Easy Spring Roll Recipe

Spring roll

One of the things I love about Asian food is spring rolls. So how to make spring rolls?

My family comes from the Philippines. Over the years, I've watched them how to make crispy and delicious spring rolls. I borrowed those skills and made my own twist.

The last 6 years I've made spring rolls, and they always turned out good. My boyfriend, who is Norwegian, said to me:

"I've tried to make spring rolls just the way you do, but I never get them as good as yours".

The goal here is to make medium sized spring rolls. I don't like them too small or too big, but that's personal preferences.

So, this is it. I'm giving you my spring roll recipe which my family and friends love :-)

Total duration: 2-2,5 hours

The Ingredients

Get to the nearest Asian store and buy one pack with 50 medium spring roll wrappers. There are also packs containing 30-60 sheets in different sizes. It's your choice. I choose 50 because of the medium size.

Recipe for 50 medium sized spring rolls:

• 800 gram beef mince (I like the quality of beef mince -– it gives more taste and more meat compared to ordinary minced meat)
  
• 1/2 a cabbage (try to get the smallest cabbage you can find and split it into two. If it's a large cabbage, use 1/3 of it for the mix)
  
• 1 carrot
  
• A handful of bean sprouts
  
• 6 large cloves of garlic
  
• 1 teaspoon of salt (if you use sea salt, add two table spoons)
  
• 1 tablespoon pepper
  
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
  
• 1,5 tablespoon rapeseed oil/canola oil
  
• 1 egg

Other:

• Sweet chilli sauce
  
• Baking paper

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Preparation

Start with the minced meat and throw it in a large bowl. Use a garlic presser to squeeze the garlic and blend it well into the meat. A garlic presser takes out the garlic juice, and that's a large plus for the taste.

Then chop the cabbage and bean sprouts into small pieces, especially the cabbage. Cut the carrot into small matchsticks (2 cm). Blend everything into the meat using your bare hands. You want the ingredients to really penetrate every inch of the meat.

Add the rapeseed oil, soya sauce, pepper and salt. Blend it all in.

If you have time you should cover the bowl and let the mix stand for 20-30 minutes, so the meat can fully absorb the garlic. While you're waiting you can use that time to separate the sheets.

In reality, separating the sheets is what takes most of my time when I'm making spring rolls.

Duration of preparation: 30 minutes

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Making the Spring Rolls

Now, we're going to make the actual spring rolls! :-)

First, crack up the egg and whisk it. You're going to use it as a 'glue' for the sheets. You're going to need two large plates - one to make spring rolls on, and another plate to place the ready spring rolls.

Place a sheet like this:

Grab a tablespoon of the meat, shape the meat like a sausage and place it onto the sheet like this:

Roll the tip of the sheet over the meat. Make sure the sheet covers the entire 'sausage'.

Roll it twice.

Fold the left edge to the middle, and the right edge to the middle. Remember not to roll it too tight. If you do, the spring roll might burst in the frying pan.

Roll it and stop till you have a small tip of the sheet left.

Now's the time to use the egg. Use a food brush or your two middle fingers to glue the spring roll. Then voila, you have a spring roll! :-)

Duration: 45 min-1 hour

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Frying Time

Use a wok pan or a frying pan. If you're using a wok pan, fill half of it with rapeseed oil. I use a frying pan to use less oil. In my opinion, you don't need that much oil to make good spring rolls. They still turn up crispy.

For frying pan: I fill up the frying pan with rapeseed oil until it reaches 0,5 cm. You still want that 'bathing' effect, but not too much. Turn up the heat, but don't put the spring rolls in the pan just yet.

If your stove buttons range from 1-6, I would heat up the stove to 5. Not the highest temperature, but more than average.

Wait until the pan is really hot. One way of finding out is to use a chopstick (or something else made of wood). Put the tip of the chopstick into the oil. If the oil starts to bubble right away, the pan is ready. If it doesn't, give it a couple of more minutes.

Why wait?

If the pan is hot enough, the medium sized spring rolls need only 40-50 seconds on each side -– to get really crispy. You don't want to over-fry your spring rolls. If they do, the meat content often gets dry or worse; burned or the content bursts into the pan.

Put the fried spring rolls onto a baking paper, so it will absorb the excessive oil. Let them rest for 5 minutes.

Duration: 30 min

Well, this is it. Hope you enjoyed this recipe! :-)

Just contact me if you have any questions.

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