Spring Rolls

    This recipe was entirely new to me.  Before this, I had never tried a spring roll before.  I thought this recipe was going to be very challenging, but it was actually fairly easy.

    I started by getting a pot of water boiling to make the rice noodles.  Once the water was boiling, I added the noodles and removed the pot from the heat for about 5 minutes.  After the time was up, I checked to see if the noodles were tender.  I then strained the noodles in a colander and set them aside.

    I then began to cut up all of the vegetables.  I chopped the lettuce into medium sized pieces and put it in a bowl.  I also cut the basil in half and put that aside.  The cucumbers took a little longer to cut because I had to cut them into thin strips.   The recipe also called for shredded carrots.  Instead of just buying already shredded carrots, my mom bought me baby carrots.  So my partner had to use a potato peeler and shred the carrots.  This ended up being ok, but it caused a lot more work. 

   The rice paper was a lot different than what I expected!   It was very thin and it felt like plastic.  To get it ready, I had to submerse it in water for 15 seconds.  I then placed the individual sheets on a flat pan.  After being soaked in water, the paper got very sticky, the polar opposite of what it was like before!  I added the lettuce, basil, cucumbers, carrots, and noodles on the sheet.  I then folded the side closest to me over the top so that it rested over the filling.  Next I folded each side in, making sure it was tight.  To finish it off, I folded the top over.

    The recipe also came with a peanut sauce recipe, so we decided to try it.  It called for lime juice, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, thinly sliced garlic, and chopped peanuts.  All we had to do was mix these ingredients together and the sauce was done.  I didn't think the sauce looked right because it was very chunky with the peanuts.  I thought peanut sauce was supposed to be creamy, but we just followed the recipe and it said to used chopped peanuts- not minced.

    I tried the spring rolls, and I thought they tasted okay.  The rice paper was very sticky and it didn't really have any flavor.  I didn't like the basil in it because I thought it overpowered the flavor.  Next time I would omit that ingredient.  I decided to be brave, and I tried the sauce with the roll.  Not surprisingly, I didn't like the sauce.  It was too acidic and I didn't like how chunky it was.

    Even though the spring rolls weren't my favorite, I thought they turned out pretty well.  I thought rolling them up would be very difficult, but it wasn't.  I was able to roll mine up so they resembled what a traditional spring roll would look like.