egg rolls (love letters)

I have many recipe books at home. Most of the recipe books are in respect of cakes and cookies although I do have some recipe books in respect of dishes. Da's friend, SNC (God rest his soul) also gave me a very thick recipe book containing recipes for Indian dishes. I must admit that I have to date not tried out the recipes (sorry, my friend... I will get round to this!). I have, however, cooked Indian dishes using recipes that I obtained directly from SNC (that is, his own creations). My all-time favourite is his recipe for dhal.

Other than printed recipe books, I also have 3 notebooks containing recipes that I have obtained from relatives, friends, magazines, television, etc and handwritten into the notebooks. My 1st notebook dates back to the mid-1980s. Some of the pages are falling apart (it is one of those notebooks with rings at the binder) but the recipes are very precious to me. In this notebook are several recipes that I obtained from my maternal grandmother (God rest her soul. I miss her dearly), who took a boat from China to Malaysia at the tender age of 6. Her last trip out of Malaysia was to attend Da's and my wedding in 1998. From then till the day she died on 13 January 2008 (her date of death according to the English calendar), she did not travel out of Malaysia.

Over the years, I have always looked forward to visiting my grandmother. Up till the last few years of her life, she was the queen of her kitchen, personally doing the marketing and the cooking. Each time her grandchildren visited her, she would always find the time to make snacks and allow us to assist her. To my regret, I did not obtain more recipes from her.

One of my grandmother's recipes that I have managed to record is that of egg rolls (popularly known as "love letters"). My grandmother used to make the egg rolls using a mould and a charcoal stove. Nowadays, you can buy an egg roll maker (which looks similar to a sandwich maker). Egg roll lovers will, of course, tell you that egg rolls made over a charcoal stove taste better. But I guess if you do not wish to slave over a charcoal stove, an egg roll maker is the next best thing.

Ingredients

600g plain flour
600g fine sugar
13 eggs
3 coconuts


Method

1. Squeeze out the milk from the coconut.

2. Beat the sugar and eggs until the mixture turns light.

3. Add the flour slowly using a metal spoon and stir until the mixture is properly mixed.

4. Pour in the coconut milk bit by bit and stir. Stop adding any more milk when the mixture is of medium thickness.

5. Pour one tablespoonful of the mixture into the mould and place the mould over a charcoal stove. Alternatively, pour a thin layer of the mixture into an egg roll maker. Check from time to time to see whether the egg roll is ready.

6. Bake until the egg roll is golden brown.

7. Take the egg roll out of the mould / egg roll maker and roll or fold it.

8. Store in an airtight container.


Tips

If you intend to fold the egg roll, you may like to consider mixing some chopped peanuts with sugar and adding half a tablespoonful of the peanut mixture to the centre of the egg roll before you fold it.