Chinese Spring Rolls – Great authentic taste and easy to follow instructions. Suggestions for chicken, vegetarian or pork fillings. You choose!

The trick with making any Chinese food and it’s guaranteed success is to prepare everything before hand. You need to get all your ingredients together, chopped, diced, marinated, sauces prepared in little bowls, absolutely everything that belongs in a recipe must be at hand before you turn on the heat!
There are many variations to Chinese Spring Rolls throughout the Far East, with differing wraps, some made from rice paper, as in the Vietnamese types, and gives a transparent appearance, or egg based wraps, similar to that of filo pastry. It goes with out saying, the fillings will also vary from region to region.
The Chinese Spring Rolls we are going to make today are often found in Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, particularly in the Dim Sum eateries, and is often served with a dipping Worcestershire Sauce and or sweet chili sauce. The beauty of these spring rolls is that you can make them with whatever filling you desire. These are great for making if you have left overs too! Just remember to keep the filling ingredients chopped small so it all fits in the roll. I will list the common ingredients used, and you can adapt to your taste. So come along to the Far East and lets make some Chinese Spring Rolls!

Ingredients
7 Spring roll pastry sheets, each measuring 8 in x 8 in ( 20 cm x 20 cm)
For the Filling
2 mushrooms, chopped small
1 Spring Onion / Scallion
5-6 stalks of coriander / cilantro
1/4 inch or 1 cm thick piece fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
1 cup or 70 g beansprouts
4 fresh Prawns (optional)
6 oz or 170 g pork or chicken fillet
Vegetable oil for deep frying. (use a small pan)
The marinade
1 Teaspoon cornflour / cornstarch
1 Teaspoon sugar
1 Teaspoon Chinese rice Wine
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Chicken stock powder
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
2 teaspoon cold water

TIP: You can buy Spring Roll Pastry from Asian shops, if you have some left over, put in a zip lock bag and freeze. Once the pastry comes into contact with air, it will dry quickly so have a damp cloth to place over the pastry whilst you are preparing the rolls.

The main thing we need to do is get everything ready before we start cooking. Please be aware, that your Spring Roll Pastry will dry out as soon as it makes contact with the air so please use a damp tea towel to cover it whilst you are preparing everything. These Spring Rolls will be made roughly the length of your finger. You can make them bigger if you wish, adjust amount of filling accordingly.

Instructions:

Prepare the Vegetables
First we will prepare all the vegetable items and place on a plate.
1. Chop mushrooms (1/2 cm sized pieces)
2. Chop cilantro/ coriander, and Spring Onion / scallion shred (see picture) Cut it across into 1 inch lengths and then shred.
3. Finely chop ginger and garlic.
4. Place beansprouts on plate (no need to chop)

Prepare the meat
Now to prepare the meat. You need to cut it very fine like matchsticks. Watch the photos to get the idea.
1. Cut meat finely. Start by cutting your fillet in half horizontally then vertically slice down to make matchstick sizes (step 1 & 2 photos)
2. Place in a bowl and add the wine,cornstarch,chicken stock,water,sesame oil.
3. Stir very well to get everything combined.

Step 1. Cut the fillet horizontally

Step 2. Once horizontally cut, slice straight down to get matchstick size

See the size up against a bean sprout!

4. Slice prawns horizontally in half then cut into 1cm pieces. Place in a separate bowl

Prawns sliced down the middle halved then chopped

Cook the meat & mushrooms
1. Add 1 teaspoon Vegetable oil to a pan. Add mushrooms, ginger & garlic. fry until all soft.
2. Add the pork. Stir fry until cooked. Transfer to your mixing bowl and allow to cool.

Everything prepared!

Cook mushrooms,garlic & ginger

Add pork

Once the meat has cooled, add all the other ingredients together with the oyster sauce and combine very well.

Add all the other ingredients to the pork

Combine well

Making the wraps.
These wraps are a standard size so we need to cut them into quarters otherwise your spring rolls will be huge! Follow the pictures step by step and you will get the idea. You will need a little bowl of water to wet the sides so they stick.

Make ahead tip : Once you have made the wraps, it is at this point you can freeze them and simply take out as many as you wish and cook as the instructions below.

TIP: Work with 2 or 3 squares at a time. cover the rest with a damp tea towel.

1. Cut the wraps into equal squares (10cm x 10 cm each)

2. Turn the wrap so it is like a diamond shape, and with your finger, run water along the sides.

3. Add a teaspoon of filling to the centre of the pastry

4. Take the bottom corner and pull over the filling

5. Bring the left & right sides together. If necessary, add a bit of water to the pastry to help it stick.

6. from the bottom, roll forward so you have a little triangle piece of pasty sticking out at the top. put a bit of water on this bit.

6. Seal the little triangle down and check there are no holes. Use water to stick any gaps of pastry together

Bingo! Ready for a quick fry!

Put enough vegetable oil in a sauce pan, I prefer to fry 4-5 rolls at a time. When hot enough, add the rolls and cook until golden.

(The first roll on the left of the photo I had the oil too hot. If yours go brown too fast, turn the heat down a little. The second roll from the left is the correct colour!)

Remove and drain on some kitchen paper, and serve with Worcestershire sauce or sweet chili sauce for dipping.

And there you have my Chinese Spring Rolls. these are always popular anytime, and great if you want to make ahead and store (uncooked) in the freezer. You can just get a few out and cook, from frozen and they will still be delicious. Please enjoy!

We’d love to hear from you and what you thought of our post. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Here’s a few more of our popular Chinese recipes for you to enjoy!

Chinese Garlic Shrimp

 Sticky Sweet Chinese Chicken Wings

Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Sui)

Garlic Shrimp Fried Rice

Print

Chinese Spring Rolls

Prep Time

40 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

1 hr

 

There are many variations to Spring Rolls throughout the Far East, with differing wraps, some made from rice paper, as in the Vietnamese types, and gives a transparent appearance, or egg based wraps, similar to that of filo pastry. It goes with out saying, the fillings will also vary from region to region. The Spring Rolls we are going to make today are often found in Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, particularly in the Dim Sum eateries, and is often served with a dipping Worcestershire Sauce and or sweet chili sauce.

Servings: 28

Ingredients

• 7 in Spring roll pastry sheets each measuring 8 x 8 in ( 20 cm x 20 cm)
• For the Filling
• 2 mushrooms chopped small
• 1 Spring Onion / Scallion
• 5-6 stalks of coriander / cilantro
• 1/4 inch or 1 cm thick piece fresh ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup or 70 g beansprouts
• 4 fresh Prawns optional
• 6 oz or 170 g pork or chicken fillet
• Vegetable oil for deep frying. use a small pan

The marinade

• 1 Teaspoon cornflour / cornstarch
• 1 Teaspoon sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Chinese rice Wine
• 1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
• 1 Teaspoon Chicken stock powder
• 1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
• 2 teaspoon cold water

Instructions

1. Prepare the Vegetables
2. First we will prepare all the vegetable items and place on a plate.
3. Chop mushrooms (1/2 cm sized pieces)
4. Chop cilantro/ coriander, and Spring Onion / scallion shred (see picture) Cut it across into 1 inch lengths and then shred.
5. Finely chop ginger and garlic.
6. Place beansprouts on plate (no need to chop)
7. Prepare the meat
8. Now to prepare the meat. You need to cut it very fine like matchsticks. Watch the photos to get the idea.
9. Cut meat finely. Start by cutting your fillet in half horizontally then vertically slice down to make matchstick sizes (step 1 & 2 photos)
10. Place in a bowl and add the wine,cornstarch,chicken stock,water,sesame oil.
11. Stir very well to get everything combined.
12. Slice prawns horizontally in half then cut into 1cm pieces. Place in a separate bowl
13. Cook the meat & mushrooms
14. Add 1 teaspoon Vegetable oil to a pan. Add mushrooms, ginger & garlic. fry until all soft.
15. Add the pork. Stir fry until cooked. Transfer to your mixing bowl and allow to cool.
16. Once the meat has cooled, add all the other ingredients together with the oyster sauce and combine very well.
17. Making the wraps.
18. These wraps are a standard size so we need to cut them into quarters otherwise your spring rolls will be huge! Follow the pictures step by step and you will get the idea. You will need a little bowl of water to wet the sides so they stick.
19. Work with 2 or 3 squares at a time. cover the rest with a damp tea towel.
20. Put enough vegetable oil in a sauce pan, I prefer to fry 4-5 rolls at a time.
21. When hot enough, add the rolls and cook until golden.
22. (The first roll on the left of the photo I had the oil too hot. If yours go brown too fast, turn the heat down a little. The second roll from the left is the correct colour!)
23. Remove and drain on some kitchen paper, and serve with Worcestershire sauce or sweet chili sauce for dipping.