Ever wanted to make your own homemade spring rolls? Well this is a little cheeky way to make them using filo pastry that taste really good – and you can fry or bake them! First up lets just say you can fill these with whatever you like cooked meats or prawns or keep them vegetarian – you’ll absolutely love playing around and experimenting with these!
So first up cook your meats, we’ve used pork here and some soaked shittake mushrooms. So if you haven’t already soak the mushrooms in warm water for 20minutes to loosen them up, drain and chop. Add the pork and mushrooms to a wok and fry using a little groundnut oil, fry for a good 5 minutes to soften the mushrooms and cook through the pork. For the last few minutes of cooking add a few shakes of soy sauce and the chinese five spice seasoning, stirring to coat. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl, clean the wok.
In the bowl with the pork and mushrooms add the carrot, bamboo, spring onions, salt, pepper, beansprouts and more soy sauce as required. Mix well to coat in the seasoned pork mixture.
Keep the filo pastry sheets in the fridge until needed, then take two out and stack them on top of eachother in a rectangle facing you with the longer side running across you. Spoon the mixture into the top of the filo pastry sheets in the middle and roll over to cover, then bring in the sides, and roll forward to seal.
Seal the roll with a mix of 2 parts cornflour and 1 part water brushed on the crease. The video shows this step well.
If you wish to fry the spring rolls, 1/3 fill the wok with groundnut oil and warm on the hob until a small piece of bread dropped in fries until golden in ten seconds or so. Add a spring roll and cook rotating if needed until lightly golden brown, remove and sit on kitchen towel before serving up.
To bake, place the spring roll on a baking sheet, brush the spring roll in groundnut oil all over, bake in an oven for 30 minutes until lightly golden. The oven should be pre-heated to 160c fan or equivalent
The baked ones are a little crispier and healthier but the fried ones a little more authentic. Play around with this and enjoy!