(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!)
On weekends when I have all the sweet time in the world, I like puttering around the kitchen–flipping through my cookbooks, digging out ingredients–you know productive activities. Never mind the plants need pruning, the house needs cleaning. Then I’ll finally get around to cooking up something pleasant and satisfying–such as these beautiful and scrumptious fried spring rolls.
Every country in Southeast Asia has its own interpretation of spring rolls. In Malaysia, there are no less than three variations of spring rolls or “popiah.” The Straits Chinese like their popiah or spring rolls wet with savory fillings of julienned jicama, diced bean curds, shrimp, and crab meat wrapped in fresh popiah skin coated with sweet sauce (tee cheow) and chili paste. The Mamak (Indian-Muslim) prefer sweet date sauce in their spring rolls and less ingredients are used. They also like their Popiah (spring rolls) deep fried to perfection and served with spicy hot sauce…
In the Philippines, spring rolls are called lumpia and come in smaller packages; while in Vietnam, Cha Gio (Vietnamese spring rolls) are filled with ground pork and cellophane noodles instead of vegetables. And then there is the popular egg roll–a common appetizer in American Chinese restaurants–made with a thick spring roll (egg roll) wrapper and packed with shredded cabbages and served with sweet and sour sauce.
Regardless of its size, recipe, and method of preparation, spring rolls are tremendously popular. Try making spring rolls on one of your weekends or whenever you want to indulge in the joy of cooking. Suffice it to say, spring rolls are absolutely worth devouring. And let your maid or significant other handle the unpleasant chores.
Here is my recipe of fried spring rolls, a Malaysian recipe of spring rolls. Do try out my spring rolls recipe and if you have any questions about making spring rolls or this spring rolls recipe, leave me a comment.
Ingredients:
6 shrimps (shelled, deveined, and chopped into small pieces)
1 piece bean curd (diced into small pieces)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 shallots (chopped)
1 jicama, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
6 long beans (chopped)
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
White pepper powder to taste
1 pack of frozen Popiah wrappers / 25-30 fresh Popiah skin
Oil for deep frying
Sealing Paste:
2 tablespoon corn starch
5 tablespoon of water
Method:
Pan-fry the diced bean curd with a little oil until they turn light brown. Set aside.
Heat oil in a wok and fry the garlic and shallots until aromatic. Add shrimps, julienned jicama, shredded carrot and long beans. Season with salt, pepper, sugar and cook for 5 minutes.
To assemble the spring rolls, lay a spring roll wrapper (Popiah skin) on a clean cutting board. Put some filling in the middle and add some diced bean curd on top of the filling. Fold in the two sides and roll up the wrapper tightly to form the spring rolls. Seal the spring roll with the sealing paste and deep dry them over medium heat until golden brown. Drain the spring rolls on paper towels and serve them with chili sauce.
Cook’s Note:
For chili sauce, Rasa Malaysia recommends Maggie brand garlic chili sauce (if you are in Malaysia) or Sriracha hot chili sauce (if you are in the US) for the spring rolls.
Related Posts:
- Lumpia (Filipino Spring Rolls) Recipe
- Goi Cuon (Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls) with Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce Recipe
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice touch of a single green long bean dice in the pictures.
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I am having spring rolls now….Yummy..
Thanks for the recipe.
TehSee
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Hey RM,
Your photos and food always look so beautiful.
I thought I’d share a Chinese eggroll frying technique that I like to use which involves two woks, one heated to ~325 degrees Fahrenheit, the other to 450-475 degrees Fahrenheit. I fry the eggrolls in the lower temperature wok until they’re almost done, then transfer them directly to the hotter oil, blasting them with heat to crisp the skins and seal in the flavor. The result is eggrolls that aren’t greasy and resist getting soggy for hours.
My gramma taught it to me.
- Chubbypanda
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Wow, now I really feel like having a springroll for brekkie or firing up the wok to make some.
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Tummythoz - yep, that’s the wonder of food photography. ;)
TehSee - Welcome to Rasa Malaysia and thanks for leaving me a comment.
Chubbypanda - thanks so much for your kind words, awww, you are so nice! I am trying my best to shoot good food pictures using my Canon SD450. I am planning to get myself a digital SLR so I can work more on food photography. :)
I will definitely try out your frying tips in the future. Yep, my spring rolls turned soggy after while. Another way that my aunt taught me is to dip the spring rolls into a rice flour batter– and that would seal in the crispiness too.
Boo - yes do cook and I can’t wait to see your cooking posts.
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although i know poh piah taste nice but i don’t like them and rarely eats them… esp. the wet type. fried type once in a while, yes. ah but if the poh piah is fill with prawns, i will eat it!!
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That lumpia look scrumptious! =)
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Impeccable shots Bee. And thanks for sharing the recipe. By the way, the part about letting the maid do the unpleasant chores is funny to me. We had a maid in Indonesia, just like everyone else. I sometimes wonder if the maids had maids of their own. Anyway, great post, as always.
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Is this an asian creation? You can also find the variations in central and south America. It’s also a staple in Northern American’s tapa restaurants. RM, this will go US$10 (at least) in NY.
Great pics as always! And should I say what great maid or significant other you have.
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Lucia - well, I don’t blame you that you don’t like Popiah - there are too many delicious foods to savor in Penang!!! And yes about the prawns…I would eat anything with loads of prawns inside. :)
Irene - Thanks and welcome to Rasa Malaysia and thanks for leaving me a comment. Do pop in again.
Elmomonster - thanks for your kind compliment. Yes, everyone has a maid or two in Malaysia and I am not surprised to hear that it’s the same in Indonesia. I think it’s an Asian thing - forget about significant others, maids are more handy. LOL. ;)
Marketingguy - can I charge my Spring Rolls $20 instead of $10. :P
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My favourite! (I have lots of favourite food! Ha Ha…) Love your pixs!
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WMV,
Thanks for your compliment. Yes, they are my favorite too!
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hey rasa malaysia…thanks for the great recipe!
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We call them lumpias in Jakarta too! (well, at least my grandparents do, I’ve never set a foot in Jakarta…). My grandma (and I!) fills it with vegetables (carrots, cabbage, onions, long beans, celery) and beef… One of my childhoods favorites, I had it with spicy Ketchup!! :-)
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Hi there,
I love your food blog. It is wonderful. How do you manage to keep so slim. Do you not eat the food you prepared?
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I like your version of fried spring roll better than those sold at the chinese restaurants here. Im definitely going to try your recipe the next time i make them.
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Just want to let you know that I made this fried spring rolls using your recipe and they are so good.
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Your recipe is great. Recently I tried and made fresh spring roll (Penang, Malaysia style) without shrimp for my friend who is vegetarian, even though I like popiah’s filling with shrimp very much :-) http://eheartrecipe.blogspot.com/2009/01/snack-popiah-fresh-spring-roll.html
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Hi!
The best Spring Rolls I have ever eaten, were in Australia. NO 1 was Jimmy Wah (deceased) in Ipswich QLD and NO 2 was New Ah Sing Chinese restaurant in Sydney, sadly it’s closed down now.
As far as I could tell from a consumers point of view, the Spring roll was a mixture of Pork mince, lots of shredded cabbage and some shredded Chicken, a little Grated Carrot and several Prawns.
The Spring Rolls were moist and semi mushy inside highly likely from Chicken stock and very flavoursome. I have tried desperately to duplicate these, but I am still far off.
The secret seems to be in the sauce mixes, the amount of Cabbage to Pork (at least 5 to 1) and cooking all of the ingrediants together, except the Prawns.
I wonder if you have come across this recipe?
Graeme. Gold Coast Australia
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