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Thai: Spring Rolls with Chile-Garlic Sauce

Source of Recipe

From "Saveur: The New Comfort Food"


Recipe Introduction

"Crunchy fried spring rolls like these, stuffed with pork, mushrooms, and rice noodles and served with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce, are a popular midday snack in Thailand. Be sure to keep the reserved spring roll wrappers covered with a damp towel while you're working, to prevent them from drying out."

List of Ingredients

For the Chile-Garlic Sauce:
â—¦ 1 cup sugar
â—¦ ½ cup distilled white vinegar
â—¦ 2 Tbsp minced garlic
â—¦ 2 tsp kosher salt
â—¦ 1 tsp cayenne pepper

For the Spring Rolls:
â—¦ 3 dried mushrooms, such as cloud ear, porcini, or shiitake
â—¦ 2 ounces rice vermicelli noodles
â—¦ ¼ pound ground pork
â—¦ ¼ pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and minced
â—¦ 2 Tbsp fish sauce
â—¦ 2 Tbsp minced shallots
â—¦ ½ tsp freshly ground white pepper
â—¦ ½ tsp sugar
â—¦ 1 clove garlic, minced
â—¦ Kosher salt, to taste
â—¦ 7 6-inch square spring roll wrappers, quartered into small squares
â—¦ 1 egg, lightly beaten
â—¦ Peanut oil, for frying


Recipe

Make the chile-garlic sauce:
In a 2-quart saucepan, bring the sugar, vinegar, garlic, salt, and ½ cup water to a boil over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the liquid is thick and syrupy, about 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the cayenne, and transfer to a serving bowl. Chill until ready to use.

Make the spring rolls:
Put the mushrooms into a small bowl, cover with hot water, and let soak until soft, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, put the noodles into a large bowl and cover with hot water; let soak until soft, about 6 minutes.

Drain and roughly chop the noodles; set aside. Drain the mushrooms and finely chop them. In a large bowl, combine the noodles and mushrooms along with the pork, shrimp, fish sauce, shallots, white pepper, sugar, and garlic. Mix the filling together and season lightly with salt.

Working with 1 small square of spring roll wrapper at a time, put the wrapper on a work surface so that one corner faces you. Put 1 scant tablespoon of filling in the center of the wrapper, and brush the far edge of the wrapper with a little of the beaten egg. Fold the near corner up over the filling to make a cylinder, and cinch the cylinder to make sure the filling is tightly wrapped. Fold the sides of the wrapper into the center of the cylinder. Roll the cylinder toward the far corner until the spring roll is sealed. Transfer the spring roll, seam side down, to a plate. Repeat with the remaining filling and wrappers; set aside.

Pour oil to a depth of 2 inches into a 6-quart heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 350° F. Working in batches, fry the spring rolls, turning, until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Serve the spring rolls with the chile-garlic sauce.


Makes 28 rolls