Spring Rolls

International cuisine isn't something we can just order in or head to a nearby restaurant to get our fill, several weeks ago we tried spring rolls.  Something about other cuisines makes them seem hard to replicate at home and generally challenging, but much to my delight, they are normally so easy to make!

I based our spring rolls on recipes from Little Birdie Secrets and It Works for Me.  Neither recipe fit our needs exactly, as one was for 200 rolls and the other involved pre-cooking the filling.

These were surprisingly easy to make!  Rolling them didn't take long either with two people doing it.

2 carrots
1 head of cabbage
1/2 box of vermicelli noodles
2 cans bean sprouts, drained
1 Onion sliced thinly
3 Green Onions sliced thinly
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 egg white
2 packages of spring roll pastry

Soak the vermicelli noodles in hot water for 10-15 minutes until soft.  Drain and dry thoroughly.

Grate the carrots and cabbage and squeeze out any extra liquid from the carrots. Slice the onions and green onions and combine all of these vegetables in a large bowl.  Add the noodles and mix very well.  After mixing well, add the bean sprouts, soy sauce, and mix again gently to avoid breaking the sprouts.

Allow the spring roll pastry to defrost, but keep it covered with a damp towel as they dry out very easily.  To fill them, place one pastry in a diamond shape and put a few tablespoons of filling in the nearest corner.  Start rolling the wrapper, using the egg white to dampen the remaining three corners.  Fold each side into the middle and continue rolling.  Stack them on a plate until all of the wrappers are filled.

Fry 2-3 at a time in hot oil.  Since this recipe made about 40 spring rolls, we spread the rolls onto a baking sheet so they weren't touching and froze them.  After freezing for several hours, pop them off the baking sheet and store them in a freezer bag.

We tried baking one batch, but we both agreed they were just better fried.

These lasted weeks in the freezer and it was pretty quick and easy to cook up a few at a time.

In retrospect, I probably would have used fewer noodles and added more carrots.  The hardest part of this whole cooking adventure was not having a bowl big enough to mix all of the ingredients easily, so I had to split it into two smaller bowls.