Rice Wrappers

[sweetie101282]

Ok, so I found these vietnamese rice wrappers and I'm thinking it would be great to try to make eggrolls with them. The problem is that when I try to find out how to use them on, say google, I only find instructions for eating them unfried. Has anyone tried frying those suckers before, and if so, how did you do it and how did it turn out?

Thanks

Amy

[LisaP]

I tried it for New Years and it worked ok. Not great, but ok. I soaked the rice wrapper in a bowl of water until it was soft (a few minutes). Then I put the filling in and rolled it like an egg roll so that the filling is completely covered. Then I put them bottom edge down on a cookie sheet and baked them. My 7 year old loved them, but they were a bit tough to tear with your teeth. So I tried again. And I fried them in a pan on the stove. They were very greasy. I used Olive Oil b/c that is what I had. Maybe another oil would do better. Again my 7 year old loved them and I thought they were ok. On a scale of 1-10, I would give mine a 7. Maybe if you really fry them in a Fry Daddy they would work better. Let me know if you suceed and what you did.

[catfish]

I've only tried these once (for gringo style chiles rellenos) with pretty good results. I soaked them in beaten eggs and water for just about 20 seconds before wrapping. I deep fried them in hot canola oil, about 160F until crispy. Peanut oil would work too, you want a high-temp oil though. The higher temperature will keep them from getting oily- the water is sizzling out of them so fast that the oil can't soak in.

I only wrapped them once when I used them, next time I think I'll double-wrap them and fry them in oil that is just a wee bit cooler, say 150F, for a little bit longer to let them crisp up without browning them too much. Incidentally the ones I used were tapioca flour instead of rice flour, but they should fry up the same regardless. Good luck!

[sweetie101282]

Well i finally tried it and it turned out GREAT! I soaked the rice papers until soft and rolled our egg roll mixture up carefully. Then I let them sit a couple minutes and then rolled them in sweet rice flour. Then, to make them crispy like a regular egg roll I put a light coating of tempura batter on the outside (recipe from Donna Washburn's 125 Best Gluten Free Recipe book). They ended up tasting almost exactly like regular egg rolls, maybe just a tad bit greasier. I fried them at a high temp, around 350 just until golden. Good luck to anyone else who tries it!

Amy

[skbird]

I got some of these this last weekend and found the instructions in a Sunset Asian cookbook that I have to make Imperial Rolls. I actually made my own filling with ground pork, garlic, onion, cabbage, and s$#&take mushrooms. I read to brush water on both sides of the wrapper and then let them sit for a couple of mins until they are soft and pliable. Some tore though, they get pretty floppy! Anyway, the instructions said to use the oil at 300 degrees and bump it to 325 when you put the rolls in the oil, also 2 inches of oil. I didn't have that much oil, only about an inch and they kept sticking to the bottome of the pan and breaking open. Out of the 8 I made, one was whole in the end.

They tasted pretty good, I was dying for some eggrolls so I was pretty happy but the whole project was pretty frustrating. I talked to a coworker yesterday about them as his wife is Vietnamese and he said they make summer rolls with them, soaking them in a bowl of water and then wrapping a combo of cabbage, rice, maybe shredded pork and some other ingredient (oh and mint leaves) and eat them as is, no hot oil. Maybe next time I'll try them that way. Also he said that the quality of the wrapper is important, not all wrappers are equal. I need to get in touch with his wife to find out the brand.

Anyway, funny to see this conversation so soon after I was wondering about the same thing...

Stephanie

[catfish]

Having read this resurrected thread I realized I had been using the wrong temperature in my post, where I said 160 or 150 it should have been 360 or 350. I guess my head wasn't screwed on tight enough when I made that post!

I'm glad you had good results Sweetie, and I hope you try them again sometime Skbird. They are great when they turn out right.