Cheese-stuffed Chili Spring Rolls
Finger chilies are split open, stuffed with cheese, wrapped like spring rolls, dipped in egg, dredged in flour and fried. Serve these cheese-stuffed chili spring rolls as a snack or finger food.
Ingredients
- 6 finger chilies
- enough cheese to stuff the chilies
- salt
- 3 spring roll wrappers each cut into halves
- 1 egg beaten
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour or corn starch
- 1 ½ cups cooking oil for frying
Instructions
- Rinse the chilies and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
- Slit each chili vertically to create a pocket.
- Using a teaspoon or a blunt knife with a round tip, carefully scrape out the seeds and membranes (see notes after the recipe).
- Sprinkle the inside of the chilies lightly with salt.
- Cut the cheese into bars small enough to fit snugly inside the chilies.
- Stuff the cheese into the chilies. Be generous.
- Start heating the cooking oil in a frying pan.
- Lay a cheese-stuffed chili on a triangle of spring roll wrapper and wrap (see guide).
- Dip each spring roll in the beaten egg. Pick up the spring roll by the stem of the chili and while it is upright, scoop a little egg with a teaspoon and pour into the open top of the wrapper. That’s the first step in sealing the cheese.
- Dredge the spring rolls in flour or starch. Again, holding a spring roll by the stem of the chili, sprinkle flour into the open top of the wrapper. You have now sealed in the cheese.
- Fry the spring rolls in hot oil (350F is the ideal frying temperature if you use a thermometer — I don’t) until golden and crisp.
- Serve the cheese-stuffed chili spring rolls at once.
Notes
The length of the chilies should be such that they can be wrapped with half of a spring roll wrapper. If the chilies are longer, cut off the bottoms.
Much of the heat of chilies is in the seeds and membranes. Unless you want the spring rolls exploding big time in your mouth (some people like it that way), I suggest scraping off the seeds and membranes.
Updated from a recipe originally published in August 26, 2014
Updated from a recipe originally published in August 26, 2014
