I received the recipe once on a flight where I had a Chinese gentleman who was seated next to me. We came to talk about food – wonderful subject that everyone is interested in. I asked how his mother used to make spring rolls and got a pretty good description, I wrote down some notes which I found the other day and just had to try it with some modifications of course 😊
I am going to hold a “Baby Shower” for my dear daughter in law Anna in June and need to get organized. One of the dishes is going to be spring rolls. I love spring rolls and always order it in different places.
You can make it vegetarian or with ground chicken that I chose to make mine. It looks more difficult than it is – the nice thing is that you can make many and freeze – then you can take it straight from the freezer and deep fry it!
Made about 50 spring rolls last weekend so my daughter-in-law who was visiting could taste and approve it. It was approved indeed!
There are different types of “wrap” to choose from. My ICA shop has “rice wrap” so it just had to do. Was a little skeptical at first but the result was beyond expectation. When using rice wraps, you do not need to “paste” the whole thing together with anything. The wrap itself has natural “glue”. Another kind of wrap is available in the freezer in some stores – then you need to defrost them before using them. Most probably you will need to blend some kind of “glue” to keep everything together. Whatever you choose, just follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Put time and effort to shred and julienne everything fine and evenly. It pays off.
Servings: 50 rolls
Ingredients
1,5 tablespoon soy sauce
1,5 teaspoon white wine (or rice wine)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1,5 teaspoon cornstarch
700-gram ground chicken
1 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic finely minced or finely grated
1,5 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
7 – 8 spring onion julienned
1/2 head of a small cabbage about 8 ounces, finely shredded
3 carrots thinly julienned
3 tablespoons oyster sauce mixed with 1 tbsp white- or rice wine
40 – 50 Vietnamese rice wrappers
4 dl vegetable oil
1 – Wash, peel, and julienne the carrots and spring onions, set aside.
2 – Shred the cabbage. Set aside.
3 – Mix soy sauce, wine, salt, pepper and cornstarch in a bowl, add ground chicken and make sure to mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
4 – Heat some oil (2 – 3 tablespoons) in a wok pan or ordinary frying pan, start by frying garlic and ginger for 20 – 30 seconds, pay attention, not the burn it!
5 – Add spring onions and fry for less than one minute before you add the carrots – fry for additional 2 minutes approx.
6 – Now you can gradually add cabbage and fry until the carrots are soft, do not burn the vegetables. If you do not have a big pan you can fry each vegetable separately and mix it all together later.
7 – Sauté the ground chicken separately until browned.
8 – Mix vegetables and chicken together in a big bowl, add 3 tbsps. of oyster sauce and 1 tbsp. of wine, toss.
9 – Put the vegetable and chicken mixture in a big oven pan. Put something underneath one side of the pan in order for all the liquid to gather at one end of the pan (30 minutes). Discard the liquid.
10 – Prepare a tray with a wet kitchen towel.
11 – Take out the rice wraps and follow the instructions of the manufacturer, I had to put mine in boiling water for 3- 4 seconds.
12 – Wrap the rolls by first putting one big tablespoon of mixture on one end – roll it twice, then fold over the left side, and do the same thing with the right side, then continue rolling until done.
13 – Put the wraps on a tray, important that you have plastic foil between the layers – otherwise, they stick together!
14 –
Let the oil be 160 – 170 degrees (Celsius) before laying the spring rolls! It takes about 8 minutes before they are done.
It’s great to serve it both cold and hot. With or without sauce. Use plain soy sauce or the sauce you like.
Please notice: do not defrost the spring rolls before frying, they can become ugly and soggy.
Enjoy!
