Saturday, May 01, 2004
Spring Rolls for Spring
I had a chicken breast left over and had been seeing a recipe about spring rolls with fake-chicken, carrot, and other things in the Vegetarian Times at the acupuncturist's office. So I decided to make spring rolls. I had some rice wrappers from the Berkeley Bowl.
I diced the chicken, along with half a cuke, half a pepper, a grated carrot, some cilantro, and a good glug of rice vinegar.
All the recipes I have seen talk about getting the hang of the rice wrappers. It's true! First I soaked them in warm water too long so they were too pliable and tearing. (I ate those) Then I didn't get the hang of rolling them - fill, fold the sides over, THEN roll. I ate those mistakes too.
I finally got to the point where I could roll them ok (all the filling was tucked in) but frying them turned into a GREAT BIG MESS. I have seen some recipes where the rice wrappers are fried but I wonder if eggroll wrappers might be better for this. Hmmmm. It was pretty delicate; I wonder if doubling up might help for frying.
But at least I think I have the idea down for non-fried rice-wrapper rolls. A little more practice and I should be pretty good at those.
Speaking of delicious rolled things, the Bowl has Lumpia in the freezer section. Yeah!
I had a chicken breast left over and had been seeing a recipe about spring rolls with fake-chicken, carrot, and other things in the Vegetarian Times at the acupuncturist's office. So I decided to make spring rolls. I had some rice wrappers from the Berkeley Bowl.
I diced the chicken, along with half a cuke, half a pepper, a grated carrot, some cilantro, and a good glug of rice vinegar.
All the recipes I have seen talk about getting the hang of the rice wrappers. It's true! First I soaked them in warm water too long so they were too pliable and tearing. (I ate those) Then I didn't get the hang of rolling them - fill, fold the sides over, THEN roll. I ate those mistakes too.
I finally got to the point where I could roll them ok (all the filling was tucked in) but frying them turned into a GREAT BIG MESS. I have seen some recipes where the rice wrappers are fried but I wonder if eggroll wrappers might be better for this. Hmmmm. It was pretty delicate; I wonder if doubling up might help for frying.
But at least I think I have the idea down for non-fried rice-wrapper rolls. A little more practice and I should be pretty good at those.
Speaking of delicious rolled things, the Bowl has Lumpia in the freezer section. Yeah!
// whipped up by Charlotte @ 6:04 PM 
