Vegetable Spring rolls

I've had some of the most delicious dishes at the Madura coats club where they could make everything from complicated souffles to a simple curd rice and everything tasted awesome. They organized several parties where the menu would always be elaborate and absolutely droolworthy and even the snacks served every Friday evening while the open-air theatre airs movies were delectable and something I'd look forward to more than the movie. We often ordered food from there for parties we had at home and I would ensure that Gobi Manchurian definitely made the list along with these Spring Rolls.

I don't think I've tasted spring rolls like the ones I've had at the club anywhere else.. they were quite unlike the ones we find here with the extra crispy wrapper. Their version was still deep fried and was crispy outside, yet had a chewiness on the inside and the veggies had a lovely pepper flavour. Last week I wanted nothing but this version and the store bought spring roll wrappers and chinese takeouts could definitely not satisfy me so I set about making these. I won't claim that my version can stand up to what was churned out at the club but it was close enough (maybe i think so because it's been many many years since i've tasted them). Nevertheless we enjoyed these as a snack cum dinner one Saturday evening.

VEGGIE SPRING ROLLS


Ingredients (makes about 8 to 10 rolls)
For Cover:
Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
Egg - 1

Salt - to taste
Water - as required to make thin batter
Oil - 3 tbsp, for shallow frying

For Filling:
Carrots - 1 big, cut into thin matchsticks
Cabbage - half to 3/4 cup, shredded thinly
Ginger - half inch piece, minced
Garlic - 1 to 2 cloves, minced

Spring/Green Onions - 3, chopped, white & green parts separated
Soy Sauce - about 2 tsp
Sriracha chilli sauce - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt & Pepper - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

Sealing Paste:
Maida/Flour - 2 tsp + little water to form a thick paste

Method:
1) For the outer cover, blend the flour, egg, salt & water to make a thin, smooth batter. Heat a small round pan (8 inch diameter is what I used), rub a few drops of oil and pour some of this batter and spread out to form a very thin pancake. Cook on medium on one side, flip over and cook the other side as well. It will still be pale in colour. Keep aside. Do this for the rest of the batter.

2) For the filling, heat the 2 tsp of oil and add the whites of spring onions, ginger and garlic, after abt 20-30 seconds, add in the veggies and a pinch of salt and stir-fry till crisp-tender. Stir in the soy & chilli sauces with pepper to taste & spring onion tops (greens) and when done. Keep aside and allow to cool a bit.

3) To make the rolls, put some filling in the pancake and roll it up tightly. Seal with the paste of flour+water and place them seam side down (so it doesn't open up). Complete filling all the rolls while the Oil to shallow fry them heats up.

4) Once the oil is hot enough, put the rolls seam side down and allow to cook till it crisps up outside, flip over and let the other side cook as well. Remove and allow to drain on paper towels before slicing them diagonally into smaller pieces. Serve as is or with some ketchup.