Pad Thai Spring Roll Ingredients Ready for Assembly
One of my favorite dishes is Pad Thai. I love the refreshing sweet and sour sauce, the bright herbs, and the juicy shrimp. I recently tried to create an appetizer that captured all the flavors of traditional Pad Thai, but presented in a totally new way. That’s how these Pad Thai spring rolls with tamarind dipping sauce came to exist.
Ingredients for Tamarind Dipping Sauce
Tamarind Dipping Sauce
This sauce is at the heart of Pad Thai. It’s a perfect balance of sweet, sour, salt, spice, and acidity. To make it, you need rice vinegar, fish sauce, fresh tamarind concentrate (concentrated juice and pulp from the tamarind fruit), palm sugar (an unrefined sugar made from the sap of palm trees), Thai bird chiles, shallots, garlic, and kaffir lime leaves.
Most likely, you’ll need to visit an Asian grocery store to find all these ingredients; alternatively, if you pay a little more, you can purchase the harder-to-find ingredients online: rice wrappers, kaffir leaves and tamarind concentrate. You can also use these ingredients in many other Thai dishes.
Tamarind Dipping Sauce
The tamarind dipping sauce is easy to make. Simply combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue cooking at a rapid boil until sauce has thickened and the flavors are concentrated, about 10 minutes.
Making Pad Thai Spring Rolls
Ingredients for Pad Thai Spring Rolls
My Pad Thai spring rolls use all the ingredients from traditional Pad Thai—shrimp, mung bean sprouts, rice noodles, roasted peanuts, diced egg, cilantro, and chives—plus bacon for extra flavor and crunch. You can’t go wrong with bacon!
Assembly and prep is crucial when making the spring rolls. You’ll seriously benefit from mise en place (having “everything in its place” and ready to go), as it will make assembly a breeze. The first step is to rehydrate your rice noodles. Boil water in a stockpot and then remove the pot from the heat and add your noodles. Allow them to soak for 15 minutes, then drain and divide the noodles into 8 uniform piles.
While the noodles are soaking, sauté thick-sliced bacon in a skillet until crispy. Once crisp, remove the bacon from the skillet. Then add the shrimp to the bacon fat and cook until pink and opaque throughout, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the skillet and allow the shrimp to cool slightly on a paper-towel-lined plate. Once cool enough to handle, cut the shrimp in half lengthwise.
Lay out all your ingredients around your work surface. It helps to lay them out in the order you’ll be using them: shrimp, bacon, cilantro, mung bean sprouts, peanuts, diced egg, and chives. The noodles can be on your work surface, but make sure to leave enough space for the rice wrapper. To the right of your work surface, place a glass baking dish or rimmed baking sheet filled with ½ inch of water. This is for rehydrating the rice wrappers.
The Assembly Process
Add 1 wrapper to the pan and soak for 20 seconds, flipping once. While it’s soaking, rub your hand over the surface, smoothing it out. Transfer the wrapper to a clean work surface, allowing the excess water to drip off (if you don’t do this, your work surface will become too wet and the delicate rice paper will tear). Rub each side briefly to make sure the surface is smooth and pliable.
Working quickly: place 3 shrimp pieces, bright side down, in the center of the bottom of the wrapper, leaving a 1 ½ inch border. Top shrimp with a few pieces of bacon, cilantro leaves, mung bean sprouts, a sprinkle of peanuts, and diced egg. Top with noodles, chives, and another layer of toppings.
Working from the side closest to you, fold the wrapper tightly over the toppings. Then fold the sides into the center. Finish by rolling it up until wrapped tightly.
Pad Thai Spring Rolls with Tamarind Dipping Sauce
If you enjoyed reading this post, like my Facebook page and subscribe to my blog to follow my cooking adventures and flavorful journeys!
Pad Thai Spring Rolls with Tamarind Dipping Sauce Recipe
Print recipe | Serves | Makes 8 Spring Rolls |
| Meal type | Appetizer |
| By author | Rosanna Bell |
Ingredients
For Tamarind Dipping Sauce
- 1 tbs. fish sauce
- 1 tbs. minced shallots
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3/4 cup tamarind concentrate
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 3 Thai bird chiles, remove and discard stems. Finely chop the chiles and seeds
- 1/2 cup palm sugar (approximately 6 discs) roughly chopped
- 1 kaffir lime leaf, cut into thin strips and finely chopped (can substitute the zest of 1 lime)
For the Spring Rolls
- 4 oz rice stick noodles
- 2 pieces thick-slice bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch strips
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 24 medium shrimp (about 1/2 a pound) peeled, tails removed, and deveined
- 3 oz mung bean sprouts
- 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
- 8 Vietnamese spring roll wrappers (rice paper)
- a handful of cilantro, stems discarded
- 1 bunch chives, cut into 2-inch pieces
Note
Thai bird chiles are spicy. If you’re sensitive to heat, you can reduce the number of chiles or you can remove the seeds for less intense heat.
Directions
| Tamarind Dipping Sauce | |
| Step 1 | |
| 1. Add all the ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cook sauce at a rapid boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to serve. | |
| Spring Rolls | |
| Step 2 | |
| Fill a stockpot up halfway with water. Bring water to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and add the rice noodles. Let the noodles soak in the hot water for 15 minutes. Then drain the noodles and divide into 8 equal portions | |
| Step 3 | |
| Heat a skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the bacon strips and cook until crisp, about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the pan starts to smoke during this process, reduce heat to medium. | |
| Step 4 | |
| Remove pan from heat and using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate. | |
| Step 5 | |
| Season shrimp with salt and freshly ground black pepper. | |
| Step 6 | |
| Put pan with bacon fat back onto medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook until they have turned pink and are opaque throughout, turning occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes. | |
| Step 7 | |
| Remove the pan from heat and transfer the shrimp to a paper-towel lined plate using a slotted spoon. Let the shrimp rest until cool enough to handle. Once cool, cut the shrimp in half lengthwise. | |
| Step 8 | |
| Fill a rimmed baking sheet halfway up with water. Add 1 wrapper to the pan and soak for 20 seconds, flipping once. While it’s soaking, rub your hand over the surface, smoothing it out. Transfer the wrapper to a clean work surface, allowing the excess water to drip off (if you don’t do this, your work surface will become too wet and the delicate rice paper will tear). Rub each side briefly to make sure the surface is smooth and pliable. | |
| Step 9 | |
| Working quickly: place 3 shrimp pieces, bright side down, in the center of the bottom of the wrapper, leaving a 1 ½ inch border. Top shrimp with a few pieces of bacon, cilantro leaves, mung bean sprouts, a sprinkle of peanuts, and diced egg. Top with noodles, chives, and another layer of toppings. | |
| Step 10 | |
| Working from the side closest to you, fold the wrapper tightly over the toppings. Then fold the sides into the center. Finish by rolling it up until wrapped tightly. | |
| Step 11 | |
| Repeat steps 8-10 for the remaining 7 spring rolls. | |
| Step 12 | |
| Serve immediately with the pad Thai dipping sauce. | |
