Save the world: Eat a meatless meal

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/2010/06/vegan-recipes-cantaloupe-and-cherry.html
I have been following Reduce Footprints and link her site with mine. Her idea is "Easy ways for each of us to reduce our footprint on the earth". Her philosophy is similar to mine.

It's the first Friday of the month and that means ... a vegan recipe. Eating meatless meals is one of the easiest ways to walk gently on the earth. Even one meal a week makes a tremendous difference.

I am a meat eater and my daughter is a vegetarian. I separate my meat dish with my vegetable dish so I don't contaminate her vegetables.

Recently, I started making spring rolls. The boys like it deep fried so they come crispy. The daughter likes it unfried like the popiah in Singapore. It is such a coincidence that my good friend and fellow blogger Sarawakiana has just done a post on the spring roll history and of the spring roll wrapper of our home town Sibu.

Recipe:

Step one:
Ingredients for the filling:
shredded cabbage, carrots, capsicum in different colours, bean sprouts, onions, mushroom, leeks.
salt and pepper to taste.
(Optional, dried mushrooms, ear fungus, fried eggs if your diet permits)
A quick sautee in two spoons of cooking oil.
For a more substantial meal, you may add a little rice noodles or vermicilli.

Step 2: Put the cooked vegetables in a strainer and press as much liquid out of the vegetables. Let them cool a little.


You can buy fresh wrappers if possible or frozen ones. Remember after you have opened the packet, you have to cover them in a moist tea towel to prevent them from drying out.

Wrapping: I learned this new technique from a famous food caterer in Australia, place the square in front of you, fold about 1/3 from one corner. This is the secret to not having the spring roll from bursting when you cook them, as there is double layers where you put the filling, and the moist filling will not seep through and cause a hole and leakage.

make a little glue with corn starch.

when you wrap, wrap it tight.


Technique:
Carefully separate the wrappers so they don't split.

Place two table spoons of veg filling, fold from the pre-folded side once, then fold from the sides, roll or fold until you have two inch corner,

Smear some glue at the corner and seal.

Deep fry until golden brown. It should not take very long as the wrapper is very thin and your veg is already cooked.

You may or may not want a dipping sauce, which can be a sweet chilli sauce or a lemon, ginger, chilli, honey mix, or even mayonaise.

For an unfried spring roll/ popiah.
You may like to smear some Hoisin sauce on the wrapper, wrap as you would do with the fried ones.

My friend K in Singapore always has a lettuce leaf before she places her filling. Sprinkles some chopped peanut as well. And she being my best friend and "sister". she remembers I am allergic to peanuts always makes sure I don't get the peanut ones.

The best thing about this is the whole family can make this. As you can see from the photo, the spring rolls are uneven. My 13 year old son made his own.

Some treat this as an entree, We treat it as a meal. After all the shredding, wrapping and frying, I don't feel like cooking again.