An variation of the crispy spinach and cream cheese dumplings, chopped shrimps and bird’s eye chili are added to the filling for these spring rolls. The natural sweetness of the shrimps and the heat from the chili get mixed with the salty creaminess of the cheese, and the result is simply amazing.
It is important to blanch the spinach and squeeze out excess water before mixing it with the rest of the ingredients of the filling. You have to remove excess moisture to make sure that the filling will emit the least amount of steam during frying. That’s the secret to fried spring rolls that don’t get soggy within minutes of cooking.
Wrapping the spring rolls pretty much follows the standard procedure. Place the filling at the wrapper, fold one edge to cover the filling, fold in the edges, then roll until completely sealed.
To avoid too much oil from seeping into the filling, fry the spring rolls over high heat for a short time. Shrimps take so little time to cook anyway and it’s the only ingredient in the filling that needs cooking. And to avoid the temperature of the oil from dropping, fry the spring rolls in batches.
Shrimp, spinach and cheese spring rolls
Ingredients
- 250 grams spinach
- salt
- 300 grams shrimps peeled and deveined
- 125 grams cream cheese
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 bird’s eye chili
- 12 six-inch square spring roll wrappers
- 1 egg beaten with two tablespoons water to make an egg wash
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- cooking oil
Instructions
- Blanch the spinach in boiling water with a tablespoon of salt for three minutes, and drain.
- Dump the drained spinach in iced water and allow to cool.
- Squeeze the spinach to remove as much water as possible.
- Chop the spinach finely.
- Roughly chop the shrimps.
- Finely slice the chili
- In a bowl, mix together the chopped spinach, shrimps, cream cheese, ¾ teaspoon salt, pepper and chili.
- Lay a spring roll wrapper flat.
- Spread a heaping tablespoonful of the filling across the middle of the spring roll.
- Lift a corner of the wrapper to cover the filling, roll once, then tuck in the left and right corners.
- Moisten the unwrapped portion of the wrapper with egg wash then continue rolling to seal the filling.
- Repeat until all the wrappers have been filled or until you run out of filling.
- Sprinkle the uncooked spring rolls with corn starch.
- Heat enough cooking oil in a a frying pan to reach a depth of at least two inches.
- Fry the shrimp and spinach spring rolls in batches, rolling them around in hot oil, until the wrappers are golden and crisp.
- Cut each spring roll into two and serve immediately.
