I must preempt this recipe by saying that it took me about 2.5 hours to make 5 or 6 spring rolls, which turned out looking ridiculous. And of the 2.5 hours, the first was me just dealing with the wrappers. In the chaos, I would say as many as 7 of those noodly suckers ended in casualties.
Luckily, it is Mother's Day! So I can justify this painstaking kitchen effort as part of my big plan to please Mom. I was even so good as to make sure she was not in the house while I went about the business of seriously messing up her kitchen, so she still has NO CLUE how many of the torn, mushy wrappers ended up gooped on her floor and down the front of her stove (Mom don't read this!)
Nevertheless, if you have a few hours to kill and would like to learn more about Asian cooking, you will need the following ingredients (though I am ultimately imploring you to call your local Vietnamese restaurant--or Thai, or Korean, or whatever and just order them in!)
- 18 to 20 spring roll tapioca wrappers (found at an Asian specialty foods store)
- 1 head Boston Bibb lettuce, leaves separated and largest leaves cut in half
- 1/2 cup cooked shrimp, tails and shells removed, then diced
- 1/4 lb cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast, diced fine
- 1/2 cup carrots, shredded
- 4 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 cup bean sprouts
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 1 egg white
* Cook one spring roll wrapper at a time in a large (10 inch or larger) skillet over medium heat. Translation: carefully remove one very delicate wrapper from the pack of wrappers and just see if you can get it to the skillet before it breaks.
*If you can, place it in the skillet, slowly shifting it around with a spatula until the whole thing has been wetted. Let it stay on medium heat for no more than 30 seconds.
*To remove the wrapper from the pan, my advice (the method that produced the best results) is to take the pan off the heat and just use your fingers. Then transfer quickly to hard countertop and try not to drag half the water from the pan with you. If you do, the wrapper will be too slippery to stay together and hold the stuff inside of it.
*If you fail at leaving the water in the pan when removing the wrapper, attempt to dab the wrapper very very lightly with paper towel. It still probably won't work, though, so plan on throwing this sucker out.
*Try again.
*If you manage to get one of the wrappers out, and it remains intact, lay it across the hard counter surface and place one Bibb lettuce leaf on top, then a little chicken, shrimp, green onions, carrots, and sprouts. Top with 1 slice avocado.
*Roll wrapper from right to left (or like a burrito) folding the sides in as you go. The wrapper should be sticky enough that it's sticking together (and to your hand)
*If it doesn't stick together once it's wrapped up, you can swipe the lip with a little egg white and it should hold
For Spicy Peanut Satay Sauce ( if you still have the patience to make this, do. But I used the store bought kind from a jar):
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/8 cup creamy natural peanut butter, unsalted
- 1 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced finely
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp low-sodium tamari soy sauce
- 2 tsp agave syrup
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 2 drops chile sesame oil
Whisk all ingredients together in big bowl.
If you're like me, and enjoy hotter sauces, add 1 or more tablespoons of basic hot sauce to it and mix it around. Dip the spring rolls in and enjoy.
Bottom line: The saving grace of all this hardship was that it's all really very good.
