Dear NG,

I have been eating my mothers spring-rolls for many years, and I loved the way
she cooked it. I have helped her a few times in cooking them, but now that I
try to cook them on my own I am having a hard time. The ingredients I used seem
to be fine, 1cup flour, 1 cup starch, 3-5 cups water and some salt. The problem
is actually the uniformity, proper thickness (the thing should be as thin as a
paper and yet as flexible as rubber), and radius control. I don't have many of
the utensils my mother used, for instance the brush in which she uses to spread
the batter on the teflon pan. I either get it too thick, or too thin, or too
sticky or too small.. just not perfect! I do remember my mother never used her
wrapper pan for other purposes than making spring-roll wrappers (unfortunately
I got only one of these pans ). Can someone guide me into some techniques? I
learn fast in cooking, so I just need a few hints. I have been working for
hours and had made maybe 3 good wrappers out of 20 wrappers and I just tilt the
pan to spread the batter (instead of using a brush..sometimes I use a paper to
spread it uniformly.. but the pan is sometimes hot and the thing just forms too
fast, so heat adjustment is very important and if you try to shape it with a
spoon too often you get gaps in the wrapper and it spoils the whole thing).
Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Jose Capco

Jose Capco > wrote:
> I have been eating my mothers spring-rolls for many years, [...] but
> now that I try to cook them on my own I am having a hard time. [...]
> I don't have many of the utensils my mother used, [...] I have been
> working for hours and had made maybe 3 good wrappers out of 20
> wrappers [...]

I hope this suggestion isn't unwelcome, but if you can possibly get
hold of the same kind of equipment that your mother used, you might
find the cost of it to be worth the many hours of your time spent
struggling with substandard equipment.

It could of course also be that you just need to keep practising! How
many years did your mother spend making spring roll wrappers before
she could do it effortlessly?

(I buy my spring roll wrappers from the Chinese supermarket so I can't
offer anything much more useful than that.)

Kake

I haven't seen anyone make spring roll wrappers but one technique used to
make a super thin tortilla or crepe is to pour some batter into the pan,
swirl it around, and then pour it out of the pan leaving a very thin coating
on the pan to cook. You might need to trim the edge you pour off of or push
that batter down the side before it sets.

"Jose Capco" > wrote in message
...
> I have been eating my mothers spring-rolls for many years, and I loved the way
> she cooked it. I have helped her a few times in cooking them, but now that I
> try to cook them on my own I am having a hard time. The ingredients I used seem
> to be fine, 1cup flour, 1 cup starch, 3-5 cups water and some salt. The problem
> is actually the uniformity, proper thickness (the thing should be as thin as a
> paper and yet as flexible as rubber), and radius control.

[moderator snip of excess quoting - please people, take more care over your
posts!]