Vegetable Spring Rolls

Yeah, I'm writing again. Hello! I won't do my usual long apology/explanation for my absence because it will probably happen again and if I do it every time it will just get boring. This time, however, I must name check Jo, whose great new blog is an inspiration and delight and has encouraged me to get back in the game. The blogging game, that is.

So, a few of my besties and their men came for dinner on Friday, and to start with I made vegetable spring rolls. They are incredibly easy – the only slightly complicated bit is in the folding, which I'm sure most of you would be able to do without any difficulty but I was never good at origami and I couldn't work out how to do them until Vangie, my parents' great cleaner, showed me how, Phillipines-style. She gave me a spring roll masterclass one afternoon, and in exchange I gave her a chocolate cake masterclass – the perfect swap.

These spring rolls are only lightly pan-fried, so are much healthier than those you'd get in a restaurant, and they crisp up beautifully in the oven if you want to fry them in advance. Additionally, you can make up the spring rolls and leave them uncooked in the fridge for a couple of days before you need them, so they are great for parties and big dinners.

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Vegetables of your choice – I think the ones that work best are bean sprouts, carrots (grated or finely sliced), pak choi or Chinese cabbage, onion, and thinly sliced peppers. It's hard to give exact quantities but if you want to cheat with this, I recommend buying those packs of ready-prepared stir-fry vegetables – one 300g pack will make around 8 spring rolls (obviously depending on size)
Fresh ginger, grated
Garlic, crushed
Soy sauce
Vegetable oil
Spring roll wrappers
1 egg white

Add a small amount of oil to a hot frying pan, and add the ginger and garlic. Fry for a minute or two and then add all the vegetables. Stir fry for a few minutes, and add soy sauce. You could, of course, stir fry using any sauce of your choice. The key is to add all the flavour you want at this stage because there is no other opportunity to do so. The other important point is to make sure there is no liquid remaining – either drain the vegetables when cooked, or cook them enough so that all the liquid is absorbed or has evaporated. Soggy vegetables will make soggy spring rolls.

Cool, and spoon a small amount onto each spring roll wrapper (this is one kind of pastry I don't think I'll be making myself!) and roll and fold the pastry to seal. It is hard to explain how – see this link for pictures.

Essentially, angle the square pastry so that one of the points is facing you. Put a dollop of vegetables just above this point, about a quarter of the way up the pastry. Roll upwards from your point to the back, and when you are just over half way, fold the sides in over your roll. Continue rolling until the end, and then, using your fingers, smear some egg white over the last point of pastry remaining and stick it down to the roll to seal it.

When they are all formed, heat a little oil in a frying pan and put the spring rolls in. They cook very quickly, so keep turning them to make sure they don't burn. Crisp up later in a hot oven, or eat straight away.

Singapore Stir-Fried Noodles

This post is a bit out of sequence, but who cares. The shrooms I used in the pasta were lovely, but as I only used half a box of each, I needed to come up with something else to use them up. I asked around and a lot of people recommended things using cream and other dairy products. Now, even if I didn't have a possibly slightly irrational hatred of most things dairy, that wouldn't work since I was planning to use chicken again and, as I will explain in a later post, chicken and cream = not for the kosher eaters amongst us. So, a few googles later, I came across a Delia Smith recipe for Singapore Noodles. I like spicy things, I like noodles.. I had to read on. Unfortunately this was really not a kosher recipe - shrimps, prawns (aren't they the same thing anyway?) and other no-goes - so I made up my own. The result, despite slightly al dente rice noodles, was absolutely delicious!

Singapore Stir-fried Noodles
(serves 2)

Chicken - either use leftover roast/grilled chicken, or if you haven't got any already cooked chicken you'll need the equivalent of a large breast (or whatever - it doesn't have to be white meat)
4oz rice noodles
2 tablespoons rapeseed (or other flavourless) oil
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Approx 1sq inch fresh ginger, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cut into pieces of about 2cm
Approx 200g mushrooms (I used a mix of shiitake and maitake), cut into pieces of about 2cm
4 spring onions, finely chopped including the green parts
1 dessert spoon of Madras curry powder
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt & pepper

First, if the chicken isn't already cooked, season and fry the chicken in a little oil, making sure it is cooked through. Then remove and keep aside. You could also grill or bake the chicken, depending on what part of the bird you're using.

Next, heat the oil in a large pan or wok and when it is very hot, add the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, red pepper and mushrooms. Stir it all and fry it at that temperature for a few minutes, and then bring the heat right down to low. Allow the vegetables to cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While it is cooking, prepare the rice noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Ours said they needed 8-10 minutes but that wasn't enough, though in the past we've had trouble with rice noodles clumping together in thick glutinous cords, which isn't very pleasant. Any tips on rice noodle preparation would be great. Additionally, shred the cooked chicken - this is best done with 2 forks like they do in Chinese restaurants. This is also the time when you could be chopping the spring onions.

After 15 minutes of cooking (and when the noodles are ready), add the salt and curry powder to the frying pan. Stir, and then add the shredded chicken and the noodles - you may want to turn the heat up now as well. Use a fork to get everything mixed together, and then add the soy sauce. When the noodles and chicken are hot, serve!

Blondini cooks for for me

I got out of work early last night (5:30) - it's tragic that this feels like a real treat, but it does - I felt like I had a whole evening stretching ahead of me. Blondini had just got in when I arrived home and I helped him prepare the chicken so that he could make us his amazing chicken stir-fry with shiitake mushrooms and broccoli. It was delicious, although of course he had to use every bowl and plate in the kitchen and there couldn't be any multitasking, no cooking of the chicken while cutting the vegetables, that doesn't work... I'm not complaining though - I love being cooked for!

Here is his recipe, created himself. I think it's great because unlike many stir-fries where you just chuck in all the ingredients and all the flavours merge into one, here you can really taste the vegetables separately from the chicken and noodles:

Stir-fried Chicken with Shiitake Mushrooms, Broccoli, Sesame and Noodles
(serves 2)

1 large or 2 small chicken breasts cut into small pieces
A little plain flour
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
Shiitake mushrooms
Broccoli (I won't eat the big one, only tenderstem or purple sprouting)
Black and white sesame seeds (around 2-3 tablespoons)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Ginger, grated
Noodles for 2 - we like to use matcha tea noodles, available from Chinese shops, but any noodle you like will do
A little oil for frying

Put the chicken pieces in a bowl and roll in the four. Add around 2 tablespoons of soy sauce to this and mix it in so that each piece of chicken is coated.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan for a few minutes, then remove and put aside. At this point I would heat some oil in the pan and fry the chicken, and while this is cooking I would chop the vegetables. Blondini prefers to chop the vegetables and have them ready first - you can obviously do whatever is easier for for. When the chicken is cooked through, remove.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Crush the garlic and grate the ginger into the frying pan, and add the vegetables, together with a few of the sesame seeds. After 3 or 4 minutes, put the chicken back into the pan, stir-fry for another few minutes until the chicken is piping hot again. Add the cooked noodles and continue stir-frying, and add some more soy sauce to the noodles in the pan. Continue stir-frying for a few more minutes, serve onto plates and garnish with the remaining sesame seeds.