Spring Roll night (recipe challenge)

well i kind of did the challenge anyway lol

i didn't have all the ingredients the recipes called for and didn't have the time or energy to go and get them, so i just made them using what i had, out of my head ;)

i made Fresh Rice Paper Rolls and Baked Spring Rolls - both were delicious!

Fresh Rice Paper Rolls
serves4 as a main or 6-8 as an entree

1 chicken breast, poached and shredded
4 tabs hoisin sauce (i mixed the chicken and sauce together as i couldn't be bothered doing a dipping sauce*)
1 carrot, finely grated
1 cucumber, finely sliced or julienned
several lettuce leaves, finely shredded
fresh coriander
fresh mint and / or vietnamese mint
1 "slab" rice vermicelli, boiled for just a few minutes (or soak in boiling water)
also optional - i usually use steamed prawns and sliced, poached pork instead of chicken, toasted chopped peanuts, bean sprouts
1 packet rice paper

i use the rice paper 2 sheets at a time, it's much easier! (i like big fat rolls so it lets you do that too)
dip your rice paper into a large bowl of boiling water, turn it around to wet the whole thing. before it softens place it straight onto a damp tea towel.
place your toppings in the middle about 1.5" from the bottom of the paper
fold the bottom up, roll once, fold one side in, roll again. fold the other side then roll all the way to the top
serve as they are or with dipping sauce


Baked Spring Rolls
200g beef mince
1 medium onion, cut very finely
2 carrots, cut very finely
i also used a bunch of mizuna that i needed to use up
also optional: pork mince instead of the beef mince, dried chinese mushrooms soaked and finely shredded, cabbage, finely shredded, bean sprouts
1 packet spring roll wrappers, defrosted

heat a little oil in a wok or frying pan. over a fairly high heat cook your ingredients, breaking the meat up as small as possible. when it's mostly brown take it off the heat and let it cool down

take your wrappers out of the packet and put them inside a folded damp tea towel. carefully separate them one at time and place on top of the tea towel. place a heaped spoonful onto the bottom middle of the wrapper and wrap as for the rice paper rolls.

brush a little egg yolk across the top of each wrapper to 'glue' it closed

you can either deep or shallow fry them, or i baked them in a 220'c oven, sprinkled a little olive oil over them and brushed them all with egg yolk. bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. serve with dipping sauce

we also did this one often without cooking the ingredients first, and would add a little ground black pepper and fish sauce for flavour.


Dipping Sauces
i usually do a choice of 2:
hoisin mixed with a little sesame oil, hot water and chopped roasted peanuts
fish sauce mixed with very finely chopped chilli and garlic, some sugar, vinegar and a little water. you can also add a little finely chopped coriander

you can also dip into sweet chilli sauce, or the kids dipped into plain old ordinary BBQ sauce

thanks dixie!

If you'd like to pick a book for me to cook from please post in the challenge post!