Shrimp and Cabbage Spring Rolls

Oy.

It pains me to realize that this blog is in critical danger of meeting the fate that most New Years(ish) resolutions face - extinction. There are lots of reasons for that which I could get into here, but the fact of the matter is, it's always life that tends to get in the way, isn't it?

The time for cooking (or the time to set aside the time to devote to the completeness of the ritual) has been in short supply as of late. There is little space left over between interviews and applications, airports and bus shelters, reading and making endless barrages of words with varying importance.

So in the meantime, there have been meals made of pretzels and mustard, hastily eaten sandwiches in rish hour traffic, days that I subsist on coffee until 5 PM. And, god help me, during one particular day of weakness - a microwave dinner.

I know, I know. There's room for improvement, clearly. I have quite a backlog of photos on my camera from past meals that I just haven't had the time to document. And, quite frankly, most of the recipes that I've attempted in the past few weeks have been subpar, at best.

When we moved from Michigan to the Pacific Northwest in 2005, my grandparents moved with us. Early on, my mother instated the ritual of taking my grandparents shopping for groceries in Chinatown every other Saturday. While I could never drag my sleep-deprived carcass out of bed early enough to ever come along (I use the term "early" in a way that could only be applicable to high school and college students), I could always count on finding a few extra Tupperware containers in the fridge nestled amongst the newly purchased bags of oranges and apples. Sometimes they would be jia li jiao (curried meat turnovers), or tsung you bing (green onion pancakes). Although all of these foods were definitely welcome visitors to my stomach, chun juan (fried spring rolls) were the key to my heart - and my grandmother's tour de force. Somehow, she had mastered the perfect alchemy of cabbage, carrots and dried shrimp, bound together with just the right combination of sauce, salt, and sweetness.

Now that my grandmother has passed away and my grandfather is back in Taiwan, I'm pretty much on my own when it comes to fulfilling my craving for Chinese treats. When I was struck by a longing for spring rolls the other day, I was initially stymied by not having a recipe. After a little experimentation, the ultimate lesson became clear: never underestimate the power of nostalgic tastebuds.

Shrimp and Cabbage Spring Rolls

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head of green cabbage, sliced thinly
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 2 stalks green onions, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups dried shrimp (xia mi) - can also be substituted with 1 lb cooked and chopped coldwater shrimp
• 1/2 cups dried shitake mushrooms (or three large portobella mushrooms, sliced and cooked)
• 2 heads garlic, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp black bean paste (salty, not sweet)
• 1 tbsp rice wine (or a dry sherry)
• 1 1/2 tsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 package dried spring roll wraps

INSTRUCTIONS

Filling:

1. If using dried mushrooms and shrimp, you will need to presoak them before for a few hours until they are soft enough to chop. You might also get away with soaking them for less time in hot water.
2. Mix soy sauce, black bean paste, wine, and sugar into a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Saute garlic and sesame oil over low-medium heat until garlic is browned. Add mushrooms and shrimp and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
4. Add cabbage and carrots, turn to medium heat and stir fry until almost tender. (5-7 minutes)
5. Add green onions, and sauce. Saute for an additional 2 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.

Making:

1. Prepare a large pan of hot water.
2. Reconstitute a spring roll wrap in the water for 30 seconds, or until soft. Do not oversoak (or use water that is too hot), or the wrap will dissolve and tear.
3. Drop in 1/8 cup of filling towards the bottom third of the wrapper.
4. Fold in the sides, and then roll upwards to form a wrap.
5. Eat fresh, or fry in a pan with a little bit of canola oil. Makes about a dozen spring rolls.

This was the perfect recipe for a big dinner with people that have a variety of food preferences, since the ingredients can be prepared separately.

Spring roll wraps in themselves are vegan, so the recipe would be a good substitute for egg rolls (minus the shrimp, obviously). Obviously there is also quite a bit of latitude with the vegetables for the filling - I used the more traditional cabbage and carrots, but there is certainly a lot of room for experimentation. Portobellas can be used in conjunction with the shitakes for fungophiles. For people who like seafood, you can substitute oyster sauce for the black bean sauce.

I ended up preparing all the ingredients separately (though you will need to probably make multiple batches of the sauce), throwing few pans of hot water and stacks of wrappers onto the table, and let everyone assemble their own wrapsm which probably wouldn't be kosher from a public health inspection viewpoint. But hey, let's not split hairs because let's face it, they're pretty damn delicious, germs or no.