My Family's Spring Roll Recipe
Hsiao-Ching Chou
Author's Note: For the month of November, I am participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) and pledge to post once a day.
Growing up, we made two kinds of spring rolls. There was the Americanized version, filled with shredded green cabbage, carrots, onions and a little ground pork, that we served in my family's Chinese restaurant. Those were inexpensive ingredients that we could prepare in quantity. Most people would dip the spring rolls in thick, red sweet-and-sour sauce – "red sauce" for short. Mostly, the spring rolls were a vehicle for the sauce.
But the spring rolls we made for ourselves had Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts and cellophane noodles. Had we used these ingredients for the restaurant spring rolls, we would not have been able to sell them for 90 cents each – our customers in small-town Columbia, Missouri, wanted cheap Chinese food. On occasion, my mother would make our family's version of spring rolls and it was always a treat.
SPRING ROLLS
MAKES ABOUT 1 DOZEN
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 carrot, julienned (about ¾ cup)
2 ½ cups thinly sliced Chinese cabbage
6 medium fresh (or dried and reconstituted) shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 stalks green onions, cut into 2-inch segments
1 bundle soy bean thread (cellophane noodles), soaked in warm water to reconstitute
3 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons water
Sesame oil
½ cup cilantro leaves, optional
1 package spring roll wrappers
1 egg, beaten
Drain the bean thread. Give the bean thread bundle 3-4 cuts so that the noodles aren’t whole, but also aren’t in too small pieces.
In a wok or large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, Chinese cabbage, mushrooms and green onions. Stir-fry the vegetables for about 1 minute. Add the bean thread, soy sauce and water. Stir everything together and let cook for 2-3 minutes. Taste for seasoning. If needed, add a pinch of salt. Drizzle with sesame oil and add the cilantro, if using. Give everything a good toss to combine. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Position a sheet of spring roll wrapper with a corner toward you so that it’s like a diamond. Place about ¼ cup filling about 2 inches above the bottom corner of the wrapper. Fold the bottom corner up over the filling and roll about half way up. Fold the right side “flap” over the filling. Then the left side. Brush the top flap with egg and then finish rolling to seal.
In a pan deep enough to accommodate it, add about 1 ½ inches of oil. Heat to 375 degrees. Fry rolls in two batches. Turn the rolls halfway through. It should take about 2 minutes per side. If the skin browns too quickly, then the oil is too hot. Simply remove the rolls when the skin is evenly brown. Since the filling is cooked, all that's necessary is to cook the skins.
