How to pimp your rice paper rolls

Last night my friend Mina and I cooked for our other friend, Mr O, who by the way, is a magician. Anyways, we prepared an Asian meal of green curry and fresh spring rolls. Thankfully, O-san approved.

Fresh spring rolls, AKA the easiest and most exciting way of consuming raw vegetables have featured on iaccidentlyatethewholething before. However; today I wanted to teach you a perhaps obvious skill for pimping them via the amateur illustration below.

Basically, you roll 3/4 of the way then add your desired toppings in the form of a neat line to the last quarter, then close. Congrats! You’re officially pimping on level pro.

Toppings can include:

prawns
individual corn pieces
green peas

and if you’re feeling really creative:
loveheart and/or flower shaped carrots (done using a small cookie cutter)

Eee! Turns out I’m more Japanese than I thought! #kawaii #foodart

 

 

rice paper roll party at mine, who’s coming?

Peanut sauce:
1 tbsp chunk of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
Chilli powder, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter
1/3 cup coconut water (more or less as needed)

Rolls:
rice paper sheets
2 cups cooked prawns
2 medium carrots
2 avocados
1 medium cucumber
1 cup fresh basil leaves
3 capsicums, 1 red,  1 yellow and 1 green (eat the rainbow) 

For sauce: blend or mix together all the ingredients until smooth

For rolls: cut the veggies into thin strips. Dip rice paper sheets in warm water (4-5 seconds) so they soften and become pliable (do this one at a time), then arrange your fillings horizontally on the bottom half. Fold over, then fold over two ends and roll up like a burrito. This may take a few tries to master so don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect on first go.

For consumption: dunk in sauce.

practice, makes: (vegan rice paper rolls)

After sharing my rookie mistake of soaking all my rice paper rolls for over a minute, all together (huge mistake), my lovely readers gave me a few tips/suggestions of how it should really be done.

So, I tried again and they weren’t perfect but who cares, they were made and they were delicious.

1 packet of rice paper (found at the international section of your supermarket)
Thinly cut veggies: I used capsicum (red and yellow), carrot, cucumber, avocado and corriander (try to use as many colours as possible, I assume, beetroot would work well also tofu, mint and basil mmm)

Also, a packet of rice paper at the supermarket here is only $2.50, which seriously blows my mind.

So, and I’m no expert but basically you soak the rice paper INDIVIDUALLY in warm water for 2-3 seconds. The packet instructs 30 seconds but that’s too long – they may become too delicate and rip. Then you transfer the paper onto a damp surface (I used a chopping board) and begin to assemble the rolls. The paper may seem too hard to begin with but it will continue to soften as you fondle it. I.e add your fillings and begin the rolling process.

There are a hundred and one videos on the internet on how to roll rice paper but you won’t truly get it until you practice. As you can see, most of mine look demented. But hey, that’s okay!

Also, 1 packet makes WAY more rolls than pictured above; I just couldn’t find a plate that fit them all without having to stack.

Lastly, a big shout out to Genie from Bunny Eats Design and Jen from Utterly In Love for making this post possible! X