Fresh Thai Rolls (Spring Rolls) Made Easy(er)

I love fresh Thai rolls. Love them. I could eat them as an entire meal for any meal of the day and be happy. But making them kinda sucks. They're not terribly difficult, and in fact it's probably the thought of making them rather than the actual process that sucks, since once I get going it never seems as bad as I thought it would be. Problem is, getting going is the hard part. (Kind of like writing new posts for this blog; I've got plenty of stuff in mind, but actually sitting down to do it never seems to happen.) Anyway, for me the hardest part about making them was always the spring roll wrappers- you dip them in hot water to soften them, but then they always end up folding over themselves or sticking to the work surface with lots of ripples in them, or whatever; basically the wrapper part was always just a pain in the ass. But then I found out one day that it was because I was soaking them for too long (too long being about 5-6 seconds, total). Seems pretty obvious, but for some reason I never caught on, and anytime I talked to someone else who made them, they always had the same problem. It doesn't help that a lot of the recipes you see out there tell you to soak them for too long anyway- I just saw one over on About.com that said to soak them for 30 seconds! Better to go with the one over on Allrecipes.com that says to just dip it in the water for 1 second. That really is all it takes- you basically just want to get it wet, because when you take it out and set it on the table, it's going to keep absorbing the residual water and soften up to just the right amount to make it easy to roll. And, since it'll still be somewhat stiff when you take it out of the water, it'll be completely flat when you lay it on the table, no wrinkles or ripples, no moving the edges around in an effort to get it 'right.' And that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that, because this post isn't exactly about how to make Thai spring rolls- it's more like how to make a Thai spring roll salad. That's right, sort of a cheater's Thai spring roll. I was making myself some one day, marveling at how much easier they were to make now that I wasn't over-soaking the wrappers, when it occurred to me to just mix it all up in a bowl like a salad- everything's exactly the same, just a whole lot quicker and easier to make! I haven't looked back since. I make this a lot now, far more than I ever made actual spring rolls. The following is the recipe that I came up with and tend to always use (I really like it a lot) but there's tons of Thai spring roll recipes all over the internet, so tweak away- there's no 'one' right recipe to make a spring roll. A lot of recipes I've seen call for bean thread noodles, but I like plain old rice noodles in mine; some call for shrimp, I use chicken (more work, but it's cheaper); I typically don't use cucumbers, but they go well in this. Whatever you like. If you've never made fresh Thai rolls before, this recipe should be a good start, though. I think you'll like it.

This is also kind of a large recipe, since we ended up putting the salad on our banquet menu at work. So I had to come up with something to be able to feed a lot of people, and this is it. (I admit it, I'm too lazy to bother sizing it down for just a few people. Usually when I make it for just myself, I don't even follow the recipe anyway, as far as amounts go- I just mix it all up until it tastes how I want. But for the purposes of this blog, and to make it easier for folks who've never tried making these before, here you go) :

Thai Spring Roll Salad

8 oz rice noodle (dry)
1lb boneless chicken breast
1lb chopped romaine (Napa cabbage is also good)
crushed peanuts
fresh mint
fresh basil
(cilantro is good too, but isn't part of the recipe)

Marinade/dressing

2t salt
3/4c sugar
1c rice vinegar
1c fish sauce
1c + 2T water
1-2 t crushed red pepper
1T fresh lime juice
2T chopped garlic
1 lg or 1 1/2 medium carrots, shredded
1/2 onion, sliced very thin

The way I typically do this is to use warm-to-hot water to dissolve the sugar and salt quicker. Then just add everything else to the bowl and mix it up good. Also, you may want to set some marinade aside for extra dressing for the salad.

Cook the chicken breast on a sheet pan in a 350 degree F oven in a sugar/salt water brine (just dissolve equal parts sugar and kosher salt in some water. I don't have an exact amount as I tend to go by how it tastes- just slightly salty/sweet- but I think 1/4 to 1/2 cup each per gallon of water is somewhere in the ballpark). When it's done let it cool a bit, but while it's still warm pull/shred it and toss into the marinade and let set for 1-2 hrs.

Soak the rice noodles in hot water (+/- 190-200 F) until soft (white) about 5-7 minutes, then chop them up as big or small as you like. (They tend to be pretty sticky, so I sometimes add a little oil to lube things up, but only a tiny bit- just the bare minimum.) Add to bowl with the romaine, drain the chicken, mix into salad, toss in mint, basil, crushed peanuts (in whatever amount you like. I didn't really see the point in trying to come up with an amount for this recipe. I like fresh herbs, so I tend to use a lot. Whatever works for you).


(pic taken with my cell phone camera...)

And that's pretty much it. Use the extra marinade as a dressing, if you like, but keep in mind that it tends to wilt the lettuce pretty quickly, so if you're making this awhile ahead of time you'll want to hold off on that (as well as be sure and really drain the chicken thoroughly).

Bon Appetit!

Moroccan Sunset Salad

A friend of mine once told me that I'm really good at putting flavor combinations together (or something to that effect) - but I don't think that's true at all. I mean sure, I try and stick to using stuff that works good together- garlic, oregano, and various peppers in one dish, but leave the cardamom and cinnamon for something else. I know what sorts of dishes and flavors I like to eat, so I try and play around with some of my favorite foods and come up with my own sort of spin on them. That's kind of how I came up with this one. I came across a recipe somewhere (thought I had it bookmarked, but I'll be damned if I can find it anywhere now) for an orange-and-red-onion-and-kalamata salad. It consisted of: oranges, kalamatas, red onions, whole cumin seeds, and probably salt and pepper. It was very similar to this one, so it may have had feta in it too. I can't remember what, if anything, else. First time I tried it, it wasn't bad, but I wasn't excited about it, but a bunch of coworkers I made it for really liked it, so I tried it again a couple days later and liked it a lot more that time. This was right around the time that I happened to have some bulgur wheat at work left over from doing a party, so my mind was in salad mode. That, combined with my recent falling in love with cardamom, got me experimenting. The result is this salad. I'm calling it Moroccan Sunset (thanks to my friend Sally for helping me come up with the name).




I'm really, really proud of it, too- so many flavors and textures going on at the same time. It's easy to make, and everything in it is readily available pretty much everywhere.

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 c Bulgur wheat
1 c Orange juice
Orange segments, cut in half
Fresh red bell peppers, diced
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Toasted almonds, chopped
1 1/2 t Ground cardamom
1 1/2 t Chinese 5-spice powder
Whole fennel seeds, toasted
Cilantro

I don't have an exact amount for most things, but it's a salad- kind of hard to mess it up. Generally, though, I use just one orange, 1 pepper, and a handful or two each of the olives and almonds However, since I planned on posting this here, I did try and come up with a workable ratio for the bulgur/o.j./spice mix. I think I succeeded. But before I get to that, let's talk bulgur- unless you have a brand in mind that you really like, I recommend Bob's Red Mill. I've tried the bulk stuff at the grocery store, and my local co-op, and both pretty much sucked. I'm not familiar with other brands as of yet. Once I run out of the Bob's I have on hand, I plan to try Arrowhead Mills, but right now this recipe is written with Bob's in mind.

So- grab yourself 1/2 c of bulgur and stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons each of ground cardamom and 5-spice powder. Stir in the cup of o.j. (watch out for the cinnamon in the 5-spice- it can clump up, but usually mixing it with the bulgur first helps minimize this). Set aside until the bulgur is completely soaked. Usually takes 1 1/2-2 hours at room temp. There'll be some o.j. that's not totally absorbed by the bulgur; I usually add it to the salad at the end.
And that's about as technical as this 'recipe' gets. The rest is pretty much, literally, just throwing it together. Pepper(s) chopped? Almonds toasted? Olives ready to go? Then here's pretty much what I do:

Drain the bulgur (setting aside the leftover o.j. in case you plan on adding it later) and toss it in a medium-size mixing bowl. Add in some of the chopped bell pepper, a handful of chopped olives, a handful of sliced-in-half orange segments. Mix it all up and see how it looks. Add more of whatever you think you need/want more of. I basically just try to have somewhat equal-looking amounts of stuff (yes, I suck as a recipe writer, I know. No cookbook-writing in my future, that's for sure). When it looks good to you, add in a handful or two of toasted and chopped almonds (stay away from those almond sliver things- the convenience is not worth the extra cost and total lack of flavor. Whole raw almonds go for about $5/lb. around here and take about 8-10 minutes in a 400 degree (F) oven). After that, sprinkle with toasted fennel seeds and chopped cilantro (the reason there's no cilantro in the photos is because when I made that particular salad, it was for family members who think that cilantro tastes like soap, so I left it out. But if you like cilantro even a little, you're going to want it in the salad, for sure). Grab yourself a big ol' spoon and dig in. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised and maybe even amazed. This shit's for real.