Traditionally made to celebrate Chinese New Year – these rolls are a treat at any time.
Spring Rolls
Servings
10
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
10 mins
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp Blue Dragon Pure Sesame Oil
- 3 & 1/2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (or any rice wine)
- 1 & 1/2 tsp cornflour
- 350g pork loin, cut into very thin strips
- 100g chicken breast, cut into very thin strips
- 6 dried shiitake mushrooms (or other dried Chinese mushrooms)
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp minced ginger (or a 2cm piece of fresh ginger finely chopped)
- 3 tsp minced garlic (or 2 cloves of garlic crushed)
- 130g Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
- 150g carrot – grated
- 30g Chinese chives or spring onions, cut into 2cm lengths
- 180g bean sprouts
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 20 Blue Dragon Spring Roll Wrappers
- 1 vegetable oil, for deep frying
Instructions
- Take 2tbsp of soy sauce, half the sesame oil, 1.5 tbsp of rice wine and 1 tsp of cornflour and add the pork and chicken and toss to coat. Marinate in the fridge for 30 mins.
- Mix the remaining soy sauce, sesame oil and cornflour with the black pepper.
- Soak the mushrooms for 30 mins, remove the stems, squeeze out the water and shred thinly.
- Over a high heat, heat the wok and add half the oil. When it is very hot, add the pork and chicken mixture and stir-fry until cooked. Remove, drain on paper towel and wipe out the wok.
- Add the remaining oil and heat until very hot. Stir-fry the mushrooms, ginger and garlic for approx 15 seconds until aromatic. Add the cabbage and carrot and lightly toss. Pour in the remaining rice wine and fry for 1 min. Add the garlic, chives and bean sprouts and fry for an extra min. until the bean sprouts are limp. Add the pork and the cornflour mixture and cook until thickened. Transfer to a sieve or colander and drain for 5 mins, stirring every so often to release the liquid.
- Separately, mix the egg yolk, flour and 3 tbsp water to make a glaze. Place 2 tbsp of filling on the corner of a wrapper, leaving the corner itself free. Spread some of the glaze on the opposite corner. Fold over the corner and start rolling, but not too tightly. Fold in the other corners, roll up and press to secure. Repeat for the remaining wrappers.
- To deep-fry, fill the wok one quarter full with oil and heat to 190’C. Check the temperature by frying a piece of bread in the oil for ten seconds- it should be golden brown after this time. Cook the spring rolls in two batches, turning constantly until golden (approx. 5 mins). Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve with plum sauce.
Recipe calls for
Notes
By far the safest way to deep-fry, is with a deep fat fryer. However a saucepan or wok can work just as well. The secret is in the type of oil used, and getting it to the optimum temperature.
Oils with a high burning point are ideal for deep frying – vegetable oils such as sunflour oil are perfect, whilst you should steer clear of butter and olive oils as these burn at low teperatures.
It is most important when deep frying to check that the oil is at the optimum temperature for even browning, as close to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C) as possible.
The oil should be of a depth to totally immerse the items of food you are wanting to fry. To test the heat of the oil you can use a cooking thermometer or fry a cube of bread. If you pop in a small cube of bread, it should have turned an even, golden brown colour after one minute of frying. It should also bubble when immersed in the oil. This will signify that it is at the right temperature. If it cooks too quickly lower the heat and if it browns too slowly, increase the heat.
It goes without saying, be extremely careful when handling oil at this temperature and treat this cooking method with caution!
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