This might seem like a lot at first cus they’re deep fried, but they’re so good and not crazy hard. And once you have rice paper in the house, you can make fresh rolls any time you want. Or more fried spring rolls because these are addictive and crunchy and just delicious. I chop the fried spring rolls up and eat them wrapped up in lettuce with fresh cilantro and every bite just gets better and better.

INGREDIENTS - SPRING ROLLS

300 g ground meat (I did a rough chop of pork belly but any ground meat would be fine)
15 g fish sauce
5 g sugar
2 inch knob of ginger
5 garlic cloves
pinch of salt/pepper
Vietnamese rice paper
200 g thin vermicelli noodles
Cilantro
Vegetable oil
Bowl of vegetable oil + pastry brush

NUOC CHAM - DIPPING SAUCE

30 g fish sauce
1 lime, juiced
10 g honey/ sugar
5 Thai chilis, sliced thinly
Lettuce for wraps

INSTRUCTIONS

Pour hot water into a large heat proof bowl. Let it cool to warm on the counter top
Slice 5 garlic cloves thinly
To the meat add 15 g fish sauce, 5 g sugar, the garlic and grate in 1 inch of ginger
Add a pinch of salt and a good crack of pepper
Boil some water + salt separately for the noodles. When the water is boiling, drop the dry noodles in for just 3 minutes and then rinse under cold water. Let it drain in the colander
Use paper towels to really squeeze all the water out of the noodles because we want to reduce the amount of moisture as much as possible and place it in a bowl
Assembly requires everything to be near so bring the warm water, rice paper, meat and noodles close together. I recommend also having a little bowl of oil and pastry brush nearby.
Dip the rice paper into the warm water so it’s wet all over. It doesn’t need to be super slippery and bendy, just wet
Lay it down on the chopping block/ counter top/ flat surface
Use a dinner spoon to scoop out the meat and place it on the bottom third of the rice paper
Take a large pinch of rice noodles
Bring the rounded bottom of the rice paper up and over the meat and push the meat down gently so the mix is nice and tight inside the rice paper and completely covered by the rice paper
- We don’t want air pockets inside the spring roll so be gentle but firm
Roll it until it’s about half way up the rice paper
Bring the sides in and fold it over the meat
Keep rolling until you’re done.
The rolled up spring roll is gonna be super sticky, especially as it starts to dry so I recommend brushing them on the bottom with a little bit of vegetable oil and letting them rest on parchment paper
- If you don’t oil the spring rolls, they might rip when you pull them up.
- If you have the oil heating as you’re making them and you feel confident you can work quickly then it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll usually oil them if I’m making a lot, like for a party but didn’t for this batch
This makes about 10-12 spring rolls
Now you can make them ahead of time, and stick them in the fridge uncovered but I cooked them right away
Heat up 1 inch of vegetable oil up to 350*F / Hot enough that when you dip a hot wooden chopstick into the oil, it starts to bubble around the wood
- Be very careful. This might be common sense, but you don’t want water or even a hint of water anywhere near hot fry oil. Hint of water + Hot oil = Explosion
Fry Time!
I use chopsticks to gently drop the first spring roll in. It’s gonna be hot and spitting oil at first, but it gets better. Add 2 more.
They are super sticky so make sure they don’t clump together in the oil. Keep them apart
1 inch of oil is enough to cover the spring roll about 90% so keep turning it
These take about 5 minutes to cook
Serve with lettuce and cilantro for wraps. Enjoy!