You might think it’s just wrapping and folding but there are a few tricks you might want to learn to make fantastic fried spring rolls.
First, you need to seal in the filling so that the juices and flavors don’t drip into the cooking oil.
Second, if the filling consists of raw ingredients (especially raw meat), you can’t put in too much filling because the cooking time is short — just long enough to brown the wrapper — and a thick filling will not get cooked through.
Third, the temperature of the cooking oil has to be just right so that the spring rolls don’t brown too fast, which might leave the filling raw, nor too slowly which will make the wrapper absorb too much oil.
Fourth, never crowd the frying pan. The spring rolls must be able to move around a bit and the cook must have room to roll them over for even cooking. But no matter how perfect the temperature of the oil is, and even if the pan isn’t crowded at all, you can’t have perfectly fried spring rolls unless you prepared them well.
Place a teaspoonful of filling across the center of the wrapper. Leave enough space on the sides for folding. You can have more than a teaspoonful depending on the size of the wrapper. Just remember that if you’re using uncooked filling, there shouldn’t be too much — cooking time is short and the filling has to be thoroughly cooked.
If you’re using an already cooked filling like sautéed bean sprouts, you can add as much filling as the wrappers can contain so long as you can fold and seal them well.
Fold the corner (or edge if you’re using a round wrapper) of the wrapper nearest you over the filling.
Take one corner (or edge) on the side and fold it inward. The fold should be where the filling ends.
Do the same with the opposite side.
Brush the edges farthest from you with the egg wash. With some wrappers, brushing with water works but it does have a tendency to make the spring rolls too soggy to handle. In really bad cases, the wrapper can break as you lift the spring roll to drop it in the hot oil. So, I really suggest egg wash.
Brush all the outer edges to really seal the spring rolls as you roll them.
Start rolling the spring roll away from you, rolling as tightly as you can. Keep on rolling until you reach the edges brushed with egg wash. You’re almost there…
And you have a well wrapped spring roll. Repeat until all the wrappers are filled.
And that’s how to wrap spring rolls.
Repeat until you run out of filling or wrappers, whichever comes first.
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