spring rolls...

believe it or not, but one of my favourite foods that my mooma makes are her 'chun-guuns' (spring rolls)............... both her seafood and vegetable recipes will disappear quickly with me, and no matter how many i eat i always want more!!!............ (at this point i am foerever grateful for the invention of elasticated jeans!!!)..............................

(realisation that i know that alot of time has elapsed since i have been able to sit and write on here and to seamus..................... i hope that the wait for these recipes has been worth it!!!................)

okej to make the seafood spring rolls you will need:
1.prawns (shelled, gutted and minced up and yes you need to gut the prawns!!!
2.crabsticks/surimi sticks
3.fun-ci (mung bean threads that have been soaked)
4.mook-yi (wood fungus which needs soaking and expands alot!!!!)
5.beansprounts (chooped up)
6.onion (if you want finely chopped)

egg yolk to combine the mixture and salt and pepper for taste.......................
(and for meat eaters you can add pork to it as the traditional vietnamese method is but i don't eat meat so i leave it out)

and to make vegetarian springrolls you will need:
1.dong-gu (shitake mushrooms the darm brown ones that need soaking overnight)
2.nya-choi (beansprouts chopped up)
3.mai-tai (water chestnuts sliced up)
4.juk-sun (bamboo shoots shiced up)
5.cabbage (sliced up)
6.carrots (finely sliced)

all the ingredients need to be lightly fried with salt and pepper and a bit of fish sauce or soysauce for taste and then placed in a collinder to drain all the excess fluids.

when choosing a spring roll wrapping, there are two types that i like, the 'tyj' label that is made from wheatflour (you can buy it from most asian food shops in the freezer section............. the good thing about it is, ease of peeling and folding)............... and there is the tradtional 'rice-paper' wrapping that needs to be soaked since you buy it dry (this is a bit more fiddly to use since it can split if you soak it too long!!!)...........................

hmmmmmm i should also say that when making the spring rolls there is a method to how you should roll them up so as to not let the corners split, but its a bit difficult to explain without showing so errrrrrrr good luck in all your attempts................................ and once you have rolled it up you need a water-flour paste to just seal off the ends so that it doesn'y unravel..................................

when you have mananged to wrap them all up then you can deep fry them or put them into the freezer for storage........................ when deep-frying the spring rolls you need to make sure the oil is hot!!! (please be careful since oil burns are very nasty indeed!!!)........................ and they should be fried for about 10-15-20 mins depending on how big you made them !!!!................ the springrolls should be immersed in the oil to give even cooking and ocassionally should be turned................ (traditionally we use a wok to fry them in but it can a bit unsafe it you don't have a wok stand so i recommend using a deep-fat-fryer or deep saucepan if you got one????)

okej to serve the spring rolls you should have rice noodles and at least one salad ........
i know of three that are simple and nice...............
1.round lettuce leaves
2.koh-rabi and carrots finely sliced soaked in a vinegar dressing and served with crushed peanuts
3.sliced cucumber and carrots soaked in vinegar dressing

because the spring rolls are fried, traditionally we serve it with a sour dressing to help neutralise the greasiness so vinegar dressings, lemons and chillis are good................

to make my moomas dressing its just a combination of a little sugar, vinegar (put more or less depending how sour you want it), chopped up chillis, crushed garlic cloves, lemon juice and fish sauce and water to dilute to taste......................(or if you like sweet dressing then get one of those thai sweet chiili dipping sauces that you can get in all supermarkets............. cheaters!!! :-p)

and there we have the finished food blog about spring rolls !!!!
(so seamus your task now is to go out and find all the stuff you need and to report back to me on how you managed!!!! good luck and thanks for not nagging me to finish it XXX and happy belated birthday to you!!! i hope your trip to london was good and that you managed to write the codes to your music website!!!)