help with chinaese food

[snip]

For the eggrolls, do you mean how to shape them? Or recipes for the filling?

Assuming the former, it's really quite simple.

1. Lay the egg roll skin down in front of you so it looks like a diamond. Put a spoonfull or two of the filling in the middle, using an imaginary line from the left-point to the right-point as your marker.

2. Lift the point nearest you and fold it up and over the filling. The fold the right-hand point to the middle, then the left-hand point. Roll the whole thing towards the upper point. Before completely the role, wet your finger and brush it along the exposed edges of the top point. This will seal the wrapper.

3. Deep fry until brown and crispy. Drain well.

Hello ironskillet. 

A little more specificity about that "orange fried chicken" would help. Are you looking for "Kung-Fu Panda" style, or something like wings w/ orange glaze, or a really cool chicken salad w/ an orange sauce/vinaigrette? I'll give you recipes for whatever you want, just narrow it down a bit. LOL. 

While you can make your own egg roll and won ton wrappers, most people buy them commercially made. You can find them in many supermarkets, nowadays. Even Wallmart carries them. You will, of course, find a broader selection in an Asian market if one is available. Commercial egg roll skins are almost always square, whereas won ton wrappers come both square and round.

Egg rolls are made from a wheat flour dough, whereas spring rolls usually are made from rice paper. If you do want to make your own, and can't find a more precise recipe, mix a batter from flour, eggs, and water, and cook it like a crepe.

As to the fillings, they vary from place to place and restaurant to restaurant. Yes, cabbage is often one of the ingredients, as are bean sprouts, carrots, bamboo shoots, and other veggies, plus proteins such as shrimp or pork.

Here's one filling recipe to get you started:

1 tbls peanut oil

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup shredded green cabbage

1/4 cup bean sprouts

2 tbls minced garlic

1/2 cup cooked salad shrimp (100 count), or larger ones cut in small pieces.

1 tbls soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp black pepper

Heat the peanut oil in a wok or large skillet. When hot, add the carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts and garlic and stir fry a minute or so. Set aside and let cool completely.

Combine the vegetables with the remaining ingredients and mix well. Use to fill egg roll skins as outlined above.

If using canned bean sprouts, drain them well and squeeze between paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible.

For Chinese style crispy fried chicken without bread crumbs, you use egg whites, flour and cornstarch:

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tsp salt

4 egg whites

1/3 c. ice water

1/4 tsp white pepper

Mix as a batter and coat chicken pieces well.  Fry in peanut oil (Asian peanut oil like Lion & Globe that actually has some flavor) till golden and crispy.  Drain on absorbent paper.

You can add soy sauce (reduce the water) and/or 5 spice powder (just a bit) to the batter for seasoning if you like.

If you really, really want to make your own egg roll wrappers -

3 extra large eggs

3 tsp water

3 cups unsifted all purpose flour

Beat eggs with water.  Add flour and mix until the ingredients stick together.  Knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth.

This is really a basic egg noodle dough recipe and is a very dry recipe.  I use a KA mixer and dough hook to knead and then finish by hand.

Roll out using a pasta machine to desired thinness.  You want 5 - 5 1/2" squares for egg rolls.

While I do make fresh Chinese noodles from time to time, I generally buy my wrappers -- way less fuss and work.

OK. Here's my "Orange Chx - Kung-Fu Panda Style" .......... 

(once you've done it, you realize that it's not as complicated as it looks ... it only takes <1/2 hour after you've done it a couple times)

ingredients:

as much boneless/skinless chx as you want (I like 50/50 breasts-thighs, go figure) cut into just bigger than bite-sized pieces. 

buttermilk

a/p flour

cornstarch

as much of your favorite rice as you like

oil (I like peanut)

chx stock

Chinese trinity (GGO - ginger, garlic, onions (usually scallions)

cashews (or any kinda nut you like),

snow peas / sugar snap peas / pea pods or whatever you call the Asian flat green peas

straw mushrooms (if you don't like these OK, I like them)

orange marmalade

frozen orange juice mix

chx. stock

chili oil

more GGO

directions:

* It's best to do these first 2 things the day before, but nobody will know if you don't. I'm just sayin' I like to. 

~ Cut up the chx., put it in zip-lock bags and add buttermilk to coat (it doesn't have to be swimming, just covered). Put bags into refrigerator. 

~ Make rice. Start by chopping up trinity small, sweat in sauce-pot for 2-3 minutes, then add rice. Use chx. stock as your liquid. when finished, put into refrigerator. 

~ Heat oil in nice heavy skillet. Mix a/p flour 3/2 w/ cornstarch. Drain chx from bags and put in big bowl. Sprinkle chx w/ flour/starch and mix until all is covered. If you need more, don't worry, just add it in. Shake chx. of excess and add to oil. It needs to be good and hot (350* is nice). Fry up until nicely browned (8-10 minutes). Let cooked chx. drain on paper towels. 

~ While cooking, cut up more trinity, this time cut onions bigger. 

~ Pour out skillet saving maybe 2 tblspns oil. Get skillet hot again. 

~ Add trinity, peas, mushrooms, nuts, marmalade, juice, and oil, stirring until everything is hot (1-3 minutes). Thin out w/ chx. stock to your own preference of thickness. Make sure everything is really hot before adding chx.

* You can actually add anything you want, not what I said if you don't like those things. 

~ Add chx. to the mix and stir until hot (3-5 minutes). 

~ Serve over or w/  rice on the side. 

~ Enjoy.

For dishes that are similar to orange chicken where the chicken pieces are fried first then coat in sauce, I don't use batter for the coating. I dip the meat in egg white (yes, egg white only) and then in corn starch. That creates a light and crispy coating.