Mushroom and smoked chicken crispy spring rolls and chilli dipping sauce

Makes 18

Take a dip: Spring rolls filled with smoked chicken and shiitake and dried black fungus mushrooms (Laura Edwards)

The Chinese use a vast variety of mushrooms, and often they'll be dried like the black fungus here. I like them for their unusual, almost rubbery texture, but the flavour is subtle, so to ramp these rolls up, I've added fresh shiitake as well.

For the chilli dipping sauce

3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp rice-wine vinegar
1 tbsp Chinese chilli oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp dried chilli flakes

For the spring rolls

100g/3½oz smoked chicken breast, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
50g/2oz bamboo shoots, shredded
5 spring onions, shredded
50g/2oz shiitake mushrooms, shredded
10g/½oz dried black fungus mushrooms, rehydrated and shredded
18 spring-roll wrappers (approx 150mm x 150mm)
Light-flavoured oil for deep frying

Mix all of the dipping sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

To make the spring rolls, mix all of the filling ingredients together with a pinch of white pepper. Lay the spring-roll wrappers on a flat surface and place one tablespoon of the filling diagonally across the bottom half of one wrapper. Fold the corner of the wrapper over the filling then fold in both sides then roll up to form a spring roll. Set aside while you make the remaining spring rolls.

Heat about 5cm of oil in a heavy-based pan, you will know it is hot enough when a cube of bread dropped in the oil turns golden in 30 seconds. Gently lower the spring rolls into the oil a couple at a time and cook until golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen towel and keep warm. When all the spring rolls are cooked, serve with the chilli dipping sauce.