Recipe: Spice Temple’s Lamb and Fennel Spring Rolls, a New Twist on Its Beloved Dumplings

The dish has been created by executive chef Andy Evans as part of the restaurant’s 15th anniversary banquet.

Article by Hollie Wornes

Spice Temple's lamb and fennel spring rollsSpice Temple's lamb and fennel spring rolls are a twist on the original original lamb and fennel dumplings. Photograph courtesy of Spice Temple.

Sydney’s hospitality scene has been hit hard amidst the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and persistent inflation. In the last month alone, the city has bid farewell to the Ezra team’s vibrant Indian restaurant Raja, which opened just last July. The world-famous, fine-dining Japanese institution Tetsuya’s has announced its final service after a 35-year run, and Bistrot 916’s beloved Potts Point site doesn’t have long left due to the building’s demolition.

So, what does it take for a restaurant to stand the test of time, or in the case of Spice Temple, thrive for 15 years? Especially given it’s hidden below multiple flights of stairs in Sydney’s CBD (the only clue to its location is a door marked by a colourful, ever-changing curtain shining on an LCD screen).

Interiors of the dimly-lit restaurant.
The dimly-lit restaurant is located on 10 Bligh St in Sydney's CBD, below multiple flights of stairs. Photograph courtesy of Spice Temple.

Executive chef Andy Evans, who has been in the kitchen of Spice Temple since it opened in 2009, attributes its success to consistency.

“We have always stuck to regional Chinese cuisine,” Evans says.

“There’s certainly been times when we’ve experienced tough months. The boss would come in, show us receipts with red ink, and ask what we were going to do to change it up. But I would tell them to hang in there, that we’d keep delivering the best regional Chinese food, and it would almost always pick back up.”

This month, the Sydney diner will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a special birthday banquet menu featuring some of the most popular dishes from the past decade and a half.

It includes crowd-favourites that have been around since the beginning like Sichuan stir-fried prawns, fish drowned in heaven-facing chilies, and silken tofu with preserved eggs and soy chilli dressing, as well as reinvented classics like lamb and fennel spring rolls. The hearty appetiser is a twist on Spice Temple’s original lamb and fennel dumplings.

Bookings for the birthday banquet are open now, or you can savour the spring roll recipe beyond the month of June, thanks to Evans kindly sharing it with T Australia below.

The executive chef Andy Evans
The executive chef Andy Evans has been in the kitchen at Spice Temple since it opened in January 2009. He was head chef until Spice Temple opened in Melbourne in 2011, then he moved into the role of executive chef overseeing both venues. Photograph courtesy of Spice Temple.

Spice Temple’s Lamb and Fennel Spring Rolls

The below recipe makes around 80–100 spring rolls. It can be easily divided by four to make around 20 spring rolls.

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 4 mins

Ingredients

1.5 kg fatty lamb mince
30 gr minced ginger
30 gr minced garlic
120 gr ground fennel seed
200 ml light soy sauce
150 gr white sugar
75 ml sesame oil
250 ml chicken stock
120 gr potato starch

Spring roll wrappers (any size)

Dipping sauce of your choice.

What you’ll need

A large mixing bowl
Piping bag
Deep fryer or large pot filled with oil

Method

In a large bowl, mix the lamb and season well until a tight paste is formed and then place into a piping bag.

Pipe around 120 gr of mix into each wrapper and roll tightly.

Deep fry each roll in vegetable oil at 180c for four minutes.

Serve with tomato and chilli relish or a sauce of your choosing.