Spring Rolls

These are my absolute favorite Chinese finger foods and how I got introduced to Thai Sweet Chili sauce. I never ate an egg roll while living in the States, but I assume that these are quite similar. You can fill them with loads of different things but this is the recipe that my dear friend Min taught to me and they are a hit every time I make them. What's really nice is you can make up one big batch and then freeze the extras.

Ingredients:

40 spring roll wrappers
2 Tbsp plain flour mixed to a paste with water
sunflower oil, for deep-frying

Filling:
6 dried Chinese mushrooms
1-2 medium carrots, shredded
1 cup sweet corn
1 cup frozen peas
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 can water chestnuts, finely chopped
1 can bamboo shoots, sliced and cut in half
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tsp rice wine
2-3 shakes of sesame oil
2 tsp light soy sauce
dash of white pepper
2 Tbsp oyster sauce

You can find spring roll pastry in almost any Asian supermarket. I like these ones because when deep fried they end up light and crispy. You can also use wonton wrappers to make much smaller spring rolls.

This is what the dried Chinese mushrooms look like.

With all of the ingredients involved in this recipe it is best to get everything chopped and shredded as directed and ready to go before you even heat up the oil in the wok.

Method:

Soak mushrooms for 30 minutes in warm water. Squeeze out water and cut off and discard woody stem. Mince the caps of the mushrooms

Heat 1-2 Tbsp of oil in a wok. Stir-fry onion, carrot, and mushroom for a few minutes.

Add in water chestnuts, peas, and corn and stir for a couple minutes.

Then increase heat and add rice wine, bamboo shoots, sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper, and oyster sauce.

Add green onion and toss for 1 minute.

Spread on platter to cool quickly.

Separate spring roll wrappers. Place a wrapper on the work surface with one corner nearest you. Spoon some of the filling near the center of the wrapper - I usually use about 1 1/2 tablespoons of mix in each wrapper for big ones and a generous teaspoon in the small wonton wrappers.

Fold the nearest corner over the filling.

Turn the sides to the middle and roll up.

Smear a little of the flour paste on the corner and fold on to itself.

Repeat this procedure with the remaining wrappers and filling.

Deep fry the spring rolls in batches until they are crisp and golden. Drain and serve at once with dipping sauce.