Recipe Background
The perfect Asian-cuisine appetizer is just the best! The exterior is golden and crispy, the interior is succulent and packed with flavor — pork, tender glass noodles, fragrant spices, and sweet cabbage. Whether you eat them straight or dip them in a sweet and spicy chili sauce, Crispy Spring Rolls are just thing you need to make you smile before dinner is served. Unless this is dinner, which is also totally valid!
The perfect Asian-cuisine appetizer is just the best! The exterior is golden and crispy, the interior is succulent and packed with flavor — pork, tender glass noodles, fragrant spices, and sweet cabbage. Whether you eat them straight or dip them in a sweet and spicy chili sauce, Crispy Spring Rolls are just thing you need to make you smile before dinner is served. Unless this is dinner, which is also totally valid!
Ingredients
- water to taste
- 3 medium-size dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 1/2 ounces glass noodles
- 4 ounces ground pork
- 3 teaspoons soy sauce divided
- neutral-flavored oil to taste
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 1/2 cups green cabbage finely shredded and halved crosswise
- 1 cup carrots grated
- 6 cilantro stems finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 (4.7-ounce) package spring roll wrappers thawed if frozen, can substitute egg roll wrappers
- 1 egg beaten
- sweet chili sauce optional, to taste, for serving
Directions
- In a small saucepan, heat enough of the water to submerge the mushrooms until it is hot but not boiling.
- Add the dried mushrooms to the hot water and let them soak, undisturbed, until they are rehydrated, about 30 minutes.
- Transfer the mushrooms to a cutting board and pat them dry with a paper towel.
- Finely chop the mushrooms and set them aside.
- In a separate bowl, add the glass noodles and enough of the room temperature water to completely submerge them.
- Let the noodles soak, undisturbed, until they soften, about 7-10 minutes.
- Drain the noodles and transfer them to the cutting board.
- Chop the glass noodles into 2-inch-long pieces.
- In a separate bowl, add the ground pork and 1 teaspoon of the soy sauce and mix to combine.
- In a wok or a large sauté pan over medium heat, add the oil.
- Add the garlic, the black pepper, and the white pepper and cook, while stirring occasionally, until the garlic browns slightly, about 2 minutes.
- Increase the heat to medium-high.
- Add the pork mixture to the garlic mixture and cook, while crumbling the meat, until the pork is almost completely browned, about 5 minutes.
- Add the softened noodles, the chopped mushrooms, the cabbage, the carrots, the cilantro, 1 teaspoon of the salt, the sugar, and the remaining soy sauce to the pork mixture and cook, while tossing occasionally, until the noodles are fully cooked, the cabbage is wilted, and the pork is fully cooked, about 2-3 minutes. Add the water, as needed in small increments if the noodles stick together or if the cabbage is cooked but the noodles are not.
- Transfer the pork mixture to a clean bowl to cool, about 5-10 minutes.
- Season the pork mixture with the extra salt, as needed.
- Peel apart and separate the spring roll wrappers.
- Working with 1 of the wrappers at a time, position the wrapper so one of the corners is pointing down.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of the pork mixture onto the wrapper, placing it slightly off center towards the bottom and spreading it out in a horizontal log shape. There should be a 1 1/2-2-inch border of space on either side of the filling.
- Pull the bottom corner of the wrapper over the filling, then pull back on the filling slightly to tighten the roll.
- Roll the wrapper forward once.
- Fold the side corners in towards the middle.
- Roll the wrapper forward 1-2 times.
- Rub a small portion of the beaten egg along the top of the seam to seal it while rolling until very tight.
- Repeat the filling process with the remaining wrappers and the remaining pork mixture, using the remaining beaten egg to seal the rolled wrappers until all of the ingredients are used.
- In a pot, add at least 2 inches of the oil and heat it to 350 degrees F. Make sure to maintain that temperature by keeping the oil on medium or medium-high heat and using a deep-fry or candy thermometer.
- In small batches, add the spring rolls to the hot oil and fry, turning them as needed, until golden-brown and crisp on all sides, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked spring rolls to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain and repeat until all of the spring rolls are cooked.
- Allow the spring rolls to cool slightly.
- Serve with the sweet chili sauce.
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