My 77th Recipe, “Veg Spring Roll”, a Chinese New Year special. Wishing everyone who are celebrating, a Happy and prosperous New Year.
When I came to know that today is Chinese New Year, as usual I wanted to post a dish which goes with the theme. When I did some research on internet, I came to know some interesting facts which I never knew earlier.
The first day of Chinese New Year usually falls between January 21 and February 20. And looks like it is a tradition to eat certain dishes during the New Year. Especially on the New Year’s eve, Lucky Food is served, which is believed to bring good luck for the coming year. Though there are many Lucky Foods, the one which I am very familiar with and have eaten many times is this Spring Roll.
Veg Spring Roll is one appetizer I love to eat whenever I visit an Asian restaurant for dinner. But until today, I never knew that such a simple dish would have a huge significance. Since the Spring Rolls looks like bar of gold, the lucky saying for eating spring roll on New Year’s Eve is 黄金万两 (hwung-jin wan-lyang/) – ‘A ton of gold’ – a wish for prosperity. Even interesting to know was that the New Year is also known as Spring Festival and since the spring rolls are usually eaten during the Spring Festival in China, hence their name.
Taking just the inspiration from the Chinese cuisine, I adapted the taste of the spring roll fillings to suite my taste buds. They turned out super crispy at the outside and juicy n delicious in the inside. Perfect with a cup of Hot chai or as an appetizer with Asian dipping sauce 🙂 Refer to my video here on “How to make the Spring Rolls”.
Veg Spring Roll
Chinese New Year is also known as Spring Festival and since the spring roll are usually eaten during the Spring Festival in China, hence their name.
- Spring roll sheets - 12
- Sesame oil - 2 tsp
- Garlic - 1 Tbsp (finely Chopped)
- Ginger - 1 Tbsp (finely Chopped)
- Spring onion - 4 (finely Chopped with White, Green parts separated)
- Carrot - 1 large (julienned)
- Green beans - 5 (cut diagonally)
- Red bell pepper - 1/2 (julienned)
- Cabbage - 2 Cups (julienned)
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Soya sauce - 2 tsp
- Ground black pepper - 2 tsp (adjust as per your taste preference)
- Salt - 3/4 tsp
- Oil - for frying
- All purpose flour - 1 Tbsp
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First follow the instruction given in the packet of the spring roll sheets for thawing the frozen sheets.According to my store bought frozen sheets, I made them to rest in room temperature for about 30 minutes and later covered with a clean damp cloth and left for another 15 mins.
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Chop the veggies and keep them aside. Heat a large pan or wok with sesame oil. Add the ginger, garlic and saute for 30 secs. Then add the white part of the spring onion and saute for 30 secs.
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Now add all the veggies (carrot, cabbage, bell pepper, green beans), sugar and saute for a minute. Follow it by soya sauce, fresh ground black pepper and salt and saute for 2 minutes or until the mixture becomes dry. Once done, add the green part of the spring onion, give a quick mix and turn off the flame.
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Transfer the filling to a baking sheet or large tray. Leave the sheet/tray stand in slanting position and let the filling cool down completely. This will helps in draining out excess liquid from the filling.
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For sealing the spring rolls, prepare a paste by mixing the all purpose flour with 1 1/2 Tbsp water and keep aside.
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Now place the sheet on a clean flat surface. Place a spoon full of filling about 2 cms away from the corner of the sheet. Now pick up that corner and roll into a tight wrap around the filling. Once you roll till the center of the sheet, fold both right and left corners towards the center. Continue to roll. Once the roll comes to the opposite corner, brush the corner with the flour paste and stick the corner nicely to the roll. Make sure that there are no gaps in the roll. Refer to my video here to "Learn How to make the Spring Rolls".
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Heat a pan with oil and once the oil is hot, drop the spring rolls one by one and fry until golden brown. As our stuffing is already cooked we need not cook the spring rolls in low/medium flame. You can fry them in high flame. Drain them on a paper napkin.
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Enjoy hot with hot and sweet asian dip or ketchup.
- Follow the instructions given in the packet of frozen spring roll for thawing. You can leave them outside to thaw before starting to prepare the filling.
- Adding sugar to the veggies will help to retain their color.
- You can add any veggies you like for the filling. Traditionally bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms are used along with other veggies.
- The whole process of cooking is done in high flame. Take care not to burn the veggies.
- The filling should be at room temperature and dry before rolling.
- You can check if the oil is hot enough for frying by inserting a wooden skewer or chopstick in the oil. If bubble raises from the oil, then its hot enough to fry.
- Be careful while frying the spring rolls. If the oil is too hot the rolls can get burnt out easily. If the oil is not hot enough the texture of the spring rolls will not be good.
- While rolling the spring roll it should be a tight pack with no opening. Else the spring roll will get unwrapped or absorb excess oil while frying.
Just for reference. The below is the spring roll wrappers I used. It is not same as rice wrappers. This one is made from all purpose flour. It is similar to the Egg roll wrappers in US, which can be used as an alternative.
