Spring rolls for Lunar New Year, once a year deep frying

2-18--22-2025

COOKING --- deep-frying, pan-frying, stir-frying 

Shanghai style deep fried spring rolls 

pan-fried lotus root

fried tofu soup 

pan-fried northern Chinese chive pockets 

stir-fried  garlic scape and canton BBQ pork 

steamed whole bornzino with ginger chive sauce 

slow-cooked pulled pork and black beans 

nian-gao rice cake with bok choy and canton sausage 

shanghai style stewed kao-fu 

***

sunflower seeds '

for leisure new year days 

challege of frying srping roll

1-11-2014 Sat. mild, rain.  


WEEKEND BREAKFAST --- coffee | croissant | apple | baguette  and brie | tangerine  AFTERNOON-TEATIME --- tea  
DINNER ---  ji-cai wonton soup | deep-fried spring rolls with rice vinegar dipping sauce 
 

 

• still try to figure out how to better handling frying spring rolls at home, creamy moist inside, crisp outside.   chilled filling + deep oil and high temperature ?

spring rolls before Metamorphoses

02-17-2013 Sun. cold, windy.  


WEEKEND BREAKFAST --- coffee | grapefruit
AFTERNOON-TEATIME --- tea
BEFORE-THEATER-DINNER --- fried spring rolls ( filling of bamboo shoots, shiitake, smoked tofu, yellow chive, snow pea, twice-cooked pork, dried shrimp  and napa cabbage ) | congee 

 

• the spring roll filling is terrific with eight ingredients cooked separately and mixed at final stage. the wrap is  too thick, a wrong brand this time. 

• Metamorphoses  at Arena Stage, a good show with a good deal of water splashing.

Spring rolls

2-14-2010 Sun. cold, sunny

WEEKEND BREAKFAST --- coffee | Norwegian pancake with apple and brown sugar | grape fruit
AFTERNOON-TEATIME --- green tea | apple
DINNER --- deep-fried spring rolls with fillings of shiitake, napa cabbage, winter bamboo shoots, dried tofu threads, and dried shrimp | rice congee | pickled gourd | hot-spiced bamboo shoots | hot-spiced fermented tofu

• Never an easy task to deep-fry spring rolls at home. The balance between moist fillings and crispy wraps is tricky to achieve. It is limited to once a year on the Chinese New Year's Day.
  

Shanghai deep-fried spring rolls

• spring roll wrappers
  

for fillings:

• napa cabbage, sliced
  
• winter bamboo shoots, sliced
• shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• dried tofu thread, soaked in water for 30 minutes
• dried shrimp, soaked in coking wine for 30 minutes
  
• Shao-xing coking wine
  
• soy sauce
  
• salt and pepper
  
• 1 tbls tapioca flour, mixed with 2 tbls water
  

for the dipping sauce

• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbls Zheng-jian rice vinegar
  
• 1 tsp soy sauce
  
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
  

1. heat some cooking oil in a pan, add shiitake, cook for a minute
   
2. add cooking wine and soy sauce, cook till shiitake become soft
3. add bamboo shoots to the pan, mix and cook for 2 minutes
   
4. add dried tofu thread, cabbage, and dried shrimp to the pan, season with salt and pepper
   
5. mix and cook for 5 minutes, stir in tapioca flour mixture
   
6. put the cooked fillings in a bowl to chill in the refrigerator
7. when the fillings are chilled, make spring rolls with the wrappers
   
8. heat the cooking oil in a deep-trying pan, over medium heat add rolls to the pan, fry till golden brown.
   
9. mix ingredients for the dipping sauce
10. serve spring rolls hot with the dipping sauce

tips:

• chill the fillings to get a moist but not watery consistency.
• put the fillings in diagonal position on the square wrapper to make a tight roll.
  
• keep the oil medium to high heat when deep-frying, make sure the wrapper layer gets crispy fast while the oil does not penetrate to the filling.