1. It's big--about 2 inches in diameter and six inches long.
2. The skin is not smooth like the Cantonese ones. Instead, it's rather bumpy. Inside, there is a second skin.
3. It has plenty of meat in the filling. It's more like a meal than an appetizers.
Based on that, it seems like we had served New York-style egg rolls. I've written the recipe below as best as I can reconstruct it from memory. The contents of the filling should be adjusted to your preferences. As I mentioned elsewhere, these amounts are approximate, because we churned out hundreds of egg rolls at a time. Let me know how they turn out.
Deboned chicken meat (preferably dark)
Cantonese BBQ Pork (cha siu), preferably lean
Celery
Bamboo shoots
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg roll skin
Whole eggs
White flour
Instructions
1. Julienne the bamboo shoots and celery. The celery doesn't need to be too thin, but each piece should not be longer than 2 inches or so.
2. Cut the chicken meat and cha siu into narrow strips less than 2 inches long.
3. In a large wok, saute the chicken meat over medium-high heat. I use either corn oil or peanut oil, as olive oil tends to aquire a nasty flavor at medium to high temperatures. The meat should not be charred or burnt at all. Once done, add celery and bamboo shoots. Continue cooking. You might need to add a little water initially. But don't add to much. Cook until somewhat tender, but not too tender. Add cha siu.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. I believe this was about 50% celery, 25% chicken, 12.99925% cha siu, and 12.00075% bamboo in volume when the filling finished cooking. If you are somewhat mathematically-challenged, use 13% cha siu and 12% bamboo. Adjust the different amounts until you find a mixture you like.
6. Set aside in a colander and allow to drain for two to three hours or so.
7. Crack open a few eggs and mix in a container about eight inches wide (i.e. wider than the egg rolls) and about two or three inches deep. Find another pan with similar dimensions, and put in about an inch of white flour. Bring the filling to this work area.
8. On a clean surface, place an egg roll wrapper and so that one corner points toward you (I'll refer to this as the home corner), another corner points directly away from you (the away corner), and the other corners point toward your left and right (left and right corners).
9. Dip your finger either in the egg mixture or small bowl of water. Use your finger to spread this out on the two edges formed by the left, away, and right corners. The edge should have about a half-inch of moisture. This is the be moist, not soaking wet.
10. Spoon or place some mixture on the lower half of the wrapper from left to right. This will be a few inches above the home corner. Draw an imaginary line from the left to right corner, the filling will be a little bit below this line.
11. Take the home corner and wrap it tightly over the filling. Roll it up toward the away corner. When you reach the imaginary line, bring the left corner to the center. Do this with the right center, too. Remember, this should be rather tight. This is like wrapping a burrito.
12. Continue rolling until the away corner has been rolled up. If you've done this correctly, it looks like an egg roll. If not, you have a Chinese taco; try it again.
13. Roll the egg roll in the egg mixture until it is thoroughly covered in egg mixture.
14. Roll the egg roll in the flower until it is completely covered with flour.
15. Set aside in a bamboo steamer. We used huge metal steamers, so I'm not sure if it will stick to the bamboo.
16. Repeat until done with all the filling.
17. Steam in a wok for about 15-20 minutes (I'm a bit fuzzy about the time).
18. Remove from steamer and let cool.
19. Place egg rolls in a container. If you want to stack them in layers, separate the layers with wax paper or foil. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
20. The next day, deep fry in hot oil. After a few minutes, the skin should brown nicely and be rather bumpy. Remove from the oil, allow to cool, and eat.
Different places will add different ingredients to the filling, such as shitake mushrooms, Napa Valley cabbage, etc. Use whatever you like. You might want to try with a small amount of filling to see how it turns out before making a whole bunch of them.