During the first dotcom days, when I was working in a super cool start-up South of Market, I ventured out to Tu Lan on 6th and Market with my fabulously-dressed colleague, Pam, to check out their spring rolls.  The experience was savory, and I don’t mean the food.   We just had to try the spring rolls!  After all, Zagats gave them a 22 or was it 24 then on their food rating.  I don’t think that place even knows Zagat has them rated!  Their food was too greasy for my liking.  The local residents thought we were too out of place for their liking.

So, here is a clean tasting recipe for you to make in the peace and safety of your home.

Chef’s tip: As with any deep frying, controlling the temperature is key to making your deep fried morsel crispy and not greasy.  To get the olden hue on the rice wrapper, dipping in a sugary water gives it a coat of sugar to caramelized in when deep fried.

6 oz shrimp
6 oz ground pork
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 small eggs or 1 large

1 small carrot, grated coarsely
2 cups fresh shiitake, thinly sliced
2 cups wood ear mushroom (from about 3/4 cup dried, reconstituted in water), thinly sliced
2 large shallots, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced, soaked in water, and spun dry
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup mint, chopped
1 stalk green onions, thinly sliced
2 oz cellophane mung bean noodles, reconstituted in water, cut into 2 inch length

1 lb package 8 inch round Vietnamese rice paper wrappers
3 Tablespoons sugar
8 cups canola oil

1 bunch green leaf or butter lettuce, ribs removed

Nuoc Mam Cham dipping sauce ingredients:
1 red Thai chile, finely minced or 1 teaspoon sambal olek
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons sugar
1 lime, juiced to make ¼ cup
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
½ cup water

1. Preparing the sauce: Mix all dipping sauce ingredients together (chile, garlic, sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, vinegar and water).  Set aside.
2. In a food processor, pulse shrimp till coarsely chop, add pork and give it a pulse or two.  Add fish sauce and black pepper, and egg and pulse to combine.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables ingredients and bean noodle and toss to combine.
4. Line a baking sheet with a damp tea towel and have another damp towel ready to cover the rolls. Line a cutting board with a third damp towel.
5. Fill a large sauté pan with 2 inches of water. Add sugar, bring water to a boil, then turn heat to very low. Working with one sheet of rice paper at a time, dip half the disc into the hot water, holding one corner with your fingers or a pair of chopsticks. Let it sit for about 5 seconds. Quickly dip the other half and remove and spread out flat on lined cutting board.
6. Place about 2 Tablespoons of the filling on the bottom third of the rice paper.  Shape the filling into a cylinder, about 3-inches long.
7. Fold the left and right side over the filling. Holding the sides in place, fold the bottom flap up and roll the roll up into a tight cylinder.  Lay the rolls flap side down on the moistened towel and cover with another moist towel. Patch any broken areas with small pieces of soaked, rice paper.  Repeat folding the remaining rolls.
8. Frying the spring rolls:  Heat canola oil till 375F.  Drop several spring rolls into the oil and fry till golden brown, about 5 minutes each.  Immediately drain on a wire rack over a baking sheet.  Bring the oil back up to temperature and continue until all the spring rolls have been fried.
9.  Wrap each spring roll with lettuce and serve with Nuoc Mam Cham dipping sauce.

Serves: 8

Tags: springrolls, street foods, Vietnamese.

Radish cake is eaten during Chinese New Year as a symbol for togetherness.   My friend, Ophelia, made the dish this year again….I wish she lived closer coz I would love to get together and have a slice delicious law bak goh!  She shares the secret from her mom — the oil keeps the batter together.  In addition, she recipe-tested my recipe and this is what she says:  “I added one cup less water than your [original] recipe – I judged it by the consistency … when it looked too watery, I added a little more rice flour.  It was 11pm by the time I was done steaming.  I decided to put the whole pan outside the door, and by the Monday it was nice and firm, ready to be fried for New Year breakfast! “  Looks like the 2010 Washington DC snowmageddon did come in useful afterall!

Anyways, I promised her if she shared the picture, the recipe will be on the blog forever so she needn’t search high and low for her copy each new year!  Here we go! Do note to add more water/ rice flour as needed.

2 lbs Chinese white radish, grated
1 cup water + about 1  1/2 cups water

4 Chinese sausages, finely diced
1/4 cup dried shrimps*, soaked in warm water with 1 tablespoon sherry, drain and chopped roughly
2 + 2 tablespoons oil
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, or use fresh, finely diced
2 cups rice flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon scallion, finely chopped

1. Peel and grate radish. Place shredded radish in a small pot or saucepan with 1 cup of water. Bring mixture to a boil, than reduce the heat to a low and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Let cool.  Drain radish.  Save cooking liquid.
2. Pour cooking liquid into a measuring cup. Add remaining water to make 2 1/2 cups of liquid.
3. Start a steamer over a wok of boiling water.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Stir-fry sausage, 1 minute.  Add the shrimp; fry 30 seconds and mushrooms, 1 minute.  Remove from heat. Set aside.
5. To the cooking liquid mixture, whisk in rice flour, sugar, salt, pepper, 5 spice powder and reserved radish and mix until consistency of thick oatmeal.  You may need to add more water or rice flour.  Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
6. Add in sausage & mushroom mixture, scallion and cilantro.  Mix well.
7. Line a 6 inch by 9 inch (or a 9 inch diameter) cake pan with parchment paper and grease with oil liberally. Pour mixture into it. Place on rack in steamer. Steam over briskly boiling water 1 hour.  The cake is somewhat gooey at this stage.
8. When cold, refrigerate overnight to firm up the cake.
9. To serve, slice 1/4 inch thick, 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Fry slices in 1 tablespoon canola oil until golden brown. Serve hot.

Serves: 6-8

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, dim sum.

Yum! Another dumpling to add to your repertoire.  This dim sum uses store-bought siu mai skins.

Chef’s tip: You can use the potsticker skins (which is thicker) or just wonton skins (which is thinner) depending on your preference.  I find that placing the dumplings tightly together holds the shape better.

1 package of siu mai round wrappers, about 30 pieces
2 salted duck egg yolk (optional)

Filling:
4 oz raw shrimp, shelled and deveined, chopped (about 10 size 31/40 shrimp)
8 oz ground pork
1 cup / 5 oz canned water chestnut, chopped finely (about 10 water chestnut)
3 tablespoon scallions, white part, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger (bottled)
3 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or pale dry sherry
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
A twist of black pepper

1 large thick carrot, cut into thin rounds

Preparing the filling
1.    Mix all the ingredients together.
Assembling
2.    Place the wrapper in your palm. Place 1 teaspoon of filling into wrapper.
3.    Gather up the edges of the wrapper.  Hold the dumpling between your thumb and your fingers, lightly squeezing it to form a cup.  Squeeze with your index finger to form a waist.  Use a spatula to push the filling down.
4.    Flatten the base by tapping on a floured surface. Smooth the top with a knife dipped with water.
5.    Top with a small dot of duck egg,
6.    Placed onto a steamer, setting each dumpling on a slice of carrot rounds.
Steaming
7.    Steam over simmering water for 15 minutes. Add water if necessary so that wok is not dried out.

Serves: 6

Tags: Cantonese, dim sum, dumplings.