Making spring rolls

I ran out of rice wine vinegar. Normally, I buy it at Megabalcones, which is part of the Mexicana Comercial chain. They were out, Walmart was out, Chedraui was out. Husband suggested Pascadeli. Pascadeli is a wholesale grocery outlet which stocks various foreign food ingredients. I now have what seems like a lifetime supply of whole cardamon seeds in my freezer.
The rice wine vinegar however was available in a normal size bottle. On the shelf were it was located were also some other interesting including Vietnamese Spring roll wrappers.
I looked in my cookbooks, I searched online, then I looked in the refrigerator. Here are my ingredients for Spring Rolls waiting to be combined, minus the soy sauce.
Here are the ingredients for the sauce minus the ginger. The cute little bowls came from the state fair, they have a large metal roofed building where they sell kitchenware and blankets.


I didn't have any bean sprouts, so I left them out. I also only had red cabbage, so I used that. The spring rolls came out a decidedly pink colour.

The results were delicious none the less. There are bean sprouts available at the supermarkets, they just don't appeal to me. I did make some lentil sprouts recently, and they were really,really good. Today, I am going to start some more sprouts. I have Thai Basil growing in the garden and it was a good touch, ideally I would have like to combine some mint, but I can't seem to keep mint growing and the bunches at the market were not worth buying. I'm thinking of using some purslane since it also grows well here and would add a nice crispness and a little bite.
The dipping sauce was okay, Husband thinks we should have had a peanut sauce, so I am going to do that next time too.

Dipping sauce for Spring rolls

Dipping sauce for spring rolls

• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup water
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced and crushed
• ½ inch fresh ginger root, grated
• ¼ cup sugar

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring, until sugar dissolves and corn starch is well mixed. Cool before serving.

Spring rolls

Fresh Spring rolls

• 12 Vietnamese Spring roll wrappers 9 inch (if you use 6 inch makes then you will need more rolls)
• quarter of a cabbage shredded (I used all red, but you can use a mix of both or just green cabbage)
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 1 cup thin noodles, pre-cooked bean thread noodles*
• 1 cup fresh herbs (I used Italian parsley and Thai basil you can use cilantro,basil or mint too)
• 2 small carrots, grated
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated

Toss together all ingredients together except wrappers in large bowl. Submerge wrappers in hot water until pliable, about 15 seconds. Place about 1/4 of mix on wrapper and wrap like a burrito or egg roll. Refrigerate until cold. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce


*to precook rice noodles (also called rice vermicelli),Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Boil rice vermicelli 3 to 5 minutes, or until al dente, and drain.