5 February, 2023
SPRING ROLLS | The Reason Behind Name
(Shot 1)
“SPRING ROLLS” : Why is it named as Spring Rolls? What’s the role of Spring in this dish?
Deep fried crispy golden rolls enclosing savory filling of spiced vegetables and served with tangy and spicy dipping sauces. Spring Rolls are an enormously popular appetizer all around the world, especially in Asian countries.
Traditionally, Spring Rolls consist of vegetable fillings but after it gained popularity in various countries, the recipe became diverse. Different countries adopted the Spring Rolls differently and gave this dish different names. Capsisum, carrots, cabbage juliennes and spring onions are the main ingredients for its filling but at some places meat is also used. Some restaurants stuff noodles in it, some use red bean paste and there are many other versions too. This can be savory, sweet, non-fried or steamed. The recipe for its dipping sauce also varies from place to place.
Crispy on the outside and juicy, crunchy vegetables inside make these wrappers everyone’s favorite delight. The big rolls are cut into small pieces before serving and enjoyed as a bite-sized snack.
(Shot 2)
The Origin and History:
‘Spring Rolls’ were associated with the celebration of Chinese New Year and represented the evolution from one weather to another. This dish is at least 1700 years old and evolved from flour pancakes to crispy deep fried rolls.
Place of Origin : China
First version of Spring Roll was made differently, looked more like a thin pancake made of flour and named “Spring Dish” or “Spring Cakes”. These traditional pancakes were made to celebrate the arrival of Spring Season and sent as gifts and blessings to friends and relatives.
Gradually, people started incorporating more ingredients to this dish. People who couldn’t afford much, added carrots and celery to the spring cakes while the rich families had various additions like sauces, meats, spinach, beansprouts, eggs, vermicelli and fried dishes.
Later on, when the cooking skills were more developed and evolved, cooks started stuffing these traditional pancakes with shredded seasonal vegetables and rolled them into what we know today as spring rolls. These cylindrical rolls were deep fried until a beautiful golden color and when placed one on the top of the other, looked similar to golden bars which symbolizes wealth.
(Shot 3)
The Cultural Relevance of Spring Rolls in China:
In China, ‘Spring Rolls’ are a must have dish during spring festival as it is believed that it attracts wealth and prosperity.
Why is it named as Spring Rolls?
In the olden Chinese Era, ‘Spring Rolls’ were made on the first day of Spring with lots of Spring season vegetables and usually eaten during the Spring festival in China. This was a seasonal dish which indicated the start of the Spring season and hence named “Spring Rolls” in China.
Even today they are called ‘Spring Rolls’ because of the Spring season’s vegetables used in it. It has no connection to the springs used in the mechanical field.
This dish has now moved from being a seasonal and festival food to the all time favorite snack. This is available throughout the year everywhere and made with a variety of vegetables.
(Shot 4)
The Making:
‘Spring Rolls’ preparation consists of two important steps: Vegetable Filling and Spring Roll Sheet or Wrapper.
Note:
As all the vegetables used for its filling have high water content, it is important to extract the water from these vegetables before stuffing them in the wrappers. If we’ll not extract the water from the vegetables before stuffing, it’ll make the spring rolls soggy and decrease its shelf life.
This dehydration of vegetables can be done in two ways.
First method is “Salting”, add salt to the shredded raw vegetables and leave them aside for 10 minutes. The vegetables will start losing the water. Squeeze out all the water from the vegetables and then saute. Basically, this process of “Salting” is called “Osmosis” or “Osmotic Dehydration”.
Second method is, saute the vegetables on high flame in a thin vessel and add corn flour and water mixture to these vegetables. Cornflour will absorb all the excess moisture or water of the
vegetables and the filling will remain dry. Make sure to cook the vegetables on high flame otherwise the vegetables will leave water. Also do not overcook it, as we want a good crunchy texture in vegetables.
Some people squeeze out the water from filling after the sauteeing process but this process is not preferable as it drains out all the flavor as well from the prepared mixture. In this case, we need to keep the vegetables over seasoned.
Let the filling cool down before stuffing them in wrappers.
Spring Rolls sheets can be made at home or also can be bought from the market. Readymade frozen sheets available in the market are convenient to use.
(Shot 5)
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