Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Vietnamese spring rolls are made with rice paper wrappers, not the usual pastry wrappers of other spring rolls. We deep fry them to make the wrapper crisp up and cook through the contents. 

We serve these with a Vietnamese dipping sauce that is sweet, salty and spicy, the traditional Asian balanced flavours of palm sugar, chilli and fish sauce. 

Method

Spring Rolls

1. Set up your Big Green Egg for a direct cook with the EGGspander basket (you can use the wok without this but it is easier). Set the temp to 220°C. Add your wok to get it heated through.
2. Add 2-3 tbsp groundnut oil to your wok and then your mushrooms, ginger and garlic and fry for about 45 seconds.
3. Add the pork mince and mix through. Fry it for about 3 – 4 minutes until it starts to go golden. You’ll need to stir it regularly. Stir in the fish sauce and the oyster sauce.
4. Set aside the cooked pork to cool. 
5. Turn down your Egg to 140°C, clean your wok out, add the oil for deep frying and allow it to heat up. With your Egg set to 140°C you’ll find your oil is 180°C-200°C as it nearer the fire. You can test the oil temperature with a Thermapen.
6. In a bowl mix your carrot, cabbage, bean sprouts, spring onions and white pepper. 
7. Once the pork is cooled, add it to the vegetable mix, and mix thoroughly.
8. Now take two of your spring roll wrappers and soak them in water for about 10 seconds. You want them to go from being stiff to being flexible. Once they are pliable, lay them on top of each other and spoon in about 1tbsp of the mixture next to an edge. Fold over the top edge of your wrapper to cover the filling, then fold in the sides. Now roll the wrapper and filling, keeping it tight, you want to expel as much air as possible as your roll it. Roll it all the way to the far end of the wrapper and leave it to glue itself with the seam downward on some greaseproof paper.
9. Repeat the wrapping process for as many spring rolls as you want to make. 
10. With your oil at 180°C-200°C, use a slotted spoon to lower your spring rolls in small batches into the oil. Cook them for about 4 minutes. 
11. Once cooked remove to a plate with kitchen roll to allow any excess oil to drain. 

Dipping sauce

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Stir the sauce until the palm sugar has dissolved. If you’re using hard palm sugar, you may want to heat the water to help dissolve the palm sugar, but don’t add the other ingredients until the sugared water has cooled.