Spring Rolls with Meat

I’d been meaning to do this for ages, but finally managed it. Spring rolls.

Once, I bought some rice paper, and it just sat there and sat there… and sat there.

Until it went bad. Rice paper. Can you imagine how long it must have been sitting there? Recently, though, I was preparing some light catering for a picnic and thought I’d make spinach spring rolls. So I bought rice paper again, determined that this time I’d dispose of it by eating it, and no other way.

Logistically, however, I couldn’t manage spring rolls for 20 people, so the paper was left over. But, to be consistent, the resolution remained too. And bang. Here they are. Spring rolls with turkey thigh meat. Fantastic.

Now I know that, just as the hardest part of making pierogi is sealing them, the hardest part of making spring rolls is wrapping them. Making the filling is a piece of cake. But sealing them neatly and attractively? Forget it. On the first attempt… impossible in my case, as proved, of course and as usual, by the fantastic photos 😉

What’s more, I chose the “for idiots” version — wasn’t there a book series called that? The biggest sheets of rice paper, in other words. That way, I made 10 large spring rolls rather than, say, 30 small ones. And if anyone doesn’t get it and asks “why?”, all I can say is “because”, and warmly recommend them.

At a glance:

Preparation time: over an hour

Serves: 10 large spring rolls (so 10 people as a starter, or 2–3 if you want a proper meal 🙂

How many calories: has anyone seen a fat Asian person?

Ingredients for spring rolls with a meat filling:

• 400 grams of turkey thigh (boneless)
• 4 small white peppers
• 1 medium red pepper
• 2 medium carrots
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 shallots
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 10 large sheets of rice paper (mine are 22 cm in diameter; if yours are smaller, you’ll use more and have more work to do 😉
• dark soy sauce
• coconut oil
• Sichuan pepper
• ground black pepper
• salt

How to make wonderful spring rolls:

I washed the meat thoroughly and cut it into small pieces — very small, as you can see in the pan photo below. I didn’t make any particular effort to trim off the membranes and fat; I used the whole piece. That seems very Chinese to me 🙂

I also peeled the carrots, shallots, garlic and peppers. I cut all the vegetables into small dice.

To the bowl of chopped turkey, I added the chopped shallots and garlic, ground black pepper, 2 pinches of salt and 2 teaspoons of Sichuan pepper crushed in my hands. I mixed thoroughly.

I heated coconut oil, 1 tablespoon, in a frying pan until very hot — on my induction hob, 7 on a scale of 1–10. I added the meat and fried over high “heat”, turning it up to 8–9 on my induction hob, stirring constantly. After about 4 minutes, I added two teaspoons of soy sauce, stirred, then added the vegetables. I fried for about another 15 minutes, stirring almost constantly and adding another tablespoon of soy sauce.

Finally, I added roughly chopped parsley. I stirred and fried for another minute or two.

I transferred the prepared meat filling to a bowl and let it cool.

I poured warm, but not hot, water onto a large flat plate. It has to be wider than the rice paper. Now the fun began. I soaked a sheet of rice paper in the water on the plate for about 5 seconds, then laid it on a cotton tea towel, spooned filling roughly halfway across the sheet, and wrapped it: first halfway over to cover the filling, then the sides, then the rest of the sheet to seal each roll tightly. And so on, 10 times. Each one turned out different and therefore very original 🙂

I transferred the prepared rolls to a wooden board. I heated 4 tablespoons of coconut oil in a frying pan and fried all the spring rolls for a few minutes on each side, at “heat” setting 5 on my induction hob’s scale of 1–10, until nicely browned. The spring rolls are ready 🙂 You can serve them as a starter with soy sauce or, for example, a hot chilli sauce. They taste wonderful. Enjoy!