These are an all-time favourite starter for me. I dream of these lovely juicy crispy rolls that we used to order from the famous Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurant in Riyadh. The chicken spring rolls with that sweet and light tomato sauce was something to die for!! So I've been having this craving for quite some while now, and I've been disappointed by all the spring rolls I've had from India so far.. maybe I have not been trying them at the right place, but they're usually very small, thin and dry without any of the goodness that the Chinese ones in Riyadh had. I've done a bit of googling to find the ultimate recipe. Instead I've found more than one good recipe and kind of tried to use all the ideas I liked in them. So these were my inspirations to my final product:
1. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-spring-rolls-recipe/index.html
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenandvegetables_89282
3. http://food.sify.com/nonvegrecipes/ingredient/Chicken_Spring_Rolls-131329
My Recipe:
Ingredients:
For the filling:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon grated ginger
2 carrots, julienned
5-10 French beans, julienned
1/2 or 1 cup very finely chopped cabbage
2 large spring onions, finely sliced lengthways
1 - big capsicum (very finely sliced)
2 ounces rice stick noodles, blanched and chopped
1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce (I used mushroom soy)
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
Wrappers:
1 package frozen spring roll wrappers, thawed
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil, for frying
Method:
Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok. Add minced garlic and grated ginger first. Before it turns brown add the cabbage, carrots, french beans, spring onions and capsicum. Toss till the cabbage starts to wilt (is just limp). Add the noodles and chicken; continue to cook until heated through. Sprinkle pepper. Stir in the hsoy and oyster sauces, toss to coat the mixture. The filling should be moist but not wet. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Toss in the chopped coriander.
Lay a spring roll wrapper on a flat surface on an angle so it looks like a diamond. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the filling near the bottom corner of the wrapper and fold up to enclose the filling. Fold in the 2 sides. Paint the top seam of the wrapper with beaten egg. Continue rolling up to form a tight cylinder.
Pour about 1-inch of oil in a skillet and heat to 350 degrees F. Fry the spring rolls for 2 minutes, turning to cook all sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Serve with spring roll sauce. I used the readymade one but you can make your own too. Below recipe is from: http://www.thaifood.food-recipe-cooking.com/spring-roll-01-th-nv.htm
I havent tried it out yet, but hope to try next time I make spring rolls.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 fresh red chilli
1 tablespoon tapioca powder
Procedure: First of all take the chilli and grind it well. It should disintegrate into very small pieces and not be ground to a smooth paste, now keep the ground chilli aside. Next, take an empty cup and put two tablespoons of water in it, add the tapioca powder to this water and mix it well.
Add 1/4 cup water to a pan and then add the sugar, ground chilli, salt and vinegar, mix all the ingredients well. Now put the pan on a low flame and allow the mixture to boil. As the mixture starts boiling add the tapioca water into the mixture and stir well. Allow the mixture to boil for around 30 seconds more, then turn off the flame. Your dipping sauce is now ready and should be allowed to cool to room temperature.
My notes: I think its very important to not have any of the filling exposed through holes in the wrappers especially at the edges. Because if oil gets into the filling and makes it very oily, its not going to be worth eating. So if its difficult to cover it all using one wrapper, add a second wrapper on it. I couldnt tell which had two wrappers and which had one as they were tightly wrapped.
I also think that if the egg coating doesnt help in sticking the wrapper's edges, a paste of cornflour and water could be used. I stuck to the beaten egg but next time I would try the cornflour paste (my mom used to seal it with cornflour paste as far as I remember).
The sauce that was served in GRCR (Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurant) was like a very dilute tomato ketchup like sauce. I have no idea how they made it but could not find any recipe on the net after 5 mins of research. If anyone who bothers to read this blog finds one, please let me know.
PS: I know I dont have all that many readers or followers for this blog. Just 3 followers, out of which one is myself :P, the other is my sis and the other one is my bf lol! But I know I get a few hits from other countries such as the US, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, even Germany, UK and Thailand!! Thank you all for visiting, please feel free to leave in any comments about what you think of this blog or even suggestions. Thank you again, you silent readers! I know even I dont really bother to always leave comments on the blogs from which I get inspired and use as credits here, but sometimes I do.
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