Kathy's Smokin'
Babbling Farker
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2011
- Location
- Guelph, Ontario, Canada
This is my official entry into "Wok This Way" Throwdown
Fresh spring rolls, my official entry into the "Wok this Way" TD.
I marinated the skinless boneless chicken thighs about a day and a half with split/pounded lemongrass, rice vinegar, sesame oil, raw sea salt, dried & ground ginger & garlic and freshly smashed white peppercorns. This is the first time I actually had the lemongrass in the marinade, normally I would split and pound them and "bloom" their flavour in hot frying pan face down into the oil. I found adding them to the long marinade time enhanced the lemongrass flavour.
Our wok is buried somewhere in unpacked boxes in the basement so I used our big azz cast iron frying pan. Pulled the lemongrass out of the marinade first and fried it screaming hot into a mixture of sesame oil and grapeseed oil -- good thing both have high smoke points.
Added red peppers and mushrooms to one side of the frying pan. I normally use raw sweet peppers in fresh spring rolls but to keep in with "Wok this Way" decided to sautee them a bit and remove them from the heat while they were still crunchy. It worked, they were quite delicious in the spring rolls that way. Had mushrooms in the fridge so threw them in to keep the peppers company.
The dipping sauce is a take off of the dim sum ginger vinegar I used to make, only I use powdered ginger for spring rolls. Rice vinegar, powdered ginger, sea salt and some demerara sugar in a jar to sit on the counter for a day. Peanut butter gets added later.
Let the stir fried chicken and peppers chill in the fridge overnight. By the end of the rolling process the chill will be off the stuffing and ready to serve. I was ready to wrap and roll and discovered I was out of rice paper! A mad dash to town and back delayed rolling about 45 minutes.
Got my tray of water ready to dip rice paper in, then placed the wetted rice paper individually on plastic plates to soften while I moved on to the next step.
Chopped up my stuffing ingredients fine, including Thai basil and green onions. If you've never tried Thai basil I urge you to, it's so different from Italian basil, it has this underlying fresh licorice taste that is heaven!
Time to add the peanut butter -- for taste and to thicken the dipping sauce.
At this point it starts to come together. I make tiny piles for each ingredient so they're easy to scoop up and roll. These ingredients will make 12 fresh spring rolls and the most important thing -- don't overstuff. The rice paper is very delicate and tricky to work with. I made many broken and wonky spring rolls before I finally learned to stop putting so much in them.
I found rolling them on the softening plate made life easier, they were less likely to get stuck together or holey. Still have to be careful with them, though.
Roll 'em just like a burrito!
And they're done!!
Please use this last picture for the voting poll.
I posted a lot of detail to make these fresh spring rolls as a step-by-step guide for anyone that might be interested in making them, too. I taught myself the hard way and made a lot of broken, strange looking logs -- but they tasted good! Pulled pork is a great meat stuffing and I think brisket would be, too.
Hope you enjoyed watching!
Fresh spring rolls, my official entry into the "Wok this Way" TD.
I marinated the skinless boneless chicken thighs about a day and a half with split/pounded lemongrass, rice vinegar, sesame oil, raw sea salt, dried & ground ginger & garlic and freshly smashed white peppercorns. This is the first time I actually had the lemongrass in the marinade, normally I would split and pound them and "bloom" their flavour in hot frying pan face down into the oil. I found adding them to the long marinade time enhanced the lemongrass flavour.
Our wok is buried somewhere in unpacked boxes in the basement so I used our big azz cast iron frying pan. Pulled the lemongrass out of the marinade first and fried it screaming hot into a mixture of sesame oil and grapeseed oil -- good thing both have high smoke points.
Added red peppers and mushrooms to one side of the frying pan. I normally use raw sweet peppers in fresh spring rolls but to keep in with "Wok this Way" decided to sautee them a bit and remove them from the heat while they were still crunchy. It worked, they were quite delicious in the spring rolls that way. Had mushrooms in the fridge so threw them in to keep the peppers company.
The dipping sauce is a take off of the dim sum ginger vinegar I used to make, only I use powdered ginger for spring rolls. Rice vinegar, powdered ginger, sea salt and some demerara sugar in a jar to sit on the counter for a day. Peanut butter gets added later.
Let the stir fried chicken and peppers chill in the fridge overnight. By the end of the rolling process the chill will be off the stuffing and ready to serve. I was ready to wrap and roll and discovered I was out of rice paper! A mad dash to town and back delayed rolling about 45 minutes.
Got my tray of water ready to dip rice paper in, then placed the wetted rice paper individually on plastic plates to soften while I moved on to the next step.
Chopped up my stuffing ingredients fine, including Thai basil and green onions. If you've never tried Thai basil I urge you to, it's so different from Italian basil, it has this underlying fresh licorice taste that is heaven!
Time to add the peanut butter -- for taste and to thicken the dipping sauce.
At this point it starts to come together. I make tiny piles for each ingredient so they're easy to scoop up and roll. These ingredients will make 12 fresh spring rolls and the most important thing -- don't overstuff. The rice paper is very delicate and tricky to work with. I made many broken and wonky spring rolls before I finally learned to stop putting so much in them.
I found rolling them on the softening plate made life easier, they were less likely to get stuck together or holey. Still have to be careful with them, though.
Roll 'em just like a burrito!
And they're done!!
Please use this last picture for the voting poll.
I posted a lot of detail to make these fresh spring rolls as a step-by-step guide for anyone that might be interested in making them, too. I taught myself the hard way and made a lot of broken, strange looking logs -- but they tasted good! Pulled pork is a great meat stuffing and I think brisket would be, too.
Hope you enjoyed watching!
:tsk:
