I have enjoyed this week like never before. It began with a dessert competition at my hubby's office where he bagged the first prize among 13 teams. We spent a lot of time of weekend experimenting and trying new stuff that we thought would bring us the prize home. I have never seen Sunoj so thrilled and excited and I was happy he won this prize. Our camera was out for repair so we had to rely on the photos shared by his colleagues. I will be uploading the pics with the recipe soon. Till then I hope this recipe will keep some of you engaged. In one of Sunoj's visit to Chennai we explored this gourmet shop at Beasant Nagar called 'Mercado'. Mercado is an absolute delight for those interested in sauces, preserves, cheeses and other tidbits for baking. We could not carry quite a lot of their stuff because in Chennai heat carrying frozen stuff would be the last thing you would want to do. So we got hold of these spring roll wrappers. The spring rolls I have had so far were the fried ones. So as I was skimming through the instructions I saw a recipe where the spring rolls were steamed instead of frying. I decided to stay with the recipe to cut down on the oil. It's quite simple and easy a snack to surprise your guests or even your kids. And the best part of it is that it's oil free. And the most exciting part for me is the flambe technique I practiced over the minced meat.
Ingredients for Steamed Spring Rolls
Spring roll sheets
Minced meat- 200 gm
Carrot- 1 grated
Cabbage- 100gm shredded
Onion- 1 sliced
Capsicum- 1 sliced
Green Sprouts- 100 gm
Celery- 1 stalk finely chopped
Soy sauce- 2 tsp
Oil- 2 tsp
Salt- to taste
Directions
Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. When they are well browned add the grated carrots, sliced capsicum and cabbage along with the sprouts and let them cook for 10 minutes. Now add the minced meat followed by soy sauce and salt. Cook the minced meat for 20 minutes before adding the celery.
Once the minced meat is cooked try the flambé though this is only an optional method. Flambe is done by pouring 40 % alcohol onto the food and igniting it to give the dish a special aroma or flavour. It is mostly done with cognac and rum or other flavoured alcohol. It is also a wonderful presentation technique where the host sets the dessert or the dish concerned on fire after setting the plate in front of the guests.My reason for trying this method had nothing to do with flavour but the want to experiment this dish. How I did this was by taking the pan of fire, I moved the pan away from fire and added the liquor (brandy) to the side of the pan such that when I took the pan back to fire and tilted it a bit the alcohol got hold the flame and burned for a while. I am not a pyromaniac but I did enjoy this trick. Please remember - ' never pour alcohol onto a dish on fire'.
Now open the spring roll sheet box these sheets are thin like wafers so one needs to take utmost care to not tear them. Dip each sheet in a sauce pan with water of such dimension that when you immerse the sheet in water it covers the whole sheet. I transferred these sheets onto a towel using tongs.
I then moved them onto a board and filled them with the minced meat stuffing. Make sure you do this fast so that it's easy to wrap and stick the edges. If the edges go dry and is not sticking use water to ensure the edges are sealed. And you are done !!
There is no need to fry or steam these rolls as they are ready to eat.Serve them with soya sauce or any other sauce you prefer. For a different stuffing you could use dried prawns, scrambled eggs and vermicelli with sprouts, something I hope to try next time.
