It seems insane to me that I have never posted a spring roll recipe because I love those little suckers more than life itself. I would never have an order of Chinese food without them and a pack always makes its way into my basket when I’m shopping at home. But sadly they are not as popular in Korea as they are in the rest of Asia. You can find them in your local Thai restaurant, but when you enjoy eating them as much as I do you have to make them in bulk. They call be a a bit fiddly, but once you get in the zone you can churn them out by the dozen. Sit in your living room to roll them out while watching an episode of your favourite show and in no time you will have a pile of the little beauties. I got my spring roll wrappers from the foreign food market in Itaewon. They usually have 3 or 4 sizes. I chose the medium sized ones. Obviously the bigger the wrappers the bigger your rolls will be. I only used about half of the packet making these, so they go a long way and they only cost about 5,000. You can also use them to make samosas. Use whatever veg and meat you like, I just used up all my leftovers.

Ingredients

½ a packet spring roll wrappers

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

1/2 a carrot

A small wedge of cabbage

100g of shredded chicken

2 eggs beaten

1/2 an onion

2 inches of ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1 packet of instant noodles

A bunch of cilantro leaves

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of sesame seed oil

900ml of soy bean oil (for deep frying)

Directions

1. The first step is to finely slice your vegetables. Get them the peppers and cabbage as thinly as possible and grate the carrot.

2. Boil the noodles until soft then drain.

3. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a minute or two to soften, then add the rest of the vegetables. Fry on high for five minutes until softened. Add the drained noodles, chicken, cilantro, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and sesame oil, and mix. Turn off the heat and put into a large bowl.

4. Peel off one spring roll wrapper and put it out on the chopping board. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture into the middle of the wrapper. Like below. Fold the top edge up, then wash the three remaining sides with the beaten egg. Fold the two other sides in and roll until you have a neat little spring roll. Set on a clean plate and repeat until all your mixture has been used.

5. When all of the spring rolls have been made, heat the oil to 190 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer let it heat on medium for about five minutes. Carefully put a spring roll into the oil, if it sizzles and floats to the top then it’s hot enough, if it doesn’t, turn it up a little higher and wait until it reaches temperature. Cook them in batches of about 5 for a couple of minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from the pan when they are done and let them drain on kitchen paper. Serve with your favourite dipping sauce and enjoy!

I have been making samosas for some time now but I have only just got around to sharing the recipe with you. We had a big housewarming party last week (hence the skittles soju), so I made up a big batch of these babies for finger food. If you are unfamiliar with Indian cuisine, samosas are the Indian version of a springroll, filled with potatoes, vegetables or meat, served in a triangle.

You can buy these springroll wrappers at the foreign food mart in Itaewon, they also have them at the Pinoy Mart in HBC. They come in various sizes  you can get huge ones, mediums and smalls. The ones I used here are the small ones as I was making them for the party. However I find the medium ones the easiest to work with.  You can use pretty much any vegetables for your filling, just use whatever you have. You need the potato as the base but after that its up to you. I like to put in courgette, sweet-corn and peas if I have them on hand. You can also add meat.

Ingredients

20 springroll/ samosa wrappers (I used the smaller ones)

4 medium potatoes

3-4 mushrooms

1 – 2 egg plants

2 tomatoes

1 green pepper

1 onion

5 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of garam masala

1 teaspoon of coriander

6 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper

900ml of soybean oil for deep frying

Directions

To make the filling, boil your potatoes until they are soft and fluffy. Then drain and leave to cool. Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until it has softened. Add the pepper and aubergine and cook for a further 5 minutes until they are lightly browned and cooked through. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms and the spices and fry for a few more minutes until everything has mixed together. Once this mixture is done remove it from the pan and leave to the side. In the frying pan heat 4 tablespoons of oil then add the potatoes (you may want to roughly chop them first). Fry them in the pan so they start to get a bit of a crispy coating on them, but move them around so they break up into small pieces. After five minutes of so add in the rest of the vegetables and mix everything together. Remove from the heat and leave to cool before filling the samosas.

You will need to defrost your wrappers before using. As they are so thin it doesn’t take too long. Just leave them on the side for about 30 minutes. Peel them off carefully as and when you need them and throw a damp cloth over the rest to stop them drying out. Fold your samosa paper in half making a rectangle as shown below. Take the bottom left hand corner up to the top so it makes a triangle shape. Fold this half over again so its back to a square then fold it over once more so you have your triangle. This may take a little bit of time to get the hang of but it gets easier the more you do it.

Take your pocket in your hand with the cone facing down. There will be several layers inside. Make a space between the second and third ones with your finger then put the filling inside. about 2 teaspoons worth is plenty. Push down the filling with your finger then fold or tuck the flap into the samosa to make the triangle. You can use some beaten egg to help this stick down to make sure the edge has completely sealed. There are plenty of videos on youtube if you have any trouble.

Put the samosa on a plate whilst you make the remaining ones. As you are stacking them up try not to let them touch each other so they don’t stick together. If you have any unused wrappers put them back into the packet and put them back in the freezer. Unfreezing and refreezing does not seem to harm them.  Heat your oil to 350 degrees or until a small piece of bread sizzles at the top and goes brown within a few seconds. When the oil’s hot enough pop 3 or 4 into the oil. They should take a couple of minutes until they are golden brown on both sides. Remove them from the oil and drain on kitchen roll to remove excess oil.  Repeat until all the samosas are done. If you’re looking for a healthier method of cooking then you can bake them in the oven with a little bit of oil sprayed on top of them. They come out reasonably well, although not as well as the deep-fried ones. You can serve these on their own with a nice raita dip (recipe here) or as side dish to curry. Either way they are a very tasty snack.

I really miss being able to buy ready-made pastry. Short-crust, filo or puff I love them all. Being able to go to the store and just throw a couple of things on a delicious pastry base makes such a lovely dinner. However with the lack of ready to roll pastry here in Korea, it’s a pain in the neck to have to make your own every time you want it.

I have been looking at my spring roll wrappers for a while now, they look very similar to filo pastry, would they work for a tart? Turns out they do, they worked even better than expected. They cook really quickly and have a nice crunchy texture. They are also really cheap so you can save those pennies and put them towards the filling.

Ingredients

16 Springroll / samosa wrappers (I got mine at the foreign food mart in Itaewon)

1 sliced tomato

150g grated cheddar/ mozzarella

4 teaspoons of Garlic herb Philadelphia

50 g spinach

2 red onions

Directions

Defrost the spring roll wrappers so you are able to peel them off one by one. Arrange them in your tin by layering them on top of each other. Try and skew them so you get the pointy bits the whole way around, about 3 or 4 will do it. Then choose your filling, pretty much anything will do here so let your imagination run wild. I just had a go with what was in the fridge. I caramelised some red onions with a bit of balsamic vinegar then topped them with the Philadelphia and then the grated cheese. The other ones I made had the spinach, tomatoes and grated cheese . Put them in the oven for about 5 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese has melted. Serve on their own or with a side salad. Voilà a quick and easy dinner.