Spring Rolls

‘Tis the season for gathering and sharing. What’s the ultimate sharing food? Spring rolls. If you’ve ever made some to share, you know what I mean. You’re friends and co-workers will keep asking you to make it. Who can resist that crunchy on the outside and umami inside roll?

For my family, making spring rolls was like a rite of passage. When we were younger, we would get assigned the duty of the spring roll wrapper separator. That’s the person who sits there and separates those wrappers because they are stuck together when you open the package. This makes it easier for the rollers to keep doing their thing without having to slow down and separate wrappers. From a separator, we grew into rollers. Although, some of us would make big fat, not so pretty rolls to get out of this duty.  Finally, we graduate into the show runner. This means mixing the filling and setting everything up. This is also great bonding time and the tasks go by so much quicker with a friend.

Notes:

• Not all spring roll wrappers are created equal. Some fry lighter than others. You have to know the brand. You may want to fry one or two at first. Cut it open to see if it’s cooked at the time and temperature of your oil. Adjust accordingly.  I like the Wei Chuan brand that you can get from the Asian store. It fries darker and doesn’t crack as easily as the other brand.
• You can add or subtract anything that you want into these spring rolls.  In my opinion, what makes the spring rolls are the onions and black pepper. Don’t remove those! When you bite into that crunchy, salty wrapper and get a hit of sweet onion and a bit of heat from black pepper. Mmh…mmh. For crunch on the inside, you can add diced water chestnut.
• Meat – You can use any meat you like. This recipe is great for chicken or pork and shrimp. I think beef spring rolls are a bit beefy and doesn’t allow the other ingredients to shine as much as the other meats.
• Noodles – If you get a bigger package, don’t use the whole package. I only use about a quarter of the 10.5 oz package that I bought. It has four sections labeled out as 1.32 oz each. I know, the math doesn’t add up. Just use a quarter of the package. They expand, you don’t need much.
• If freezing the spring rolls, don’t thaw them before frying. The moisture from thawing can cause the wrapper to break down and they could fall apart. Fry them straight from the freezer. If they are stuck together, just pull them apart. Otherwise, they’ll be stuck together when cooked and could take longer to cook!
• If you have extra filling, you can use them to fill steam buns. If you end up with extra wrappers, wrap up some sliced bananas and fry them. Drizzle with honey and voila! You got a dessert too!

Fried Spring Rolls

Yields: 70-75
Cook Tme: 10 minutes
Prep Time: 1 hour

1 lb ground pork or chicken
1 small head of cabbage (1.5 lbs) – 4-5 cups shredded
2 large carrots – grated
1 medium onion – diced
5-6 shiitake mushroom (or wood ear mushroom) – diced
1.32 oz bean thread noodles (cellophane noodles)
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon MSG (optional)
1 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 large eggs (1 whole egg + 1 yolk, save egg white for wrapper)
3 (25 pack) spring roll wrappers – thawed – Wei Chuan is my preferred brand

Canola oil to fry

Soak the bean thread noodles in warm water for 10-15 mins. Cut the noodles into smaller pieces using kitchen shears. Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl mix ground pork, cabbage, onion, mushroom, oyster sauce, fish sauce, MSG (optional), black pepper, 1 whole egg and the yolk of second egg. Save the second egg whites to seal the wrappers.
Mix well to allow the cabbage to wilt slightly. Add the bean thread noodles and mix until well combined.

Make sure your spring roll wrappers are thawed. You can separate them before you start or as you go.

Place a wrapper flat on a plate with one corner pointed towards you. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling onto the corner. Roll the corner up over the filling and away from you, a couple of rolls. Then fold in the side corners. Continue to roll until you get to the last corner (farthest from you). Dip the corner into egg whites and roll to seal. Repeat until you run out of filling.

To fry:
Heat oil to 325F-350F. Place several spring rolls into oil, being careful to not splash. Allow to fry for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown. Flip at least once during cooking. If using a deep fryer, you can place the basket on top of them and keep them submerged so you don’t have to flip. But it is still a good idea to flip in case your pan cooks unevenly.  Remove from fryer and place on plate lined with paper towels.

Since the recipe yields a lot. If you would like to freeze, place uncooked spring rolls into freezer bags and freeze for a month or so. Fry from the frozen state. Do not thaw. You may have to break them apart before frying if they get stuck together.