The spring rolls (春卷 or chūn juǎn) are a “must” in Chinese cuisine…
But be careful!
In China, the version we know does not exist; it is a Westernization.
In China, the original recipe includes the use of meat, not just vegetables, as well as other ingredients such as peanut crumbles and many fragrant spices.
They are often much smaller and can be served fried, steamed, or baked.
There can be sweet or savory variants.
In the regions of northern and eastern China, the rolls are sweet and filled with sweet red bean paste and are usually consumed during the spring festival, from which they get their name ( 立春 / lì chūn = spring).
They were pancakes filled with spring vegetables of the new season: a welcome change from the preserved foods of the long winter months.
I made them “classic,” as they are known in the West, which is with vegetables, both with baking (see photo below) and fried, and I served them with the classic Chinese sauce sweet and sour made with: tomato, salt, and rice vinegar and soy sauce, and chips of rice sheets fried in boiling oil.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 6 rolls
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Chinese
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 6 rice paper sheets (or phyllo dough)
- 1 celery
- 4 carrots
- 7 oz bean sprouts
- 5 oz mushrooms
- 5 oz Chinese cabbage
- to taste soy sauce
- to taste salt and pepper
- to taste sesame oil
- to taste vegetable oil
Preparation
Chop the vegetables and sauté them in sesame oil, adding some water to stew them. Add the soy sauce and adjust with salt and pepper.
Roll the phyllo dough, cut into squares, or rice sheets (after soaking them for a few seconds in water) with the filling inside.
Carefully close and fry in plenty of oil for about 40 seconds.
For the baked version (see side photo): bake at 392°F for 10 minutes.
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If you don’t use phyllo dough, because you are celiac or for other reasons, you can use ready-made rice paper sheets precisely for spring rolls.
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What is the difference between Chinese and Thai spring rolls?
Poh-Pia-Tod (ปอเปี๊ยะทอด) are the Thai version of Chinese spring rolls
called chūn juǎn. The difference lies in the type of pastry used, squares of dough made of flour and very silky to the touch, and in the filling, where, for the Thai version, there are also glass noodles and typical Thai seasonings such as oyster sauce and fish sauce.
This is the recipe present in the pantry of the Thai cooking class that you can download for free where you’ll also find various information on Thai cuisine and many other traditional recipes, such as the papaya salad, som tam.
Below is my version made during the course held in Ao Nang during my holiday in Thailand.
