Oven-Baked Spring Rolls

I’ll keep it short today. I’d like to think that all or almost all of you already know how to make spring rolls. They are one of my fave finger foods and ever since I’ve come across the oven-baked version, I’ve nominated them as my no1 Savoury Stuff, way better than deep fried street food and packaged crisps/ chips.

It was somewhere in December 09 that I bought this package of 25 plain roll wrappers with the idea of making rolls for New Year. But as they did not end up in our menu plans, I forgot all about them. The occasional reminders did come in the form of  beautiful pics on other food blogs but I kept putting it off for reasons I cnt really find an explaination to.

Then I decided to save them for Chinese New Year but again I somehow had to postpone my idea for making rolls. After commenting on La Vie est Belle  I told myself to put a stop to my spell of laziness and finally turn those [frozen] wrappers into yummy baked rolls. Thnx for the inspiration Carine 😉

CHINESE SPRING ROLLS

 

Ingredients:

3 medium carrots, grated

1/2 small cabbage, shredded

1 bunch brède tompouce, chopped 

1/2 cup mushrooms, fresh or canned

1 large red onion, chopped

1 bunch spring onions, chopped

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

1/2 cup cooked chicken, shredded

Salt & Pepper, to taste

1 tbs dark soy sauce

2tbs corn flour

2 tsp vegetable oil

25 spring roll wrappers

Method:

• Blanch cabbage and brède tompouce in boiling water of a few minutes and drain to remove excess moisture.
• Cut mushrooms thinly and saute if you want them pre-cooked.
• Combine carrots, cabbage, brède tompouce, mushrooms, red onion, spring onions, mozzarella and shredded chicken in a large bowl.
• Season filling with salt and pepper according to taste. Drizzle with soy sauce and oil and stir in cornflour to bind ingredients together.
• Separate spring roll wrappers from stack on a dry plate.

• Keep wrapper on a flat dry work surface with any one of its corners facing you. Place a tbs of filling about 1 inch from that corner.
• Do not tempted to overfill as it may ooze out during baking/frying.
• Fold corner facing you over filling and roll over once.
• Now fold right and left corners so that they overlap.
• Finish by rolling wrapper to opposite corner so that filling is completely enclosed. You will get the hang of it after the initial ones.
• You can freeze your spring rolls at this point if you wish to store them for later use. Place in a ziplock bag, label and date. Use within 1 week.

• You can cook spring rolls either by deep frying or baking.
• Deep frying is the traditional method but I [and the family] prefer the healthier option of baking. Also, baked rolls are more picture perfect!
• Preheat oven to 350 oF. Line baking tray with parchment paper.
• Place rolls seam side down on tray and brush surface lightly with oil to prevent that unflattering ‘uncooked’ look.
• Pop in oven for 20-30 minutes until rolls are golden and crisp.
• Serve right away with sweet and sour sauce or hot chilli sauce.

I simply threw in all that I had on hand to make the filling, including a chunk of mozzarella left over from pizza making. So now that I’ve used up the lil bit of chicken I was left with, my fridge is free from nonveg stuff. I start fasting for Ram Nawmi and Hanuman Jayanti. You can look forward to lotsa vegetarian dishes and eggless bakes for the coming 3 weeks or so 🙂