KING OYSTER MUSHROOM SPRING ROLLS

Steps:

• Prep the mushrooms, spring onions, carrot, and heat a pot of water to boiling, add the noodles and cook until tender. Drain the noodles and chop. Here, everything is prepped. Now you can take your spring roll wrappers out of the freezer to thaw on the counter.
• Heat about a tablespoon of extra light olive oil in a non stick pan, when hot, add the carrot. Saute until soft, just a few minutes. Heat a pot of water and when boiling, add the bean vermicelli and cook until soft, drain the vermicelli and chop.
• Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for a few minutes, stirring often. Goal is to soften the mushrooms, this type of mushroom does not release a lot of water so add a bit of extra light olive oil as needed. Saute for a few minutes to soften the mushrooms.
• Add the Thai basil and stir in, saute for a minute or two. The basil adds a depth of flavor and is not overpowering.
• When the basil is nicely wilted, add the spring onion and mix in. Add 1-2 dashes of soy sauce and oyster sauce and mix in, saute for just a minute or two. Remove from heat.
• Add the chopped vermicelli noodles to a large bowl or pot. Add mixture from the pan and mix together, taste and season with salt as desired. Set this aside to let it cool to room temp, about 1 hour.
• When you are ready to roll the spring rolls, open the package of spring roll wrappers, if working by yourself, you need to keep them covered with a damp cloth to prevent them from drying out. Ideally, two people would be perfect. One person to pull off each wrapper and one to fill. If the sheets dry out, they will tear when pulling them apart. There is two textures on a sheet, one side is smooth, the other side is a more rough texture.
• Mix together the cornstarch and water in a small bowl, this is your glue.
• Pull off one sheet and place smooth side down on a clean counter with one corner of the sheet facing you. Place a tablespoon or so of filling near the corner closest to you.
• Fold the bottom (the corner closest to you) up over the filling.
• Tightly roll away from you, the filling will spread some, that is fine. When the roll is just before the widest part of the pastry (left and right corners will be on the sides of the roll). Use your fingers and apply some glue to the two sides that are away from you, then fold the left and right sides towards the center. The roll should be about 5 inches long, and should look like an envelope.
• Continue to roll away from you and just pat the seam down with your fingers. There, you just made a spring roll. Repeat this process until all the filling is used.
• To fry these, heat about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a pan. When hot, add 5-6 spring rolls at a time and fry, turn often, until golden brown, These cook fast so keep an eye on them. Remove to paper towels to drain and fry the remaining rolls. Perfect color.
• Let cool for a few minutes then serve hot with a dipping sauce of your choice.