Tori's Spring Rolls

I just discovered the world of spring rolls.  I've had and love egg rolls but never the clear rice paper wrapped spring rolls.  Until about a month ago when I saw my daughter's boyfriend eating some and they looked so good.

Our local Ralph's has a deli and they have a section where they sell sushi and spring rolls.  There is someone behind the counter making them fresh daily and as I reached for my normal cucumber and avocado roll, I saw the package of vegetable spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce and decided to try it.  I was hooked!

Craving these would normally dip into my budget but I decided to learn how to make them myself.  There's an Asian market that just opened around the corner and I decided to buy the rice paper wrappers.  I looked up a couple recipes and decided to give it a try.

I took red cabbage, green lettuce, cucumber, carrots, alfalfa sprouts and cilantro and used that as the stuffing, using my kitchen aid shredding cones to shred the cabbage and carrots.

The rice paper comes in a package and is firm and has a texture to it.  It almost looks like a round sheet of hard plastic.  Don't worry though.  Just fill a pie dish with warm water and place a sheet of the rice paper in the dish for a couple of minutes, turning to moisten thoroughly.  The textured design should disappear and the round should be very thin.  Be careful because they can tear easily.

Once the texture is gone and the paper is super thin and pliable, I laid it on a piece of paper towel to remove the excess water.  Remove from the paper towel, lay it on a plate and fill with your ingredients of choice and roll, tucking in the sides as you go.   The paper will seem a little sticky but that's normal.

For the peanut sauce, I experimented with smooth peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, warm water and sugar (dissolve the sugar in the water) and grated fresh ginger.