oil. When the next batch of rolls is cooked, move the ones from the strainer to a plate. Continue cooking the rest of the rolls.
8. Serve the rolls with the homemade dipping sauce.

Reheat leftover egg rolls: Place leftover egg rolls on a metal baking sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake at 350 F (180 C) until the rolls are warmed up (you don't need to preheat the oven). It takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes:

1. Choose good frying oil with a high smoke point such as peanut oil, sunflower oil, or corn oil. If you use a thermometer to monitor the oil temperature, you can also use canola oil, walnut oil, or grapeseed oil.
2. Fattier ground turkey generates very good results. You can use ground chicken as an alternative.
3. Ground pork adds a very nice flavor. If you want to skip it, make sure you use ground turkey or chicken that contains a high percentage of fat.
4. Cooking the meat and vegetables at the same time works with a large skillet; with a small skillet or a doubled recipe, cook the meat and vegetables separately.
5. Keep the filling small, less than 2 tablespoons, unless using large egg roll wrappers.