Sri Lankan Chinese Rolls*

Home cook: Sharmini Jayawardena

This is a perfect delicacy for snacking, as finger foods for afternoon tea, that Sri Lankans 🇱🇰 call short eats and as a main course for dinner 🥘🍴🍽 😍😋

15 rolls. Serves 6 persons.

Ingredients:

STEP ONE
Make a fish🐠🐟 🎣 or meat🍖 🥩 (minced chicken🍗, beef, mutton, pork🐖🐷 or wild boar🐗), filling.

To Make A Fish Filling –
1. Marinate a 200gm slice or chunk of fish (Tuna is ideal) in black pepper powder, turmeric powder, sea salt and vinegar, to taste.
2. Place in a pot and add water to cover the fish, open and boil until well done.
3. Remove and leave to cool. Then, remove the hard skin and bones and flake the fish into a bowl.
4. Add 1 leveled tsp curry powder, chili 🌶 powder, turmeric powder to the flaked fish and mix well.
5. Chop onions, mash garlic and ginger, get ready some curry leaves and a pandan leaf.
6. Add 2 tbsps coconut🌴🥥 oil or any vegetable oil to a pot and once heated, add the ingredients for frying.
7. When fried, Add the fish mixture to the fry and mix well. Let the mixture fry well. Add salt to taste and remove from fire.

To Make A Minced Meat Filling –
1. Marinate the minced Meat in black pepper powder, salt and vinegar to taste.
2. Add coconut oil to a pot. When heated, add chopped onions, mashed garlic and ginger, a few curry leaves🌿and a pandan leaf.
3. Add the minced meat to the fry and fry well. Add water to cover the meat, cover with a lid and cook until well done.
4. Add a handful of chopped mint leaves to the mix and and fry. Remove from fire🔥. Check for seasoning.
5. Leave to cool.

STEP TWO
1. Boil about 4 medium size potatoes🥔. Once boiled, remove from fire drain the water. (this water💦 is very nutritious. If they are organic potatoes, you can save it for adding to stews or soups. If not save the water to add to your vege plot!)
2. Add cold water, drain and leave to cool.
3. Peel the skin (save it for the vege plot), and mash moderately.
2. Add the mashed potato to the fish or meat, mix well and check for seasoning,(Add salt to taste).
Now your filling is ready.

STEP THREE
To Make Batter For Pancakes
1. 1/2 cup milk powder (Full cream, coconut milk powder or fresh milk)
2. 4 cups of wheat flour
3. 2 1/2 cups water
4. 2 eggs
5. 2 tsps sea salt

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together to make a smooth batter to pouring consistency. We need to make thin pancakes🥞.
2. Heat a frying pan🍳, add a knob of butter, turn it around. Spoon🥄 on the batter, turn the batter around the pan to cover the base of the frying pan.
(I use a bundle of rags or what is known as a pottaniya to grease the frying pan with butter.)
3. Let the pancake cook well. When it is crispy at the edges and light golden brown, remove on to a plate.

STEP FOUR

To Make The Rolls –

Method:
1. Scoop out about 2 dessert spoons of the filling on to the centre of the pancake. Arrange it like so –

2. Mix together some wheat flour and water in a small bowl, to make a semi watery mixture.
3. Apply this around the edges of the pancake like so –

4. Fold the pancake to form a roll like so –

Now your roll is done.
Continue making the rolls until you finish the pancake batter.

STEP FIVE
Mix some wheat flour and water to make a coating for bread🥖🍞 crumbing the rolls. (Not too liquidy).
Dip the rolls one by one in the batter, remove and place on a plate of bread crumbs. Roll the roll around so that it gets well coated in bread crumbs. Make sure all edges are coated well.

STEP SIX
1. Heat coconut oil or other vegetable oil in a wok or deep pan for deep frying the rolls. There must be enough oil to cover the rolls. Do the bread crumb test to find out if the oil is ready for frying. When it is ready the crumbs will float on to the surface. Make sure the oil is well heated.
2. Drop the roll carefully with a serrated frying spoon into the oil. When the roll is golden brown, pick it up with the spoon, drain the oil well.
3. Place the roll on a plate covered with kitchen paper, for draining excess oil from the roll. Continue to fry the rest of the rolls.

Your rolls are done.

Serve with bread and butter. With a side dish of salad🥗 and your favorite sauces. Tomato🍅 and chili sauce goes well with it.

Enjoy your hard work😁😍😋

*Sri Lankan Chinese rolls are a creation of the many Sri Lankan Chinese chefs who were famous for their numerous Chinese restaurants in Colombo, the capital city of Ceylon now Sri Lanka. Obviously, they could not find the exact ingredients for the original Chinese spring roll in Ceylon and they also altered their original recipes to suit the local palate. Hence, the creation of this great Sri Lankan Chinese delicacy.