Baked Egg Rolls —rsquo; The Recipe Miya Made Her Own

January 2024. New Year. The tenth year of the practice — ten years since I wrote the first blog post, ten years since Miya was born, ten years since I started making Fumiko's miso soup in a kitchen that belonged to a marriage that no longer exists. Ten years is a decade. A decade is a word that means: enough time has passed that the beginning is history and the middle is the present and the end is not yet visible. The decade is a container. The container is full.

I made ozoni on New Year's morning. The tenth ozoni. The soup that I have been making for ten years without interruption, without variation, without apology. The kombu soaked overnight. The dashi heated. The miso dissolved. The mochi grilled. The chipped bowl held. The taste was the taste. Ten years of the same taste, the same bowl, the same morning, the same woman — except the woman is not the same. The woman has been through a marriage, a birth, a death, a divorce, a pandemic, a publication, and a father's diagnosis. The woman is different. The soup is the same. The combination is the practice: the changing woman, the unchanging soup, and the space between them where the life happens.

I did not make a resolution. I have not made a resolution in three years. The resolution is the soup. The resolution is: continue. The continuing is the resolution. The continuing is enough.

Miya made her own ozoni this year — her first. Side by side, my pot and her pot, my dashi and her dashi, my miso and her miso. Two pots on the same stove. Two generations of the same practice. The two soups tasted different — hers lighter, less miso, the dashi not as deep — and the difference was the generation, and the generation was the point. Her soup is not my soup. Her soup is hers. The hers-ness is the graduation. The chain does not replicate. The chain varies. The variation is the life.

The morning after Miya made her first pot of ozoni, she asked if she could make something for dinner — something she could call entirely hers. She chose these baked egg rolls, a recipe she’d been eyeing for months, and she stood at that same stove where two pots had sat side by side just hours earlier. I watched her roll and tuck and arrange them on the pan the same way I’d watched Fumiko dissolve miso into dashi — with that particular focus that means a person is learning something by feel, not instruction. The soup taught me that variation is not failure; it’s continuation. The egg rolls were her proof.

Baked Egg Rolls

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 12 egg rolls

Ingredients

• 12 egg roll wrappers
• 2 cups shredded green cabbage
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 lb ground pork or chicken (optional)
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (for filling), plus cooking spray for baking
• Dipping sauce of choice, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly coat with cooking spray.
2. Cook the filling. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. If using ground meat, cook until no longer pink, breaking it up as it cooks, about 4–5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant.
3. Add vegetables. Stir in cabbage, carrots, and bean sprouts. Cook 3–4 minutes until the vegetables are just softened but still have some texture. Add green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and white pepper. Stir to combine, then transfer filling to a bowl and let cool 10 minutes. The filling should be as dry as possible — drain any excess liquid.
4. Roll the egg rolls. Lay one egg roll wrapper flat on a clean surface in a diamond orientation. Place about 3 tablespoons of filling in the center. Fold the bottom corner up over the filling, fold in the two side corners snugly, then roll upward toward the top corner. Seal the edge with a dab of water. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
5. Bake until golden. Arrange egg rolls seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly coat the tops with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake another 8–10 minutes until all sides are deep golden and crisp.
6. Serve. Let cool for 2–3 minutes before serving. Serve alongside sweet chili sauce, soy-ginger dipping sauce, or plum sauce.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 148 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 4g | Carbs: 20g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 310mg