Name: Shanghai Spring Rolls
Yield: Makes about 50
Cuisine: China
Ingredients: about 60 ml (4 tbsp) tapioca or potato flour; about 50 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) stock or mushroom soaking liquid; 10 ml (2 tsp) cornflour; 225 g (8 oz) canned bamboo shoots, blanched and cut into matchstick-sized strips; 15 ml (1 tbsp) thin soy sauce; 5 ml (1 tsp) salt; 180 ml (12 tbsp) peanut or vegetable oil; 30 ml (2 tbsp) egg white; 24 medium dried Chinese black mushrooms, reconstituted and cut into thin strips; vegetable oil for deep-frying; 50–60 large spring roll wrappers, about 21–23.5 cm (8¼–9¼ in) square; lightly beaten egg white; 60 ml (4 tbsp) chicken stock; 10 ml (2 tsp) Shaoxing wine or medium dry sherry; 10 ml (2 tsp) thin or light soy sauce; 2.5 ml (½ tsp) salt; 350 g (12 oz) thin pork escalopes, cut into matchstick-sized strips; 900 g (2 lb) raw shrimps in the shell, (50–60 shrimps per 450 g/1 lb), shelled and de-veined; 5 ml (1 tsp) tapioca or potato flour; 10 turns peppermill; 2 kilos (4 lb) Chinese celery cabbage (Chinese leaves), cut crossways into 3 mm (⅛ in) wide slivers, stalk and leafy parts separated; 10 ml (2 tsp) salt; 30 ml (2 tbsp) peanut or vegetable oil; 15 ml (1 tbsp) water

Preparation info

Makes about
50

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Classic Food of China

By Yan-Kit So

Published 1992

About

These Days spring rolls are eaten all over the world, and there are Thai and Vietnamese ones, besides the Chinese, from which they all evolved. Few, perhaps, are familiar with the story of their origin. One of the first important dates in the Chinese lunar calendar, which is geared to the agricultural cycle of sowing and harvesting of crops, is called Lichun or ‘the beginning of spring’, which falls around 5 February. By the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907), it was customary to mark the day with c