A Blog from Greece – Life at The Lemon Tree on Crete                      
Lusting after a Chinese spring roll… For many years I bought these little tasty morsels fresh or frozen from the supermarket or freshly made from the Chinese take-away and I must say I did like them quite a lot. Living in Kent there was a lovely little Chinese restaurant just up on the corner of the road. I had some very good meals from it and cannot complain which is very unusual for chefs and especially for me. Spring rolls served with a portion of rice or chips, some gravy or curry sauce made a great little filler and was not a bad meal at all. I was not a regular at the shop but we knew each other.

On one particular lunchtime I walked in to get something to eat and although the door was open they were closed, but they cooked something for me, I said thank you very much and they were happy from my custom. Along with the convenience of having a takeaway just up the road I do miss occasionally the specific foods that they sell that are quite hard to get hold of or reproduce authentically yourself. I have had it in mind to set about this project for a while.

Supermarkets these days offer all of the fast food and convenience styled foods, for all occasions, some good, some not good; I have not tried a lot of it although Anita has cooked some meals for me from the more fresh and more expensive side from the range such as racks of lamb ready trimmed to put in the oven (very lovely I must say). Looking at the vast range available I would find a pack of spring rolls, meat or vegetables.  Ten to a pack did me fine, I would probably pop them in the oven or just let them defrost for a few minutes and then finish them in the frying pan. With rice or noodles it would be grand on occasions when I did not feel like cooking and wanted something easy to prepare.

Living here I had fond memories then of these and had decided to come up with something similar but had decided not to yet embark on making the traditional wrapping, instead substituting a pancake style wrap for my filling using the pasta dough mix that has been successful in making ravioli. This paste gives a wrap that holds together well, is not too heavy but when fried reproduces a slight crispy texture that I was looking for. The only difference is that  I perhaps made it a little thinner than I would normally for pancakes but be careful of rolling your paste too thin or you may not achieve the fold over you need as it could just break  up.

I decided that the meat for my spring rolls would be chicken; I had recently cooked a chicken and used some and cut up some to use for general day purposes.

Recipe and method

I used a prepared mix of pasta paste from the fridge - see upcoming blog    On The many Ways of Pasta to be posted this week after our little valentine feature. Alternatively you can use a savoury pancake wrap (Recipe -  of the standard one cup of strong flour to one cup of one cup of milk plus one egg and seasoning; you can make it interesting by adding some mild spices to the mix…. Again another future blog)
2 chicken legs  - already cooked
2-3 medium sized onions
A good handful each of mushrooms and courgettes
6 – 8 oz of cooked rice
Salt and pepper for seasoning and garlic salt or cloves; chilli can be added carefully
Bean sprout can of course also be used - but they are not fresh on Crete or easily available
You can also used carrots and cabbage in this recipe as they add nice flavour and texture to the combination; in truth almost any vegetables you have spare can be used

Method

Remove meat from bone; take care that all bones are taken out; chop but not too finely and keep in cool place

Chop the vegetables thinly

Fry off the onions and courgettes in oil, add garlic and seasoning

Stir in the mushrooms for a quick hot fry

Add your rice to the mix and stir in well over a low heat to warm through (6-8 oz cooked rice - long grained cooked will do; the rice can be seasoned with turmeric when you cook it as it does add flavour and a nice colour; also makes it a little different)

Add the chicken and stir in well (remember it has already been cooked)

I had made a very simple quantity of pasta paste

I took my pasta dough from the fridge - it was cool and ready to put through machine and rolled until I got the right texture (thin, but not breakable – see my pictures, they actually came up quite thick once fried)

I made sure that the pieces were floured so they did not stick to the surface

Placing my rolled pasta out in front of me I cut them into large rectangles – the size is up to you (remember they will fold over and be sealed and so the final size will reduce accordingly)

I spooned the cooked mixture along the middle - taking care not to overfill to but at the same time to give it a good filling

I needed to bring both edges together with a little overlay

With a brush use a very little bit of water to seal the edges together gently ensuring that the edges are totally sealed

Repeat until you have do not have any mix left

I popped mine in the fridge to cool it made them more stable to fry

Put a medium frying pan on heat, gently lay into fry, leave a few minutes and repeat on other side

You can deep fry but I like my oil to last a little while and with all the moisture in the filling it will spoil your oil rather quickly

Any leftovers are ideal for popping in the oven the next day to reheat

When they are all cooked you have a feast on your hands; get stuck in and enjoy! Invite friends if you want to!  

Our emphasis in these blogs from Crete is on food because that is what we do at The Lemon Tree, but we aim in these little blogs from Crete to also give a reflection of life in a Greek Village on Crete. Simply put, we live here; have a family here and a business. Thus we encounter daily both the joys and tribulations of life in a Greek village, some of which are familiar to the whole of Crete and Greece, some of which are unique to village life; some which villagers alike share or  are experienced by us as settlers in this land. Alongside these writings you will find recipes and ideas about food.

For previous blog articles please click on the link at the bottom of the ‘blog page’ and if you are searching for a particular food recipe such as curry or food ingredient such as cabbage  – then type in the keyword in the search box on the website and Hey Presto! This will bring up the recipes that contain this ingredient.

We write the blogs together; mostly the food stuff is Mark and some of the other bits are Anita or what we come to through general chat (or heated discussion, depending on the day….) Mark is dyslexic - he writes a first draft, hands it over to Anita (who puts on her old English teacher’s hat) to redraft and develop, adding a bit here and there; this seems to work!

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