Spring Rolls SOS

Nomad Chef

Rice paper will naturally become sticky once it gets wet. I traveled to Hanoi few years ago and I've seen them working the spring rolls on top of a damp tea towel/cloth. Also, if you put the rolls together they will stick eventually. I always leave some space between the rolls or have a parchment paper in between before serving.

Dana :)

Second the damp tea towel top! That helps bring a little moisture to the spring rolls. @Cari - not sure what recipe you used and the instructions, but I usually see people soak the rice paper too long in water (which may make it sticky!). I have a shallow plate or pie plate and push it in for a quick dip and take it out - no need to wait for it to seem like it has soaked through, the water will soak in as you’re layering in the ingredients. Less is more!

Cari 👻

Awesome, thanks for tips! I definitely was letting the rice paper 'swim' in water for too long haha!! Thought that the longer the better, also I was serving them on top of each other so you can just image the mess it ended up being x( Now I have an excuse to do them again and hopefully better!

Dana :)

I love Andrea Nguyen as a cookbook author and blogger for Vietnamese food - this recipe has some good tips and instructions! Specifically this “To assemble the rolls, work with 1 rice paper sheet at a time. Slide it into the water, gently rotating the sheet with your hands for a few seconds to wet both sides. Place it on your work surface. Let rice paper stand until completely pliable and slightly tacky, 30 seconds to 1 minute. (Do not leave rice paper sitting in water.)” - I think my strategy is a dip on each side but you may try playing around with it and see what works with your rice paper!

Lady B

If you are making "summer" spring rolls or "fresh" spring rolls, then you are using the right sort of wrapper. If you are making spring rolls which you fry once wrapped, such as the Filipino Lumpia, then you will have to use a more dense type of spring roll wrapper. It can be confusing, as essentially, these wrappers can also be known as rice paper wrappers, as most of the time, they are made of rice flour too. The important difference is that the denser type of wrap, will contain egg as an ingredient (similar to wonton and dumpling wrappers) This is what makes the wrap a bit stronger and a bit more elastic than just the rice paper itself. Plus, you need to moisten spring roll wrappers a little to make them easier to work with, and wrap the roll up nice and tight. The thickness of this type of wrap would come in between say egg roll wrappers and rice paper. I'm not even sure if this even addressed your question, lol. But this is what I know about spring rolls and I better 'wrap' this lengthy post up now cos I've never actually posted a thing in my life and now I know why!!!! (can ramble on and on)!!! ok Good luck and happy cooking!!

Lilli-Belle Mason

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