Heather says:
My personal Fearless Friday is going to be was late. I wanted to be sure the post was ready, so I posted it early. I will be preparing the spring rolls today, so the recipe and pictures were late. I apologize for that
If you were on the ball like Malia, feel free to share your Fearless Friday project in the Mr. Linky or comments below.
In an endeavor to encourage my stepdaughter’s cooking enthusiasm I let her pick this week’s recipe. She said she wanted spring rolls, so I sent her to All Recipes.com and told her to look for a recipe with a lot of reviews and around 4 stars. For new techniques this is a good place to start.
My failure was in failing to supervise this process and the fact that we have two very different ideas of what constitutes a spring roll. I admit to not being very familiar with Asian techniques, so the ingredient list, as handed to me, did not set off any internal culinary alarms.
I envisioned lightly fried spring rolls, with lots of vegetables and dipping sauce. The recipe that I should have checked, was for “fresh” spring rolls in which the noodle wrappers were dipped in boiling water for 1 second.
Some people may enjoy this style of spring rolls, but I’m not comfortable sharing the recipe. The result was edible, but funky in a rawish dough sort of way.
The filling was fine, excellent even It was my own fault for not giving the recipe a good once over earlier in the week (you know, before I purchased the ingredients for the dipping sauces).
The remaining ingredients have been tossed together and are chilling in the fridge to await their consumption as a cold salad.
Perfection? You’re not going to find it on here on Fearless Fridays. You’ll find a willingness to experiment, some successes and the occasional flop. And don’t worry, I took the blame, as it was my fault for not double checking the recipe.
Your being late sometimes just makes me like your site even more. If Heather and Ivy aren’t perfect, it makes it easier for me to be okay with not being perfect. 🙂
After having been Ivy’s friend for years, I can pretty much guarantee that perfection is one thing you aren’t going to get from either of us.
Nothing fearless from me this week. 🙁
I’ve had all I can do to keep up at the office – but next week I’ll do something exciting!
Heather, can’t wait to read about your spring rolls!
Thank you for being late. Shows us you’re human.
No fearless Friday for me – I just came from my son’s homeschool evaluation, which I’ve been preparing for all week, so food prep has been pretty standard. *yawn*
I made 2 verisons of scones this week.
First of all, chocolate chips in scones don’t taste good. I learned this AFTER I had made them. Second of all, Paula Deen has a darn good scone recipe….but they aren’t the traditional English scones I was looking for, WAY too much butter.
Those are not the wrappers I would suggest for Spring Rolls. Those wrappers can make eggrolls and ravioli.
The fresh spring roll wrappers are dry and white. I found mine at Earth-Fare. They are dipped to hydrate them.
The other spring roll wrappers, I bought at the Asian Market, when you bought the chicken feet.
Let’s experiment with these wrappers.. and perfect some yum! 🙂
Sorry about your experience.
As I said, totally ignorant about Asian cuisine, but I’m always willing to try. So do we have a date for next Fearless Friday (how about Thursday so it can be finished in time).
I don't know if you've given another attempt at "fresh springs rolls", but if you haven't and are still curious, here's what you might need to know:
-"Fresh spring rolls" (aka: summer rolls, salad rolls, etc.) typically refer to Vietnamese non-fried rolls of fresh vegetables, herbs, and simply cooked shrimp/meat.
-The wrappers are made of cooked sheets rice papers and come DRIED in a package (not found in the freezer/refrig. section); they are white and somewhat translucent when dried but a lot more translucent when rehydrated.
-When preparing to roll, you simply dip the dried rice papers in hot water ONCE and place it on your plate/cutting board. The wrapper will still seem hard after dipping in water just once, but rest assured, by the time you're done compiling the filling, the wrapper will be adequately moistened w/o being over soaked (a COMMON mistake). This way, the wrapper will maintain its elasticity and prevent breakage when you roll.
-Roll TIGHTLY! As you roll, gently press the filling down and tug it slightly back into itself (rolling away from you using your two thumbs while tugging the filling down and towards you using your other fingers). Why? Tight rolls will keep the filling from falling out once you take a bite and go for another dunk in the dipping sauce.
-Whether using rice vermicelli or cellophane noodles, you need to BOIL them and not just pour boiling water over them, another common mistake. You don't need to boil them long at all, less than 5 minutes, but then drain and rinse thoroughly with cold running water to remove the excess starch. This gives the noodles a clean and "light" mouthfeel.
-Google Image. Google images of Vietnamese fresh spring/summer/salad rolls to give you an idea of what they're supposed to look like. You'll see that the rice paper wrapper is thin and translucent.
Have fun! 🙂