Mia Lane
Crooked? In principle, the egg roll corresponds to the well-known spring roll, but uses a lot of egg for its dough – and you can taste it too!
Spring roll or egg dish?
The egg roll names a variety of dishes, but the most well-known under this name comes from American-Chinese cuisine. This “Westernized” form of Chinese cuisine was developed by Chinese immigrants in the western United States so as not to overwhelm Americans’ stomachs. And the associated egg roll is probably better known to us as a spring roll. However, the two differ not only in name but also slightly in the type of dough. The egg roll dough is prepared with eggs. The dough for the original Asian spring rolls does not contain eggs and is made with rice flour and peanut oil.
An egg roll also describes a simple egg roll. A thin pancake made from pure egg, filled or unfilled, sweet or savory, is rolled up and either cut into small pieces or served whole.
Dough recipe for homemade egg rolls
Ingredients for 5 large egg rolls (spring rolls)
- 100 grams of flour
- around 100 ml of water
- 1 to 2 eggs (optional)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp starch
Whisk the eggs, mix together the flour, starch, and salt, then mix everything together. Add water to the mixture until a liquid dough forms. This should be slightly runnier than pancake batter.
Bake the batter in a preheated pan, saving a little runny batter for later. The fried pancakes can now be used as a basis for spring rolls. Fill the pancakes in the middle as you like, then fold them on the sides. Use a little liquid dough as glue at the upper, open end, roll up and dip the roll completely into the liquid dough again. The spring roll can now be fried in hot oil.
Meat filling
The classic egg roll, or spring roll, is filled with minced meat. But there are also numerous variants. For example with chicken or turkey breast, with goose meat, or with steak strips. In smaller spring rolls, the meat cooks through when frying. For larger rolls, the meat, especially poultry, should be cooked through in the pan beforehand.
Filling with fish or seafood
Popular and well-known are fillings with shrimp or cocktail shrimp. Incidentally, these are an excellent addition to a filling with chicken. But wild salmon or pangasius are also pre-cooked and worked into spring rolls. You can also use lobster meat for particularly elegant egg rolls.
Stuffing with vegetables or mushrooms
Typical vegetables for egg rolls are carrots, bamboo and soybean sprouts, mung beans, garlic, spring or vegetable onions, and white cabbage. Either chili peppers or pieces of ginger are used for the necessary sharpness. You can add Asian mushrooms, such as Mu Err or Shiitake, or simply button mushrooms to the vegetable mixture as you wish.
Noodles, rice, tofu, and co. in spring rolls
Often there are soaked glass noodles in an egg roll. If you don’t like this filling, you can also use rice. Vegetarians will love the tofu pieces in the spring roll. Peanuts are also used as an ingredient in some recipes.
