Asian Spring Rolls

Dad and I ran some errands in Oklahoma City the other day and, since we were going to be near the Asian District anyway, we stopped by a store that I’ve been wanting to go to for a while now –  Super Cao Nguyen, one of the biggest Asian markets in town.

I have so much fun in stores like these and I regret that I didn’t have my camera along so I could show you some of the unusual things I found. This particular store reminded me alot of the Asian market we went to in LA. Although it wasn’t as big, it still had fresh seafood tanks, an aisle of dried fish and seafood, a bakery that had amazing smells wafting from it, a gift section and aisles of sauces, oils, rice products,  fresh produce,  etc. 

My purpose – second to just browsing about enjoying myself – was to get ingredients for spring rolls. The first time I had spring rolls was this summer with my friend in Post Falls. I had to share the experience with my family. :D

The Menu

Orange Chicken

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Miso Soup

This was the hardest part of the spring rolls – cutting all the vegetables into julienne strips. I think shredding would work as well – and might even be better for eating. You can’t beat the looks though, aye? :D

Outside – Clockwise from left: carrots, yellow pepper, cucumbers, green onions.

Second row – radish sprouts, cilantro

Middle – minced fresh ginger

The other main ingredient for the filling is vermicelli, which is a type of pasta made with rice and is very elastic. It comes dry in a package like pasta. Boil some water in in a sauce pan, remove from heat, place vermicelli into hot water and let sit to soften.

This is the rice paper I used.

To assemble, place a sheet of rice paper in a tray of warm water until softened. Spread out on a plate and layer the vegetables in a 3 inch by 1 inch rectangle in the middle. Top with a small amount of noodles. Fold the sides over the top of the filling, then fold the bottom over. Firmly roll the filling up to the top of the wrap.

You can serve soy sauce to dip the rolls in, or to put inside the rolls. I made two different sauces – one soy sauce based and one hoisin based.

This is a messy way to eat one…

I’m not going to post the orange chicken recipe I used here, as I think it could use some help, but here are a couple pictures.

My brother came and fried the rest of the chicken so that I could make the sauce and get some other things done.

I really really love it when someone else will do the frying, ’cause I really really don’t like to fry. I think I make something that needs to be fried about once a year – or maybe every two years. :D

This was the chicken before it was tossed in the orange sauce. And, my apologies, but I have no pictures of the final dish. Terrible of me to let you down like that, I know!

The Miso Soup…

We love this stuff. It is soooo easy and soooo yummy. Just start off with some homemade chicken stock, add soy sauce to taste (or, we use Braggs Liquid Aminos), heat to boiling, add sliced mushrooms, minced ginger and sliced green onions. Serve with miso paste on the side to mix in individually.

When we were in LA our friends took us to a Japanese restaurant where we had some amazing sushi. For dessert they brought out these fun little desserts called Mo Chi, so when I saw these at Cao Nguyen I had to try them out.

These are made with rice and a green tea or red bean based filling.  It’s hard to explain what they are like. Chewy. Gummy. Interesting flavor. There you go. Worth trying, but I wouldn’t get them again. One thing I learned is that there are different kinds of Mo Chi and the kind we had in LA was Mochi Ice Cream. That, I will have to try to find. :D

 Mochi with raspberry sauce.

And that was the end of our Asian Dinner!

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