With the flavours of Vietnam still lingering in our minds, my family decided to make fresh spring rolls for dinner. Y'know, in the spirit of healthy eating and all. It's one of my favourite things to eat since it's light, easy to make, and doesn't leave you feeling guilty :P
The fresh spring roll formula
Generally speaking, one delicious fresh spring roll
= fresh vegetables in roll-able form + meat/seafood pieces + tangy, citrus-y sauce
Since we didn't have the ingredients for a classic Vietnamese spring roll, we improvised. You're looking at grilled chicken, stir-fried pork with spring onion, coriander, lettuce, beansprouts, julienne-d cucumbers, and a home-made version of a tangy, citrus-y sauce.
Concocting the dipping sauce
The dipping sauce is a mixture of fish sauce (use sparingly), white vinegar, lime juice, sugar, water, and red pepper flakes. I mostly added them to taste, so the proportions are up to you.
Rolling the roll
This is the rice paper. It comes dry in a pack of 20 or 30 and in different sizes. Just submerge it momentarily in a shallow plate of water and it will be soft in no time.
Lay the wet rice paper on a plate and arrange your ingredients flat. This is so that the ingredients will show up nicely when it's all rolled up. The first in-progress picture below is by my mom. Obviously she does a better job. I just end up piling things on top of each other.
Fold in the sides first. The great things about rice paper is that it's surprisingly elastic and slightly sticky, so you can stretch it over the filling and stick the sides down.
Finally, fold the bottom up and start rollllling it up as compactly as you can. Heads up, it takes a little bit of practice!
