I remember when I was a little girl, every year during the Ching Ming festival (the ancestors day), my mother, my brother and I made the Minan style (South China) spring rolls: in Hokkien dialect called Lunpia.
Fresh spring rolls wrappers could be brought in fresh noodles shops, then my mom prepared the filling at home and since it is the feast of the Ancestors Day, meat is not allowed and only vegetables can be used. My mom stir-fried all ingredients together: carrot, dried tofu, bamboo, black wood ear (o Jew’s ear, it is a type of fungus) and soia. Before eating, we must worship the ancestors together with the food, and then we ate and made spring rolls together.
The Minan style spring roll is not deep-fried; and in the filling, peanut powder sugar is added. This powder is so easy to make and so its preparation is usually left to the kids. My brother and I used to have a glass bottle to ground the peanut toasted by my mom. After that, just add some sugar in the powder and it is done!
The leftover spring roll wrappers can be used to make deep-fried spring rolls. But the quality of the wrappers affects the texture of the spring rolls. Those you can find in the supermarket, frozen wrappers are pale yellow in colour and are thicker than my face. It is not possible to have this pale yellow colour if it is made only with flour and water.
Though it is possible to buy the made-in-China frozen wrappers in Italy comfortably, using those wrappers will find the spring rolls filled up with oil, which probably can be found in many Chinese restaurants here; simply because of the quality of the wrappers.
To make fresh wrappers enough to use the simplest ingredients in the world: flour and water. Mixing flour and water to get a wet dough, then hold a piece of this slippery dough with your hand and smear a very thin layer on the hot pan and it is done! It sounds so easy however it is technically difficult to get it right. In Taiwan, there are some famous vendors who sell only spring roll wrappers.
It takes me quite a while to do it right. And now, finally, I am quite confident to say I can make authentic spring rolls good.
Picture 1: the mixture of flour and water
Picture 2: Grab the mixture in hand, very slippery
Picture 3: Smear a thin layer of the mixture on the hot pan
Picture 4: Remove the excess mixture from the layer carefully in order to keep it thin
Picture 5: Wait for the layer is well-cooked
Picture 6: remove the wrapper from the pan calmly
Picture 7: Put the vegetables mix on the wrapper and roll to form spring rolls.
Picture 8: Traditional spring rolls are not oily because it is not deep-fried, enough little oil to fry it, will be very crispy!
Picture 9: My homemade spring rolls
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