Chicken and Vegetable Spring Rolls

In my house, everyone loves food from all corners of the world but Chinese food has to be an all time favorite. The food in most Chinese dishes is prepared in bite-sized pieces, ready for direct picking up and eating. Traditional Chinese cuisine is also based on opposites (yin and yang) whereby hot balances cold, pickled balances fresh and spicy balances mild. Cantonese cuisine, from the South of China, is what most people from Western cultures associate Chinese food to be but it’s much more than this. The regional cuisines of China are divided geographically to include: Northern or Beijing (Peking) Cuisine, Eastern or Shanghai Cuisine, Western or Szechuan Cuisine, and Southern or Cantonese Cuisine. These different regions are so distinctive that sometimes despite the fact that two areas are geographical neighbors their styles are completely alien.

Makes 8
recipe adapted from BBC Food
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1 tablespoon groundnut oil, plus extra for deep-frying
200g/7oz skinless chicken breast fillets, chopped into small pea-sized pieces
4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, drained and finely chopped
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 teaspoon grated fresh root ginger
75g/3oz beansprouts
1 small carrot, julienned
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
½ tablespoon light soy sauce
sea salt and ground white pepper
16 ready-made large spring roll wrappers, thawed if frozen
1 egg yolk, beaten

Heat a wok until smoking and add the groundnut oil, then add the chicken and mushrooms and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Season with soy sauce and five-spice powder, then remove from the wok and set aside to cool for ten minutes. Wipe the wok clean with kitchen paper.

Place the grated ginger, beansprouts, spring onions and carrot into a bowl, then add the chicken and mushrooms and season with the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sea salt and ground white pepper. Stir well to combine.

Lay two spring roll wrappers one on top of the other (the extra thickness will prevent the skin from breaking) and position so that the corners are pointing upwards, downwards and to the sides. Spoon two tablespoons of the filling into the center of the wrapper. Brush each corner of the wrapper with the cornflour paste, then bring the two opposite corners on the sides together and, keeping your finger on those edges, bring the bottom corner towards the middle and then roll the pastry up tightly towards the top corner. Tuck the top edge in and seal it with a little of the beaten egg yolk. Repeat with the remaining spring roll wrappers and filling.

Heat the wok over a high heat and fill the wok to a quarter of its depth with groundnut oil. Heat until a cube of bread dropped in sizzles and turns golden-brown in 15 seconds.  Carefully add the spring rolls in small batches into the oil and deep-fry for 2-3 minutes, or until golden-brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Transfer the spring rolls onto a plate and serve with a sweet red chili dipping sauce.

The Culinary Chase’s Note: I used minced turkey in lieu of chicken and the store I was in didn’t have bean sprouts so I bought a couple of water chestnuts (roughly chopped) and used them as I wanted the crunchy bits to come through.  You can also use Vietnamese rice paper rolls (like I did) instead of spring roll wrappers.  If you do use this, then this recipe will make more than 8 pieces.