Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Chinese Spring Rolls


Here is a spring roll recipe that I started making several years ago. Spring rolls also known as egg rolls are slender and crispy morsels packed with oriental flavours. Easy to fry up and assemble, I make slightly a huge batch and freeze the uncooked rolls to munch later. Here is a link with step by tutorial and an elaborate description. 

Chinese Spring Rolls
Make about  20

Ingredients:
20 spring roll sheets
50g, ½ a small onion finely chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic, grated
75 g, ¾ cup French beans finely chopped, or sliced at an angle
250g, 2 ¼ cup white cabbage shredded
60g, ½ a green capsicum, sliced thin and then chopped
130g, 1 large carrot, finely chopped
2 ½ - 3 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp- ¾ tsp black pepper powder
salt as required
A mixture of plain flour and water to seal the spring roll.

Preparation:
1.Heat a large wok/skillet on medium and add vegetable oil and sesame oil. Once hot, add in chopped onion and garlic. Sauté until they are transparent.

2. Add in all other chopped vegetables and by keeping the lid open keep sautéing until cooked through, yet crisp.

3. Add in soya sauce, pepper and salt to taste and sauté for couple of minutes.

4. Sprinkle a generous pinch of sugar and mix well. Take the pan off the heat.

5. Thaw you pastry sheets before you start working and cover them with damp cloth to prevent it from drying.

6. Now place one pastry sheet on the work surface, add a heaped tablespoon of the mixture on one end of the pastry, leaving 1 inch from the sides to fold later on.

7. Start covering the stuffing by rolling the pastry; fold the sides and roll till the tip and seal the edge by using a concoction of plain flour and water. Repeat with all the pastry sheets.

8. Heat the oil to medium in a frying pan or kadai and deep fry them until golden. Serve with sweet chilli sauce or ketchup.

Notes:
1. Uncooked spring rolls can be frozen for later use. For freezing, Place a sheet of parchment paper on a plate and lay a single layer of uncooked spring rolls on parchment paper. Freeze till hard and once they are frozen, then can be taken off and put in a freezer bag. This way they won’t stick to each other and can’t be thawed and fried later too.

2. You can also add some cooked chicken or prawns into the mix if you want to make it non-vegetarian. For cooking chicken, add some salt and pepper and pan fry it until done. Shred it and add to the filing as needed. Similarly, you can cook prawns with salt and pepper too.