Tofu and mung bean sprouts spring rolls

This is the chicken version of the 2003 recipe for bean sprout lumpia. And while the pork version includes green beans as a second vegetable ingredient, this chicken version has spinach. Which do I like better? I like them both. Love them both, actually. In fact, even without meat, I love spring rolls. Fried or not.

The filling for these spring rolls is sufficiently seasoned but, as Asian eating habits go, there has to be a dipping sauce on the side. Serve the spring rolls with basic nuoc cham with a bit of ginger (my personal preference) or the more traditional vinegar dipping sauce the recipe for which you will find in the savory spring rolls entry.  

Makes about 18 spring rolls.

Ingredients:

200 g. of chicken thigh fillets, sliced as thinly as you can
250 g. of fresh mung bean sprouts, washed and drained
250 g. of fresh spinach, stalks discarded
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
1 carrot, chopped
1 300 g. cake of firm tofu, chopped (or, if you’re up to it, cut into 1/4-inch cubes)
6 tbsps. of light soy sauce
4 tbsps. of oyster sauce
2-4 tbsps. of fish sauce
freshly ground pepper
a generous pinch of sugar
drizzle of sesame seed oil
a pack of spring roll wrappers (a pack usually contains 25)
1 egg, beaten, mixed with about 2 tbsps. of water
2-4 c. of vegetable cooking oil for deep-frying (amount depends on the size of the wok or frying pan)

Place the chicken slices in a bowl. Pour in 1 tablespoonful each of soy sauce, fish sauce and oyster sauce. Sprinkle with pepper. Mix well.

Heat about 6 tablespoonfuls of cooking oil in a wok. Add the chicken (with the marinade) and cook over very high heat just until the color changes (about 30 seconds if the temperature is correct). Add the garlic, ginger and onion, and cook until the chicken slices start to brown along the edges. Add the tofu, carrot, mung bean sprouts and spinach leaves. Pour in the rest of the seasonings. Sprinkle with more pepper. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes or until the vegetables just start to wilt. Turn off the heat immediately so as not to make the vegetables soggy. Drizzle with sesame seed oil. Stir a few times. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Cool in the pan for about 30 minutes. Transfer to a strainer and cool completely for a few hours. Don’t make short cuts with the straining part. You want to remove all the excess liquid so as not to soak the spring roll wrappers.

Separate the spring roll wrappers. Follow the guide for making spring rolls but use about a tablespoonful and a half of filling for each spring roll. With the given ingredients, you should be able to make about 18 medium sized spring rolls. By medium sized, I mean about 4 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter.

Heat the cooking oil. When it is slightly smoking “� profusely smoking would be too hot and the spring rolls will burn fast “� start frying the spring rolls in batches. How many per batch depends on the size of your wok. As a rule of thumb, just make sure that they are floating in oil and barely touching one another. More importantly, you should be able to roll and turn them over easily.

Rolling the spring rolls in hot oil is important for even browning. When the spring rolls are a uniform light golden color, scoop them out of the hot oil.

Drain the fried spring rolls on layers of paper towels to remove any excess oil. Then, fry the next batch, and so on, until all the spring rolls have been fried.

Serve the spring rolls while hot to make sure that the wrappers are crisp.

For the dipping sauce, make the basic nuoc cham (traditional dipping sauce for Vietnamese chicken satay) but add half a teaspoonful of grated ginger.