Thai Spring Rolls

Thai Spring Rolls

Thai spring rolls, small crispy parcels, perfect for dipping into a warming sweet chilli dipping sauce.

We used to eat at a Thai restaurant regularly, and these were always a favourite. Having now made these, I can tell you they are equally as good. I thought they would be a real faff to make, but they’re actually quite simple. Even better they cook in just 5 minutes, and you can make and freeze them and cook them from frozen.

Next time I would be tempted to make a double batch which would make about 50.

You can make these without the pork mince if you want them to be vegetarian.

I can’t take credit for the recipe, I found the great website Hot Thai Kitchen and used Pai’s recipe with just minor tweaks. 

Cooking surfaces

Wok

BBQ Temperature

200°C

Ingredients

For the spring rolls

  • 40g glass noodles
  • 120g pork mince, go for the slightly fattier mince, the flavour is in the fat
  • 3 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper, ground
  • 1/4 tsp white pepper, ground
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 4 shitake mushrooms, soaked in water for 1 hour, then finely chopped
  • 120g hispy cabbage, shredded, white cabbage would also be ok.
  • 1 large carrot, grated (thick cutter)
  • 20g coriander stems, chopped finely
  • 1 tsp Maldon salt
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 25 spring roll wrappers (12cm square ones, 5 inch, available in the freezer of any good Asian supermarket)
  • 1 Egg, beaten
  • Vegetable oil for frying

For the dipping sauce

  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 large chilli – nothing too spicy
  • 1 red birds eye chilli – deseed it if you don’t like spicy
  • ½ cup of sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ⅓ cup white vinegar, cane vinegar or rice vinegar
  • 3 Tbsp water

Equipment

Method

To prepare the dipping sauce.

  1. Blend all your ingredients until your garlic and chillis have broken down but still are a little coarse.
  2. Put your mixture into a pan and simmer for 5 minutes. The sauce will still be runny, but it will thicken as it cools.
  3. Allow to cool a little before serving.

To prepare the spring rolls.

  1. Soak the glass noodles for 10 minutes in warm tap water. They’ll soften but not be cooked.
  2. Mix 1 tsp of soy sauce into your pork and set aside.
  3. Setup your Egg for a 180°C cook with the EGGspander basket and your Big Green Egg wok. The bottom of the wok will actually be a lot hotter as it is much nearer the charcoal.
  4. To the wok, add 2 tbsp vegetable oil, garlic and both black and white pepper and stir until the garlic begins to colour.
  5. Add the pork mince and cook until the pork is cooked through. If you want your spring rolls to be vegetarian, leave out the pork mince.
  6. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until cooked through, the noodles will have softened and the cabbage wilted.
  7. Allow this to cool.
  8. While the filling is cooling, separate your wrappers.
  9. Please take a look at this video on how to roll the spring rolls, it’s not mine, but it is good. You need to watch from 8 minutes on.
  10. Fill each spring roll with 1 heaped tablespoon of filling.
  11. Once you have rolled your spring rolls, clean your wok and fill with enough oil to deep fry the spring rolls in batches of up to 7.
  12. Allow the oil to heat to 180°C. You can measure it with a Thermapen.
  13. Cook your spring rolls for about 5 minutes until they turn golden.

Serve your spring rolls with the delicious sweet chilli dipping sauce. They’re so tasty, make sure you make more than you think you will need. Enjoy!

0