Reconstituted spring rolls

I'm my mom's daughter and I'm starting to realize that more and more. From whom else would I get the idea to use my leftover dinner, reconstitute it as something else but in a different form, and then spend almost the entirety of my Sunday afternoon making it and eating it? And, I assure you, it wasn't as gross as it sounds.

After having plenty of leftover rice noodles, mint leaves, lettuce, mung bean sprouts, and pork patties from my Vietnamese noodle dinner and getting a bit tired of eating it, I thought I might try my hand at turning those ingredients into spring rolls. A spring roll is really all those things wrapped in a clear rice paper wrapper, so it seemed easy enough to make. I'd seen my mom and Jeanne do it tons of times, so I figured so could I.

I should have known it would be a challenge when it started with a hunt for the wrappers. I went to three stores before I found those elusive rice paper wrappers. Back at the apartment with rice paper wrappers in hand, I made a spicy peanut dipping sauce for the spring rolls. Peanut butter, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, honey, coconut milk, some red rooster chili, and a touch of hot water all got whirled together in the blender. It was quite a tasty, peanut buttery concoction, and I was thoroughly impressed with my blending skills. I thought I was well on my way to having some delicious spring rolls soon.

I chopped and assembled my ingredients in an assembly line that Henry Ford would have been proud of. The rice paper wrapper got dunked in a bit of hot water, drained of the excess water, put on a plate, topped with some rice noodles, mung bean sprouts, mint leaves, lettuce, and pork. Then, came the tricky part: rolling it together. Tricky, very tricky. I made the mistake of being too generous in my filling. The wrapper couldn't get around all the stuff I put in it. And, of course, rather than taking some of the filling out, I tried rolling it anyhow. The ends had no room to get tucked into anywhere, so I just rolled it with open ends. I rationalized that it would taste the same regardless of the ends being tucked in or not, and that, really, it would all just end up in my stomach.

And, right enough, it was yummy. The peanut sauce had a spiciness that was accentuated by the mint. The rice noodles and lettuce were cooling. The crunchiness of the bean sprouts was paired with the chewiness of the rice paper wrapper. It was such a great mix of textures and flavors.

If only I could master the skill of rolling them. I tried again with fewer filling materials, hoping that that would remedy my problem, but no luck. This time the roll burst. Noodles spilling out, as if they were escaping for air. After a few more failed attempts and being frustrated, I asked Quressa for help. The show-off that she is, she was able to make one with ends tucked in and filling inside on her first try. She rolled them as I washed the dishes.