Spring Roll
When it comes to food (as opposed to traffic), nothing beats living in Los Angeles. I stumbled upon a tiny Thai kitchen/grocery store today. Once inside I just started picking things out at random. The owner of the store, a tiny woman, came out from the storage room and questioned me at length as to what I intended on doing with all of the products I was purchasing from her. When it become apparent that I was clueless and going to make it up as I went along- she wouldn't have it. She took stuff out of my basket that she didn't think I needed, she put stuff in my basket that she thought I needed- it was awesome. I'm most excited about a HUGE package of spring roll wrappers I purchased for a dollar. I suppose I could Google it, but I trust the good folks of Serious Eats much more than Google. So, does anyone have any excellent spring roll recipes?
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5 Comments:
Are these the large, round, translucent wrappers for making fresh spring rolls? If so, my very favorite is the simple route - bean thread noodles, fresh basil leaves, bean sprouts, and cooked shrimp. Wrap, dip in peanut sauce, and enjoy! Yum yum yum...
myzkyti at 5:50PM on 05/23/08
I could totally see my mom adopting someone in the Asian grocery store!
I'm assuming the spring roll wrappers you bought were the rice paper wrappers, they're white, dry, and brittle, yes? The kind that you need to soak briefly in warm water to make pliable? If so, really you can roll whatever you want into them.
There are traditional ingredients specific to Vietnam or Thailand or other SE Asian countries, but we tend to use what we have or feel like having.
We like to lay out a smorgasbord of fresh veggies, some marinated and grilled chicken, shrimp, and we roll our own. We usually have some lettuces, leaf or romaine, cilantro, mint, crown daisy (favorite), mung bean sprouts, juliennes of carrots, cukes, red bell pepper, sliced avocado, sliced jalapeno, surimi. Sometimes to make it more filling there will be some rice noodles or buckwheat noodles to roll up. I've also used shredded green papaya as filler.
Of course with all these yummy, but watery vegs, you need some kind of sauce.
We just serve with peanut sauce, some fish sauce, and sri acha. Sometimes I'll make a crazy fish sauce concotion that is spicy and sweet to drizzle in the rolls or to dip.
It's a fun communal meal. Everyone makes their own rolls to suit themselves. It's a great way to eat fresh veggies.
wookie at 6:12PM on 05/23/08
That is a great experience! I love it when someone becomes my shepherd in a store where I seem to be wandering aimlessly...LOL. There's a huge Asian grocer in Brooklyn and a good samaritan produce guy was my shepherd.
As for the spring rolls, the beauty of them is that you can wrap just about anything in them.
I've enjoyed julienned veggies like carrots, jicama and roasted golden beets wrapped in the rice papers.
When we tried soaking the rice papers, they got gummy so we started spraying them with purified water from a spray bottle and that seemed to be the perfect amount of water to make the rice papers pliable but not turn them into jelly.
What more incentive does one need to make a nice healthy summery fresh hand roll than those rice papers!
chiff0nade at 7:30AM on 05/24/08
I do have the white, dry and brittle rice paper. I'm not exactly sure how it works because the directions are in another language. Do I just soak them in water for a few seconds and then wrap whatever I want in them? No cooking or anything involved? I Google imaged "Thai spring rolls" and they were all fried. In my opinion, that kind of defeats the purpose. I'd just eat an egg roll instead.
PumpkinBear at 3:52PM on 05/24/08
Yes, just soak for a few seconds in warm water. Let it rest for another few seconds and it should be very pliable and tender.
Use a container that is large enough for a sheet of rice paper to lay flat and to hold about 2.5 to 3 inches of water.
Do one sheet at a time. You'll develop a feel for the timing.
The hotter the water, the faster the process, but remember your hands are the best tools for manipulating these sheets, so don't make it too hot. Really hot water will cause it to instantly curl and then soften...really fast.. So if you aren't quick about it, you'll end up with torn or stuck to itself sheets of rice paper.
No cooking.
wookie at 5:10PM on 05/24/08