Good Eats

From Sharon’s Kitchen: Thai Spring Rolls

I frequently feature my neighbor, Sharon, on my blog so she can share her wonderful recipes. She is a dynamite cook! Today she is sharing her Thai Spring Rolls and two dipping sauces. Take it away, Sharon!

Hey y’all!!!

I’ve been wanting to try these Thai spring rolls for a very long time. I’m not going to lie – they were a little time consuming, but in my opinion, worth it! Once you get all set up and do the first two or three rolls, it’s a piece of cake!

I discovered Thai Spring Rolls in Cali at my favorite Thai place. When I went in to pick up my roasted chicken and rice and egg rolls, I became very curious about them sitting on display in the case. One day, while in line, I noticed all the people in front of me and several opeople behind me all ordered the spring rolls. On my next visit, I went for the gusto!

After much searching, I found a International Grocery Store that carries all sorts of wonderful Thai ingredients in the Tennessee town where I now live. I purchased the wraps and rice noodles some time ago, but they’ve collected dust in my pantry waiting to be used. Finally, I decided today was the day!

First, I baked two chicken breasts at 425°with olive oil and multi-seasoning for 20 minutes. After they cooled, I used two forks and shredded the chicken. You can also use cooked shrimp if you prefer that over chicken . Or, you could go veggie all the way!

Next, I julienned an English cucumber, carrots, two jalapenos, and two avocados. Thank goodness for my garden! I had kale, cucumber, jalapenos, basil, cilantro, chives and mint right at my doorstep. You can find wraps with many different combinations of these ingredients. I decided to use ALL of them!

I then brought water to a boil in a pan large enough to lay the wraps in. No need to boil the wraps, but you will give them a quick dip in the hot water before rolling them. Before dipping the wraps, I boiled the noodles, pulled them out and strained them. (See my note about this below.)

Now it was time to build the wraps. I learned some lessons while building these so I’ll try to make your experience a little easier than mine! After dipping the wrap in the warm water, I first started on parchment paper and they dried out quickly and stuck to the paper. I found it best to roll them directly on my granite countertop. I also learned that it is better to put the noodles back in the water on the bottom of the pan during assembly because they stuck together. I pulled them out as needed and drain them as much as possible before laying them on the wrap. Finally, less is more! Do try to get a little bit of everything in your wrap. But, be aware- the more you the use, the harder they are to roll.

Here is the order of ingredients I used when building of the wraps:

Rice paper wrappers
Rice noodles
Kale (stack up from here with kale on the bottom)
Avocado
Mint
Cilantro
Jalepeno
Carrots
Chicken
Basil
Chives on one side of stack
Cucumber on other side of stack

Lastly, I put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and laid them on the parchment as completed.

I prepared two different sauces for dipping -a peanut sauce, and Nuoc Mam Pha.

Peanut sauce

1 clove garlic grated or 1 inch Squirt from tube of garlic
1 thumb of Ginger grated or 1 inch squirt of Ginger from tube
2 T Tamari
2 T maple syrup
1/2 T srirachha
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water

Nuoc Mam Pha

1 cup hot water
5 T sugar (I used stevia)
2 T fish sauce
2 1/2 T fresh lime juice
1/2 t sambal olek (you can find this at most groceries in the international section!)