Spring rolls have freshness all wrapped up • by Julia M. Usher • Photo by Steve Adams Studio, food styling by Julia M. Usher
Posted On: 05/01/2007 E-mail This To A Friend!

The spring roll, according to some sources, made its first appearance in ancient China stuffed with fresh bamboo shoots and deep-fried. This timeless finger food has come a long way since then. In sampling spring rolls at Asian restaurants about town, I found that no two were exactly alike. At first, the wide-ranging interpretations confused me (not to mention that locally the names “spring roll” and “egg roll” are pretty much interchangeable), but when I later reflected on my conversations with the restaurateurs and chefs, some common themes emerged.

One of the hallmarks of a good spring roll ? contrary to most other preparations ? is its lack of seasoning. Neither wrapper nor filling is salted so that the roll stands as a delightful foil to the highly spicy and salty dipping sauces that customarily go alongside.

As for fillings, there are countless possibilities. Vietnamese spring rolls are usually heavily laden with cilantro and mint and bound with sticky vermicelli noodles made of rice. Chinese fillings tend to be more cabbage-intensive and are often steamed or stir-fried. And Thai spring rolls – at least those that I tasted at The Blue Elephant in Clayton – frequently include strips of fresh vegetables and cooked egg. Just remember the advice of Art Lee, chef and owner of The Blue Elephant: “Fillings can be played with a lot; they’re very versatile.” If you stick to ingredients you love and those that are true to the season, it’s virtually impossible to
go wrong.

Once you’ve selected your ingredients, take care to pat-dry fresh items and to thoroughly drain those that are cooked. Excess moisture can quickly eat through flour-based wrappers or incite a dangerous riot of spattering oil should you later opt to deep-fry. Also try to avoid what Lee described as “the beginner’s tendency to overstuff.” Extra bulk may be tasty, but it will also make it difficult to roll the wrapper tightly. And as We Lim, owner of the House of Wong Chinese restaurants in Clayton and Creve Coeur, pointed out, a loose roll can be problematic in at least two respects: “If it’s not tight, the roll falls apart or too much oil seeps inside [when deep-frying].”

For optimal tightness, Lee recommended slicing ingredients into slender pencil-thick strips and using only six or seven such strips per wrapper. Weight is another helpful guide, especially when items such as seafood can’t be readily cut. I found that about 3 ounces of filling per 8½-inch diameter wrapper resulted in a roll that is pleasingly plump without being perilously fat.

Enough about the insides. “What really separates rolls are the wrappers,” said Tu Tran, bar manager of South Grand’s Vietnamese restaurant Mekong and son of its owner, Tai Tran. This brings me to another very important operating principle: Know your wrappers before you start.

Bánh tráng (rice paper wrappers) are most often used in Vietnamese cooking and come in translucent, brittle rounds that bear the crosshatch pattern of the bamboo mats on which they were dried. They are frequently, though not always, consumed fresh (not deep-fried), but only after they have been doused with water to make them suitably soft for eating. Qui Tran, general manager of Mai Lee, a Vietnamese restaurant in The Loop, dips them, one at a time, in boiling hot water for a few seconds and then lets them sit on the counter about 30 seconds before filling and rolling.

Though the wrapper may still feel somewhat rigid as it is pulled from its bath, “a good rice paper will soak up just the water it needs as it rests,“ Qui Tran said. Resist any temptation to immerse these wrappers longer than 10 to 15 seconds; they will only get floppy and cling to themselves, confounding attempts to lay them flat for filling.

The two other types of wrappers that I sampled are made with flour and egg and are therefore pliable to start and require no soaking. The variety used at the Blue Elephant and in many Chinese spring rolls is sheer and papery, much like phyllo dough, and sufficiently delicate that it can be eaten either fresh or fried. The second variety, most commonly used in Chinese egg rolls, is thicker, somewhat pasty and much more palatable when deep-fried. As such, a roll made with either variety needs to be secured at the end with a dab of beaten egg or cornstarch slurry to keep it from unraveling.

The last principle to bear in mind, as stated with a big smile by Qui Tran: “Spring rolls are meant to be fun.” That said, why not clip this recipe, call up some friends and cut loose in the kitchen with a batch or two?

Receive RSS Feeds of Sauce Magazine Articles

• Glorious garlic (07/01/2008)
  
• Curry favor with lots of flavor (06/01/2008)
  
• Finicky beurre blanc can be forgiving (05/01/2008)
  
• Matters of the heart (04/01/2008)
  
• You can make a great steak at home, promise (03/01/2008)