I stumbled about this korean fusion recipe and instantly wanted to try it. The recipe I followed was solid, though there are a few things that I will try and change in future versions.

This recipe was inspired by this blog post.

Ingredients

• 200g beef finely cut
• 1tbsp soj sauce
• 1tbsp oyster sauce
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1tbsp minced garlic
• 1tsp sesame oil
• 1tbsp rice vinegar
• 1tsp lemon juice
• 1/4tsp pepper
• thinly sliced carrot
• fine cut green onion
• fine cut paprika or chili
• 16 sheets rice paper
• sugared water to soften the rice paper (250g water, 1tbsp sugar)

Note: you can also make these with tofu instead of beef. In that case I would double the amount of marinade and let the tofu rest in it over night.

Instructions

Cut the meat very thin. Mix the soj sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, minced garlic, sesame oil, rice vinegar and pepper together. Marinade the meat and let it sit in the fridge for one hour or more.

Mix ca. 250g water and 1tbsp of sugar in a big pan to wet the rice papers in. You can either let them sit in cold water for a few minutes or use hot water instead, which will get the papers ready in no time.

Once the paper is soft get it out and try to reduce the water content by striping off excess water. Place it on a big plate. For a more beautiful look we will fill the spring rolls upside down.

Start with the chili or red paprika, followed by the sliced carrot and green onion. Last add the meat. Close the spring rolls off tightly. Let them rest on another plate with the thick side downwards for a few minutes. This will allow the rice paper to dry a bit on the outside.

Once you filled all spring rolls preheat a pan with a bit of oil over medium heat. Do not fully cover the pans bottom. Place the spring rolls in the pan at medium heat with the thick side down and far apart of each other.

If they touch they will instantly stick together and you will rip at least one of them open trying to separate them again.

After about 2-3 minutes the underside should become crispy. Turn over the spring rolls (again avoid two of them touching each other!) and let them bake for another minute or two.

I added some sliced carrots as well as spring onion and sesame seeds for the picture, though to be honest I would only use the sesame seeds taste wise.

Tips

• I hate cutting carrots. Instead I usually peel them, cut half them length wise and then use the peeler to cut very thin stripes off.
• High heat will give your spring rolls a nice golden color. However, this will burn anything that might rin out of them. This is especially a problem if you do fill them with meat. You have to clean the pan after each batch. Personally its not worth the hassle in my opinion. Rather go with medium heat.

Next Time

• Try to go to medium high heat. The rice paper did not really get any color with medium heat. Medium heat works fine. Don’t go to high heat.
• Also try to add some chili to the marinade. Some more acidity might also be a nice addition (lemon or lime maybe)? Updated recipe. Used more vinegar and added lime juice. This was pretty much perfect.