Shrimp spring rolls
Shrimp spring rolls tweaks and cautionary tales
- Don’t make the spring roll mixture in advance. It will wilt into a gross mess.
- Don’t soak the spring rolls in water for too long or they will be too difficult to wrap.
- Err on the side of wrapping them too tightly at first. Expect the first couple to be a little off.
- Try to ensure equivalent size for each roll. This takes some practice to put in equal amounts of noodles, etc.
Nitty-Gritty – Shrimp spring Rolls
- Learning Curve: mild – rolling takes some practice
- Pre-work: none
- Vegetarian: optionally – replace shrimp with tofu or more noodles
- Healthy: yes
- Freezes well: no
Spring rolls
These are quick and easy and people are always impressed because they seem far more difficult than they are. I added quick boiled shrimp, reduced the sugar, and upped the basil and cilantro in the recipe below.
Author: Whole Foods culinary school with edits by Amber Armstrong
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
- 1 cup of shrimp, peeled, deveined steamed, and cut in half long ways (after you steam them)
- 1¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
- ¾ cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon diced green onions
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla
- 1½ teaspoons golden brown sugar
- 1 carrot, julienne (cut this to the length that you want the spring rolls to be)
- ½ English cucumber julienne (cut this to the length that you want the spring rolls to be)
- ¼ head Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
- 20 rice paper wrappers
- 1 package vermicelli noodles, soaked in warm water until soft
Instructions
- Prepare the shrimp as listed above. Refrigerate.
- Mix all ingredients except last five ingredients (continuing to leave shrimp in the refrigerator). Soak 1 rice paper in on a plate with luke warm water until pliable, but still slightly stiff. Don’t leave it too long or it will be very difficult to use. Lay the wrapper flat on a work surface and assemble by placing carrot, cucumber, cabbage filling, and vermicelli and two halves of shrimp in a long, neat pipe in the middle of the wrapper. If you cut the cucumbers and carrots the same length, you can be assured your rolls will have some symmetry. Fold the end closest to you over the filling. Fold the right and left edges over the first fold, and proceed to compete by rolling the entire package to the remaining edge. Watch a sushi rolling video for some tips here. You want to roll it very tight… it takes some practice. Serve with peanut sauce.
