Written by Last week I said that I'd have a bit of a run on spring rolls.
Here's the fourth rolled or wrapped item to play with. Your good old, standard, garden variety crispy spring roll.
This can be done as a pork roll, a prawn roll, or a vegetarian roll, as you prefer.
Unlike the Chinese and Thai varieties, these spring rolls are made from a raw filling. The texture is really nice..
Avoid making the mix too wet so the paper does not split.
This is a GLUTEN FREE spring roll – depending on how you seal it shut, and what the skins are.
In Vietnam we use rice paper, not wheat pastry, so the wrappers are fine.
The spring rolls can be sealed with either beaten egg (Gluten free) or corn starch paste made with boiling water (Perhaps not gluten free as some manufacturers do not use 100% corn in their corn starch. But it is vegetarian)
Here's the recipe.
Vietnamese pork spring roll recipe (makes 15 each. All units in grams, but will scale)
15 Rice Paper for spring rolls
80 Pork mince, lean
60 Taro
15 Mushrooms, Jelly /Ear / Black Fungus DRY
10 Glass noodles / Vermicelli
5 Coriander, fresh
10 Carrots
20 Tofu, white, hard
10 Spring onion
10 Garlic, crushed fresh
10 Shallot, red, freshly chopped or minced
5 Pork powder/granules – Knorr, Maggi, Ajinomoto etc
5 Salt
2 pepper, black, freshly ground
As you can see, everything is fresh!
Freshly shredded, mixed together, seasoned with salt, pepper, pork powder, and then an egg is beaten through.
If adding shrimp/prawns, mince or chop them well.
For pork, use lean mince, not fatty.
For vegetarian fillings, swap the pork for some cooked mung beans or yellow beans. It's the local style, and very nice.
After all of the main ingredients are in, and the mix seasoned, crack an egg in and beat it through.
Not too wet!
After the mix is done, start rolling the spring rolls in rice paper.
You'll be looking for the soft, pliable, edible rice paper for rolling spring rolls.
These are different from the thick inflexible round dry sheets used for rice paper wraps. Those require soaking, and do not fry well.
First fold up the bottom about 2.5cm/1 inch, so the filling rests on a double thickness of rice paper.
Don't overfill or under fill. This is critical.
The best tip is to keep the sides absolutely straight, and use the fold inwards to measure the length of the spring roll.
Fold each one with the same overlap, and all the spring rolls will come out of even length!
When you're almost at the end of the roll and have 1cm left, brush it with cornstarch paste or beaten egg.
This will stick the rice paper together.
This can be made by stirring boiling water into a small bowl of corn starch / cornflour.
To finish, simply fry the spring rolls in clean oil at around 170 – 180 degrees C until golden and crispy on the outside, and cooked through.
Serve with your choice of:
- Plum sauce
- Sweet chilli,
- Fish sauce with chilli and garlic
- Water, sugar, chilli and fish sauce
- Soy & chopped chilli
- Mayonnaise and local chilli sauce
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