Dim Sum and Appetizer Recipes - Pancake Rolls (Spring Rolls) Recipe

  
 

Dim Sum And Appetizer Recipes - Pancake Rolls (Spring Rolls)

Ingredients

PANCAKE ROLLS BATTER:

  • 4 oz plain flour

  • pinch salt

  • 1 egg

  • 1/2 pint (1 1/4 cups) water

FILLING:

  • 1 level tbsp each raw pork, ham and chicken

  • 1 tbsp bean sprouts

  • 1 level tbsp Chinese mushrooms

  • 1 level tbsp canned bamboo shoots (optional)

  • 1 dessertspoon oil

  • 1 finely chopped onion

  • 1 level tbsp shrimps

  • pinch each salt, sugar and M.S.G.

  • few drops soy sauce

  • 1/2 tsp ginger sherry (see above recipe)

  • sprigs parsley to garnish

Method:

  1. TO MAKE BATTER: Sift the flour and salt into a basin. Make a well in the centre. Drop in the egg gradually stir in the water to make a very thin batter about the thickness of thin cream. Set aside for an hour.

  2. TO MAKE FILLING: Cut the pork, ham and chicken into thin strips. Pick over the bean sprouts an discard any empty seed cases. Cut the stalk-less mushrooms and bamboo shoots into thin slices.

  3. Heat the oil in the frying-pan and cook the onion for 1/4 minute. Add the 3 meats and cook for 1 minute. Add the bean sprouts and shrimps and cook for 1/4 minutes, then add the mushrooms and bamboo shoots and cook for 1/3 minute more, tossing the mixture.

  4. Add the seasoning, soy sauce and sherry and turn the mixture over a reduced heat for not more than 1/2 minute to coat it with the flavorings. Leave to become cold.

  5. TO MAKE THE PANCAKES: Very lightly oil a frying-pan 7-8 inches in diameter, and get if fairly warm. Pour 2 tablespoons of the batter into the pan and turn it this way and that to coat the bottom. (If the pan is too hot, you will have a little difficulty in spreading the batter evenly.)

  6. Raise the heat a little and gently cook the pancake on one side only. Repeat until all the batter, except a dessertspoon, has been used. This amount of batter will make 4-5 pancakes. Lay each pancake, cooked side down.

  7. When ready to fill them, turn each pancake over. Place a portion of the filling on one half of each pancake and bring the other side up and over it.

  8. Brush each of the ends with a little of the batter reserved for the purpose. Bring them up and over and very gently press them to form the pancake into a neat ticklish roll.

  9. Heat oil in a deep pan. (370F or 193C). Cook the pancakes till a pale golden color. Lift them out and roll on to a piece of absorbent kitchen paper. Arrange the pancakes on a heated serving dish and garnish with parsley. 

NOTE: In spite of what some people believe, there is no mystique about the making of pancake rolls. All one has to bear in mind that they should be wafer-thin and pliable and are cooked on one side only.

Further, the filling is placed on the cooked side of the pancakes before they are rolled up. The result of cooking pancakes this way is that they are more attractive as their surface are not exactly smooth.