Indonesian

Loempia (spring rolls)

250 gr pork
250 gr raw prawns
250 gr cooked chicken breast
150 gr tofu (optional)
1 large carrot
200 gr bean sprouts
½ bunch shallots or spring onions

¼ Chinese cabbage
1 tin bamboo shoots (180 gr drained), 2 cloves garlic (finely diced or minced) , sunflower oil for deep frying, fish sauce, 2 chicken stock cubes, salt & pepper, 1 tblsp sesame oil, 1 tblsp vetsin, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1 pk (40 pcs) spring roll sheets

Dice the pork into small ½-1 cm pieces, set aside.  Do the same with the prawns.  Dice the cooked chicken breast just as small and set aside. Cut the tofu into the same sized small pieces, deep fry them and drain.  Set aside.  Julienne the carrots and also the bamboo shoots.  Clean the bean sprouts (do not blanch, keep them raw).  Slice the spring onions into fine rings.  Cut the cabbage into very fine strips.

Pour a little oil into a wok and stir fry the pork until it is almost cooked.  Add the garlic and sesame oil and keep stir frying.  Add the carrots to the mixture and a splash of fish sauce, the vetsin, crumble the stock cubes into the mixture, and salt & pepper to taste.  Continue to stir fry making sure the carrots stay firm.  Add the prawns.  Keep stir frying until the prawns are only just cooked, which will take a minute at most.  Now add all the other ingredients and stir fry.  Check the seasoning and adjust.

The vegetables in the mixture should not be overcooked – they should almost be a tad under cooked. (The ingredients will finish cooking when you deep fry the spring rolls. Ideally you want them to stay al dente in the roll.) Remove from stove and allow the mixture to cool. Some of the vegetables hold a lot of moisture, so you will likely have excess water/juices in the bottom of your wok.  I often put the mixture into a colander to drain so that it doesn’t become soggy.  If the mixture is too soggy, you spring roll sheets will break.

Now fill your spring roll sheets with the filling like an envelope (i.e. spring roll sheet laid out in front of you as a diamond, a spoon of filling 2/3 of the way down, fold bottom point over the filling, then the left side over, followed by the right side over the filling, then roll it upward make the roll, sealing the top corner using some of the beaten eggs).

Deep fry and drain.

Tips!

• When I don’t have time, I buy pre-packed bags of mixed Chinese vegetables that have already been finely cut, to replace preparing all the vegetables.  
• Use raw prawns (still grey) cooking them briefly to add flavour.  
• Regarding quantities, for a pack of 40 sheets I make a really full wok of filling.
• Add more vegetables and an extra stock cube if you need the filling to go further.
• Bamboo shoots can be bought already julienned.