Spring Onion Stuffed Beef Rolls

350 g beef (topside, silverside, or similar cut)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger root
3 spring onions, trimmed, using white and green parts
Flour
Vegetable oil
½ lemon, cut into 4 wedges

Cut the beef into very thin slices about 3 mm thick. This is easier to do if the beef has been partially frozen. Place the beef slices in a dish. Combine the soy sauce, mirin, and ginger and pour over the beef slices, mixing well. Marinate for half an hour.

Cut the spring onions into pieces as long as the beef is wide. Divide the onions lengthwise into halves or quarters so that there will be some white and some green to stuff each roll.

Lift the beef slices out of the marinade, lay a piece of spring onion on each beef slice and roll up, dabbing a little flour on the end of each beef slice first to hold the roll together. Coat the rolls with flour, shaking to remove the excess.

Heat 5 to 7.5 cm of oil in a tempura pan or saucepan to about 175º C on a frying pan thermometer or until bubbles form on wooden chopsticks stirred in the oil. Fry the rolls, a few at a time, for about 2 minutes, turning once or twice. Drain them on the rack of the tempura pan or on paper towels. Garnish with the lemon wedges. Serve hot and as freshly cooked as possible.

Instead of deep frying the beef rolls, they may be sauteed, in which case do not coat them with flour. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet and saute the rolls for about 3 to 4 minutes over fairly brisk heat, turning so that they brown all over. The flavor is surprisingly different.