Thai Spring Rolls

Being in the thick of winter here in Ottawa, I've decided to post a recipe with spring in the name giving me, and others who may be freezing, the fortitude to get through those -30 days. I learned how to make these spring rolls at a cooking school in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I lived for 6 years. They remind me of warm days, teak tables and festive occasions. Everything from weddings to school potlucks have seen these quickly disappearing spring rolls.

These are the ingredients I use when feeding a crowd. They are inexpensive, vegetarian and texturally perfect. However, if you would prefer to add a ground meat to this, it is easily substituted for the noodles or just use a combination of the two. Another option is tofu or shrimp, both are delicious substitutes.

Spring rolls are deep fried so, as we all know, anything deep fried is delicious. You may wonder....can I bake them so they can be healthier? The answer is a firm "no." By all means you can try, but to go to all the work to make these gorgeous little packages, why would you take a chance with baking them?

I used wonton wrapper for these bite size beauties. They are the perfect size for finger food. If you are serving these as part of a meal, you could use eggroll wrappers which are much bigger and so the whole process will take less time, they are just as delicious and can be wrapped in the same way. Why not use spring roll wrappers you ask? I find that the thing spring roll wrappers have layers which are often far greasier as the grease gets trapped in the layers.

Don't worry about messing up the first few you make. That's a given. You will get the hang of it.

When you finish one, place it on parchment paper, making sure it doesn't touch another. When the cookie sheet is full, cover in tinfoil and place flat in the freezer. Allow them to completely freeze then place in a ziploc bag.

I keep a damp towel covering the spring rolls as I am making them so they don't dry out.