Thai Spring Rolls with Chili Peanut Sauce

Rattana Sherman, from Bangkok Thailand, is the source of this healthy, scrumptious recipe that my young kids and friends all gobble up with glee. Here she is Maine (on Forest Ave. across from Baxter Woods in Portland) about to show me the curious wonders in Haknuman, our town's Asian market. You can find what you need in a well-stocked supermarket, but it's less fun.

Spring rolls are super easy - watch the video.

Also, making spring rolls can make you a better person - read the story.

For recipe addicts - there's that too.

See how to do it

How to Make Spring Rolls

It's so easy my three year old can do it!

The Recipe

Fresh Thai Spring Rolls With Chili Peanut Sauce
Total time: 1-2 hours, depending on how good you get
Makes 40 (enough for a giant party platter or light meal for 8)

Rolls:

1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into 1/4 inch strips
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves, sliced thinly
1/2 cup basil leaves, sliced thinly
6 oz. thin rice noodles (Rattana likes Wai Wai brand)
1 package rice paper spring roll wrappers (Rattana likes Banh Trang 22cm)
optional: diced cooked chicken or teeny shrimp

Dipping Sauce:

1/4 cup sweet chili sauce (Rattana likes Mae Ploy brand “for chicken”)
1/8 cup water
1/8 cup distilled vinegar (Rattana likes Golden Mountain brand)
2 tsp unsalted peanuts, ground in coffee grinder or chopped
5 cilantro leaves

PREP: Put rice noodles into boiling water for two minutes. Drain and let cool. Gather all your roll ingredients into separate dishes or piles.

ASSEMBLE: Heat 2 inches of water in a large saute pan until steaming; turn off heat. Clean countertop for assembly. Put one piece of rice paper in hot water until it softens like a jellyfish (5 seconds). Use a spatula to remove it, or your fingers if you’re tough. Spread rice paper out directly onto counter. Put a second piece of rice paper in the water until soft, then place it above the first, overlapping a couple inches. Place an oblong mound of iceberg lettuce just below the center of the wrapper closest to you. Put half as much rice noodles on top of lettuce, and then line the top with strips of basil, mint and whole cilantro leaves. Pull the bottom of the rice paper tightly over the mound of fillings, and roll up. When you’ve rolled into the second rice paper, fold edges in, and complete rolling.

MAKE SAUCE: Mix the dipping sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and garnish with cilantro leaves.

Notes:

Make a platter up to a day ahead of time and cover well with plastic wrap. They keep fine.

Also, dry your work surface between making rolls - a wet counter makes them not stick.

You'll need to reheat your water every now and again.

The Story

Spring Roll Work Area
American People Under Construction

By Lindsay Sterling

In America, you can make your way through life without cooking. My friend, she’s a Warmer Upper. Her meals are hot dogs and other frozen, jarred, or packaged things you heat up. And yet, she was at my house one afternoon for lessons on how to make fresh spring rolls. She saw her lack of cooking (and corresponding lack of cooking skills) as a shortcoming, and one that deprived her of nutrients. Well, we all have our shortcomings, sister. Mine is just the opposite: I cook everything. And because I live a modern American life with way too many things going on, this makes me a Totally Unrealistic Time Manager. I’m frequently up at 11, pissed off at a mountain of pots and pans.

So, as great friends do, we share our differences. She tells me, “Get the frozen Wolfe’s Neck meatballs at the store - they’re great!” And I show her how to cut a head of iceburg into fine strips fast without chopping her fingers. I show her how to pick the cilantro, mint, and basil leaves and stack them in separate piles; how to cook the fine rice noodles (just like regular noodles, only for two minutes), and then how to roll all the ingredients together inside the magic rice paper. She was getting it! After an hour she moved through beginner and was performing advanced spring roll making. Her moves were fluid. Her husband was going to flip at what she’d made. Two hours later, she was a changed woman. Now, my turn: where’s the frozen meatball section?