Harumaki is a crispy Japanese Spring Roll wrapped with a delicious filling of pork, chicken, shrimp, shiitake mushroom, carrots, and vermicelli. They make excellent finger food or appetizer.
Spring Rolls (or often called Egg Rolls and used interchangeably) is a dish found in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. Savory filling wrapped in flour-based pastry sheet and deep-fried till the outer shell is crispy and golden brown.
In Japan, we call this dish Harumaki (春巻き), a direct translation of “spring rolls” in Japanese. Harumaki was originally introduced to Japan by the Chinese and adapted for Japanese tastes.
Watch How to Make Harumaki
Harumaki is a crispy Japanese Spring Roll wrapped with a delicious filling of pork, chicken, shrimp, shiitake mushroom, carrots, and vermicelli. They make excellent finger food or appetizer.
Harumaki Ingredients
Typical ingredients for Harumaki (Japanese spring rolls) include some type of meat (pork, shrimp, etc), carrot, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoot, etc. Each family makes them slightly different, and today I’ll show how I make my tasty Harumaki. I learned my recipe from my mom using 10 ingredients for the filling.
Her signature Harumaki includes three types of protein – shrimp, ground pork, and chicken tender. However, ingredients for spring rolls are really up to your preference. You don’t have to include all 1o ingredients that I used. You can pick a couple of your favorites or experiment with fresh seasonal ingredients.
The only difference between my mom’s and my Harumaki is that my mom’s Harumaki is wider, one and half times wider than mine. Growing up, I had trouble picking up Harumaki with chopsticks to eat them so I made my Harumaki size similar to typical Chinese spring rolls size.
Dipping Sauce for Harumaki
Depends on the filling, you may want to change the dipping sauce, but typical Japanese Harumaki is served with the combination of soy sauce and rice vinegar and you can also add Japanese karashi mustard.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Harumaki (Japanese Spring Rolls)
Video
Ingredients
- 4 dried shiitake mushrooms (0.5 oz, 13 g)
- ¼ cup water (to soak dried shiitake mushrooms)
- 4 shrimps (2.5 oz, 70 g)
- 2 chicken tenders (2 oz, 55 g)
- ¼ lb ground pork
- 1.5 oz dried glass/cellophane noodles (harusame)
- ½ boiled bamboo shoot (7 oz, 200 g; keep half of the bamboo shoot submerged in water and store in the refrigerator for 2-3 days)
- 1 knob ginger (1", 2.5 cm)
- 1 Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) (0.8 oz, 23 g; use only white part)
- 2 stalks garlic chives (Chinese chives or Nira) (0.3, 8 g)
- 3 inch carrot (3.2 oz, 90 g)
- 2.5 oz bean sprouts (70 g)
- 1 Tbsp roasted sesame oil
- 10 egg roll (harumaki) wrappers
For Shrimp and Meat Marinate
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sake
- 2 tsp potato starch or cornstarch
For the Filling
- ¼ cup shiitake dashi (reserved liquid from soaking dried shiitake)
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp kosher salt (Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp potato starch or cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp water
For Sealing the Wrappers
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Soak dried mushrooms in ¼ cup water to re-hydrate, about 15 minutes.
- Cut shrimp and chicken tender into small pieces. Mix the ingredients for marinade in a medium bowl. Add the shrimp, chicken, and pork in the bowl and mix well. Set aside to marinade.
- Cook the vermicelli in a boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain well and cut into 1 inch length.
- Cut the bamboo, ginger, dried mushrooms, Tokyo negi, Chinese chives, and carrots into long strips (2 inch julienned pieces). Wash the bean sprout and drain well.
- To make harumaki filling, heat sesame oil and ginger over medium high heat in a large frying pan. Once fragrant, add the shrimp/chicken/pork and stir fry until no longer pink.
- Add bamboo shoot and carrot and stir fry until coated with oil and slightly tender. Add the bean sprout, Tokyo negi, Chinese chives, and dried mushrooms and stir fry, then add vermicelli.
- Add the ingredients for Seasonings and mix well.
- Combine potato/corn starch with water in a small bowl.
- After a quick stir, pour the potato starch mixture into the harumaki filling and mix well. Transfer the filling from the pan to a baking sheet or plate. Let it cool completely and evaporate the moisture. Make sure there is no moisture in the filling. Otherwise, the wrappers will break easily before and during deep frying (and might explode in the oil).
- Slowly peel each harumaki wrapper one at a time and keep them plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel to prevent from drying up while you work.
- To make harumaki, lay the harumaki wrapper with a corner pointed towards you (diamond shape). Place the filling neatly just below the center of the wrapper. I use an ice cream scooper to transfer the filling so the amount of filling for each wrapper is somewhat standardized. Start folding the bottom corner over the filling towards the top and tuck under the filling nice and tight.
- Roll the wrapper once to cover the filling, and fold the right and left corners of the wrapper in. They should overlap each other a little bit. Then roll toward the remaining corner. When you start rolling upward, the wrapper may flair out. Make sure both sides of the wrapper to taper inwards.
- Using your finger, put good amount of flour + water paste on the top corner. Then roll and press firmly to seal. Continue with remaining wrappers.
- Once you finish wrapping, start deep frying immediately before the wrapper gets soggy. Deep fry the harumaki in a deep fryer/wok/pot with 170°C (338°F) vegetable oil until light golden brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain the excess oil over a wire rack or paper towel.
- If you prefer to bake, preheat the oven to 400ºF (200°C). For a convection oven, reduce cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Arrange the harumaki in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops of the rolls with vegetable oil then bake them for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating after 6 minutes, until they're golden brown and crispy.
- Make a dipping sauce with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and Japanese karashi mustard as you like and serve with harumaki.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
