Chicken lumpia

Before you start

• oil for frying — a deep pan no more than a third full
• thin spring roll wrappers, thawed slowly in the fridge, and kept under a damp cloth

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 200gchicken mince
• 12spring roll wrappers
• 1½ tbspoil for frying
• 1carrot
• 100gcabbage
• 80ggreen beans
• 4spring onions
• 3garlic cloves
• 1 tbspcornflour
• 1 tbspsoy sauce
• 3 tbspcane vinegar — for the dip, with a crushed clove in it
• to tasteblack peppercorns

Method

6 steps

1. chop · 12m

   Everything cut very small and roughly the same size — carrot, cabbage and beans in a fine dice, spring onions thin, garlic minced. Big pieces tear the wrapper from the inside.

2. fry · 11m

   Garlic, then the mince broken up small and cooked right through with no pink left, then the vegetables for two or three minutes only so they keep some bite. Soy and plenty of pepper. Any liquid in the pan is cooked off completely.

3. rest · 20m walk away

   Filling spread on a plate and left until it is properly cold. This is the step that decides whether the rolls survive the oil.

4. fold · 16m

   A wrapper corner-on, a tablespoon of filling in a line near the bottom, sides folded in and rolled tight, the last corner sealed with cornflour mixed to a paste with water. Tight rolls with no air pockets — trapped air expands and bursts them.

5. fry · 11m

   Oil into a deep pan, never more than a third full and never moved while hot, brought to the point where a scrap of wrapper sizzles at once. Rolls in a few at a time, turned as they colour, until deep gold and crisp.

6. finish · 3m

   Onto a rack rather than a plate, so the undersides do not sit and steam, with the vinegar and garlic dip alongside.