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Popiah/Shanghai spring roll wrappers


aprilmei

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I was in Shanghai for a few days (great food) and while going through one of the food markets, came across this young lady making wrappers for Shanghai spring rolls. She did it with such ease - slapping this very elastic dough into the cast iron pan set over a gas burner then a few seconds later, peeling it off and adding it to a growing stack of wrappers. She would occasionally use a cloth to very lightly oil the pan. The dough was very "loose" - she occasionally (not constantly) would rotate her hand so the dough wouldn't drip through her fingers.

I'm going to attempt them this weekend. I have Florence Lin's recipe (from the Dumplings and Noodles cookbook) - the ingredients aren't expensive so even if I fail (which I expect to), that's not a problem, but I would appreciate any tips from experienced popiah wrapper-makers. Couldn't ask the woman in Shanghai because I think she was tired of people watching her - a friend who went to watch her after me got chased away.

TIA

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Hmm correct me if I'm wrong but while your description of the elastic dough sounds very much like popiah, Shanghai (are you asking for a specifically Shanghainese one?) spring roll wrappers and popiah are not the same...

Anyhow, I did ask about popiah wrappers before and a member posted a recipe http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=110801&hl=

There are two available in that link. From my experience, I find that adding a little bit of oil to the batter provides for a much smoother and thinner wrapper.

Musings and Morsels - a film and food blog

http://musingsandmorsels.weebly.com/

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Yes, I did ask specificially about Shanghai wrappers. The ingredients might not be the same but the wrappers for both popiah and Shanghai spring rolls are made in the same way. I was in Shanghai when I saw this, after all, and she did have some filled spring rolls ready for people to buy and fry at home.

The dough for the Shanghai wrappers was very white so I'm sure it didn't contain any egg. And it's definitely a dough (like the second recipe in that other thread) rather than a batter (like the first).

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Checked youtube and found a few videos; the tip about working over ice water seems a good one.

This one is more like the vendor in Shanghai - she didn't put the dough down between making each wrapper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfz7od7bpos

I'm guessing this woman puts her original handful of dough back into the container because it's getting too warm:

And here's some people working in tandem (although I suspect the man could do it by himself if he wanted/needed to):

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Hi again, about the white wrapper, you're probably right about the mixture not containing any eggs, but I hear you can still get the same 'white' result by using only egg whites. I'm not quite sure how to substitute the amount of egg yolks for white though...I quite like the taste of eggs in my spring rolls wrappers.

Musings and Morsels - a film and food blog

http://musingsandmorsels.weebly.com/

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