Having dinner in one Indo-China restaurant. Ordering from the menu, I thought it is the traditional Vietnamese spring roll with lot of veges that wrap in rice paper, but it turn out to be totally different stuff. This crispy deep-fried minced meat and prawns spring roll with lots of finely chopped veges were wrapped in rice noodles instead of rice paper. With the special sweet and spicy dipping sauce, I really have no complaint about it.
Ingredients
1 tofu in round tube ( cut into 1 cm thick slice, pat dry)
few pieces of Chinese lettuce
200 g medium size prawns (shelled and deveined)
4 medium size squids (cut into thin rings)
3 tbsp of green peas
2 tbsp diced carrots
5 pieces baby corn (sliced)
5 pieces dried mushrooms (soak and slice)
10 button mushrooms (halved)
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cornstach solution
1 egg white
1 tbsp chopped garlic & 2 slice of ginger
pepper, salt and chicken stock powder to taste
200 ml water
3 tbsp cooking oil
Method
Coat tofu thinly with constarch and pan-fry till both sides golden in color. Dish out and set aside.
In remaining oil, stir in ginger and garlic and saute to fragrant. Add both mushrooms and diced carrots in and stir-fry until aromatic then add prawns, squids and baby corn and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute. Add water in and bring to a light boil then return tofu into the dish and let it cook for 1 minute. Add seasoning and cornstarch solution then follow by egg white. Dish out in 30 seconds and serve in a plate top with Chinese lettuce.
*More Asian Recipes*
Not too sure about whether this is a Thai food or a Taiwan dish because both are claiming it. Whatever it is, I love this crispy, delicious and flavorful dish so much. The best thing is that it is also easy to prepare.
Ingredients
300g Prawns (chop coarsely)
50g minced pork
1 egg white
12 pcs spring roll skin
1 tsp cornstarch
pepper and salt to taste
Method
Add chopped prawns, minced pork, egg white and seasoning in a mixing bowl and stir to mix well. Spread prawns mixture evenly onto a piece spring roll skin and cover another piece of spring roll skin on top. Press gently to seal the edge and pan-fry it with little bit of cooking oil until both side turn golden brown. Drain oil and cut into eight portions, repeat process until all ingredients are used up. Served with Thai chili sauce while dish is warm and crispy.
Some times it is hard to tell whether it is a Thai food, Nyonya or Malay cuisine when come to dish like sambal kangkong (water spinach), sambal asparagus. I think people living in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia are cooking this dish almost the same way. So I think it is only fair to classify it under a fusion dish rather than classify it under any specific country cuisine.
As for the sambal, the main ingredients are toasted shrimp paste, chilies, small red onions, garlic, lemongrass but you can always adjust the ratio of spices according to your own taste and liking.
It is quite a simple dish to make after all, saute the blended sambal in warm oil to fragrant then stir fry with asparagus (peeled and sectioned) with some small shrimps for 3 minutes, add seasoning to tatse and it is done. Try it and enjoy.
