Vietnamese spring rolls

Sometimes you have a craving and when that happens to me I just have to give in to it. I had a bag of veggies (shredded white cabbage, carrots, leeks and bean sprouts) in the fridge so I wanted to make Vietnamese spring rolls.  So I went and get some minced chicken (only chicken this time) and some more packages of veggies. They are so handy because all the veggies I normally put in my spring rolls are already washed and cut in the right size.

I had one kilo of minced chicken to which I add some salt, pepper, garlic powder and one chopped onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Just eyeball the salt and garlic powder. I figured that as long as I cover everything with a small layer of spices it will be well seasoned.

I hydrated some dried mushrooms in hot water till they were soft and elastic. When they were ready I rinsed them and chopped them as small as I could.

In a big bowl, to the chicken I added 3 bags of veggies (about 400 grams per bag), some thinly sliced jicama, the dried mushrooms and a handful of glass noodles which I also soaked in hot water to make them softer.

I mixed everything together and to make sure it was well seasoned I put one teaspoon of the mixture in a hot non stick pan. I never try uncooked raw meat, especially not chicken and cooking/frying it is a much better alternative. So after the mixture was cooked I had a bite and added some extra salt. I know some people just make the meat mixture and roll the spring rolls, but how do you know how it would taste if you don’t test it first? So I always test it. Once it is wrapped there is no way back.

For my spring rolls I use wheat flour sheets in stead of rice paper. Rice paper does not stay crispy for long and since they are very thin they have more chance on bursting. My sheets came from the freezer and because I like small spring rolls I cut them in half giving me 2 triangles.

I start by putting some stuffing on the sheets.

Then I fold one side over.

Then the other side. Make sure you tuck the stuffing in.

Hold everything together and then lift the bottom.

Tuck the bottom in and press the stuffing together.

Roll it up and use some egg white to seal the roll.

Taraaa one spring roll down…so many more to go. I don’t make it often so it takes me some time to roll a batch. But the more you make the easier it gets. 

Because it is so time consuming I always make a lot. I fried one batch just to taste it and put the rest in the freezer. Always handy to have a snack like that at hand. Unfortunately they were so jummie that we ate them before I could should a picture. Next time…there is always a next time.