Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken Spring Rolls w/Sweet & Sour Dipping Sauce

I found the following recipe for Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken Spring Rolls on the Food.com website.  This recipe was featured on the UK television series Rhodes Across China with chef Gary Rhodes.  He was taught to make these spring rolls by local executive chefs in Hong Kong.   

Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken Spring Rolls 
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 medium carrot, shredded
1 small cabbage, shredded
100 g mushrooms, thinly sliced (about 6 medium size Baby Bella mushrooms)
200 g cooked chicken, shredded (about 1 small boneless, skinless chicken breast)
pinch of white pepper
3 teaspoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornflour
30 spring roll wrappers
vegetable oil for frying

Directions:
1.) Heat the peanut oil in a wok or large frying pan.  When hot, stir fry the carrot for 1 minute.  Add the cabbage, mushroom, and chicken and fry for another minute, stirring all of the time.

2.) Season with a little pepper; add the sugar, both soy sauces and the sesame oil.

3.) Combine 2 teaspoons of the cornflour with about 3 tablespoons of water and stir into the filling while still on the heat.  Any juices will soon thicken.  Remove from heat and leave to cool.

4.) Combine remaining cornflour with enough water to make a thin paste.  Lay out a spring roll wrapper and put 1 tablespoon of filling across one end.  Brush the edges of the wrapper with cornflour liquid to help it stick.

5.) Fold the two opposite edges of the wrapper over part of the filling and roll it into a tight cylinder.  Pinch the edges together to form a good seal.

6.) Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.

7.) Heat the vegetable oil in a pan or deep fryer, and cook rolls in batches until golden and crisp.

Sweet and Sour dipping sauce can be found in just about any grocery store, but in a moment of hubris I decided I would to try making it from scratch.  After searching online for what I thought would be the best sauce, I found a recipe on the allrecipes.com website.  This recipe looks promising, but I think I will probably make a few changes--possibly adding shredded carrots and using Splenda instead of sugar, for example. 

Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
2 cups water
2/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits, drained
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix together water, distilled white vinegar, white sugar, tomato paste, pineapple tidbits, and cornstarch.  Cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes, or until mixture reaches desired color and consistency.

I'm really looking forward to chowing down on these spring rolls.  I'll let you know how the rolls and sauce turn out in my next post.