Mini Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls

I first encountered steak and cheese egg rolls at the Del Frisco's grand opening party back in April. As soon as I took a bite, I wondered how I had never encountered these before and how I could make them at home. Fast-forward to this past August when I started working at America's Test Kitchen. One of the recipes being developed and one of the first things I tasted in the test kitchen was Philly cheesesteaks. That recipe just came out in the March/April issue of Cook's Illustrated, and I knew I'd be able to adapt the thinly shaved steak and creamy cheese filling to make some Philly cheesesteak egg rolls. And of course, I had to take it one step farther, and I opted to make bite-size egg rolls that would be perfect for a party.

You should give yourself about three hours to make these. The very first thing you want to do is cut some skirt steak in large pieces and get them in the freezer. The meat needs to stay in the freezer for an hour so it will be firm enough to thinly shave. While it's in the freezer, you can finely dice your pepper and onion, sauté them, and set them aside.

When it comes time to shave the steak, you will feel as though your arm is going to fall off, but just remember it's worth it. Use a very sharp knife--I even sharpened mine halfway through shaving the meat because I felt that it wasn't cutting as well.

Preheat your oven while you shave the steak, and then cook the steak, mix the peppers and onions in with it, melt the cheese into it, and transfer it to a bowl. Then you'll need to form the egg rolls. This requires a little patience because the rolls are so small. I laid out 6 wonton wrappers at a time on a cutting board and scooped about 2 teaspoons of filling into each. Then I folded the sides in, wet them with a little water, pulled the top over and affixed it to the sides, pulled the bottom up, wet it, and sealed it. Think of it like wrapping a present but you pull the sides in first.

Instead of frying the egg rolls, I decided to bake them. Yes, they're a little healthier that way, but my main motivation was making sure they'd all be ready at the same time (as opposed to frying in batches) and that there wouldn't be a huge pot of oil to discard while trying to host a party. I thought the egg rolls still got nicely browned this way, and surprisingly, the filling stayed very moist and creamy and didn't dry out at all.

These would be the perfect addition to any Super Bowl party menu.

Mini Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls (inspired by Del Frisco's; filling adapted from Cook's Illustrated)
Makes 30

Ingredients

1 pound skirt steak, trimmed and sliced with grain into 3-inch wide pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing
1 small onion, finely diced
1/2 large green pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
4 slices Monterey Jack cheese
Salt and pepper
30 wonton wrappers

Preparation

Place steak pieces on plate in single layer and freeze for about 1 hour.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and pepper, and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Wipe out skillet and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove meat from freezer and thinly shave steak pieces against the grain.

Place skillet over high heat, and heat vegetable oil until smoking. Add meat in a single layer, and cook without stirring for 4 minutes.

Stir meat together and then drain in colander.

Reduce heat to low, return meat to skillet, and stir in Parmesan and onion and pepper mixture.

Lay cheese slices over meat, and let melt for 2 minutes.

Stir cheese into meat until completely melted and thoroughly combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer mixture to bowl.

Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Set out a small bowl of water and a small bowl of olive oil. Place about 2 teaspoons of cheesesteak mixture in each wonton wrapper (I set out 6 at a time). Taking one wrapper at a time, fold sides up, dip finger in water and gently wet sides, pull top of wrapper over mixture toward you, wet edge of top of wrapper, pull bottom of wrapper up and press to seal.

Place egg rolls on prepared baking sheet and brush each one sparingly with olive oil.

Bake for 10 minutes, then flip egg rolls over using tongs.

Bake for an additional 5 to 6 minutes, until egg rolls are nicely browned on both sides. Transfer egg rolls to paper towel-lined plate to absorb any oil, and then arrange on serving platter.

Serve hot.

What kinds of mini egg rolls would you make?