Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Xin chao, or hello, the food of the day today is the beautifully crafted Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Their very appearance gives off a unique look only found in oriental culture. Being of Asian decent myself, specifically from Korea, I am very fond of this type of cuisine. As you can probably see from the picture, spring rolls are very similar to the more common egg roll. However there are a few differences such as the fact that while egg rolls are usually fried, spring rolls are usually not. And a spring roll's often paper thin rice wrap is very different from the thicker, more tortilla wrap of the egg roll.

ORIGIN and TRADITION: As the name implies, these spring rolls originate from Vietnam. Their culture was widely based around their more dominant neighbor, the Chinese. Vietnam is known for making a large variety of foods with one simple ingredient, rice. What is perhaps their most famous are pho noodles and spring rolls, each with rice as a key ingredient. Traditionally, the spring rolls are made with a thin rice paper that has a rather rubbery texture to it and is translucent. Vegetables and meat are the common choices to put inside these rolls. When making ours in class, we filled the thin wraps with lettuce, carrots, and other assorted chopped vegetables. Due to time issues we weren't able to cook and add meat but shrimp, beef, and chicken are the most common choices. Now, obviously vegetables by themselves could be very dry so various sauces are mixed in to add flavor. Sauces like soy sauce and fish sauce are essential to Vietnamese cooking. Also the finished roll is commonly dipped in yet another sauce, spicy peanut sauce.

RECIPE: Here is a video of a nice lady showing how to make these fancy spring rolls an also how to make homemade fish sauce and spicy peanut sauce. Keep in mind that while her spring rolls may be the most common way prepare them, originality is always a good thing.

For those of you who would appreciate a more readable recipe, here is one given by Annie Almekinder:

What You Need

Ingredients
For the Spicy Peanut Sauce:
2 tablespoons creamy organic or natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 to 2 tablespoons water, to thin out the sauce, if necessary

For the vegetable filling:

1 bag chopped cabbage/salad mix
1 scallion, chopped
Chopped Cilantro
1 Tablespoon Red Thai curry sauce
1 - 2 Tbls. Soy Sauce
1/2 Tbls. Fish sauce (optional)

To assemble the rolls:

8 rice paper wrappers
Top with Peanut sauce (satay)
Kimchee and eat with Soybeans (edemame) 

Instructions

1. Make the spicy peanut sauce: Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce until smooth and creamy, and set aside.

2. Make the vegetable filling: Use a mandoline or box grater to slice the cucumber, carrot, and red pepper into thin strips — or simply julienne by hand. If you are using large radishes, you can slice them on the mandoline or box grater. Or just slice into thin rounds by hand.

Whisk together the rice vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, and lime juice in a large bowl. Add the vegetables and the scallion, and toss to coat.

4. Soften the rice wrappers: Fill a round cake pan halfway with warm-hot water. (It should be quite warm, but cool enough to stick your fingers in it without getting burned. We let boiling water cool off for about 5 minutes.) For each wrapper, immerse it in the hot water bath until it softens, which takes about 30 seconds. Watch for it to begin curling, then immediately flip it over and continue flipping until it is just softened. Use both hands to pull it up out of the water, being careful so it doesn't collapse on itself, and spread it immediately on a plate.

5. Put filling in the center of the wrapper: Fill the center of the softened wrapper first by laying about 3 to 4 herb leaves down the center. Then lay down about 1 to 2 tablespoons of noodles (you want to have enough for 8 rolls). Then, add 1/8 of the veggie mixture. Add a few sprigs of cilantro and 2 to 3 mint leaves, depending on how large they are.

6. Roll up the summer rolls: To roll up your roll, first fold the top and bottom edges of the wrapper over the filling, then fold in the edges towards the center and continue rolling the filled wrapper until it's closed and snug.

Continue this process with each of the wrappers. You may need to change your hot water halfway through. As you finish each roll, place it on a cookie sheet and cover the rolls with a damp towel.

To serve, slice in half with a sharp knife and serve the peanut sauce on the side.

Reflection: As always, it was refreshing to try a new food from a foreign land that I previously have not tried before. But with that being said I was not a big fan, preferring egg rolls over spring rolls any day of the week. It was the funky rice wrap that did it in for me. Its rubbery texture and odd smell kind of made me feel like I was eating something artificial. As I said before, due to my heritage I have made rolls before but fried them instead of eaten them raw. Maybe my upbringing is why I didn't really enjoy these rolls but alas they were nonetheless interesting to make.