Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls That Anyone Can Make (2 Ways)

So there's a number of things that we go out and order and never think to make. And you might think, well I don't even know if I can make that at home. Well the answer with this is, you can. It's easier than you think. And it might just be one of the greatest things that you ever make. Okay, so we're making one of my favorite things of all time, fresh spring rolls. Not the fried kind. Now obviously we know the crunchy ones with vegetables and maybe a little bit of meat, whatever. These are the ones that are translucent. You can see a little bit of the shrimp peeking through, or sometimes there's pork or whatever. And then there's rice noodles, it's crunchy, it's sweet, it's a little salty, there's just everything you want. And obviously, you can't forget the peanut sauce. But another thing that you can't forget is today's sponsor, which is SPAM. Yes, SPAM. One of the most chef-revered canned products of all time. And you might be thinking, Josh, well wait, you're sponsored by SPAM? Why? Well first off, this goes way back for me. I'm talking like, down to learning about cooking, learning about chefs and what they do, and working with chefs. Many of my chef friends love this ingredient because it is so versatile. You can sear it, you can baste it, you can do so much with it. And here they are, knocked that off the bucket list. We're sponsored by SPAM, so really we have two recipes here. We have a traditional one, and then we have a little surprise from our friends at SPAM. So with all that said, let's make this, shall we? Now the actual making and rolling of spring rolls doesn't really require much effort or time, but we first have to make all the components. First let's talk rice vermicelli noodles. You can get these at Asian markets, or maybe if your local grocer is a homie, you might be able to get it there too. You'll need about five to six ounces of these. Prepare them according to the package directions these just say to boil for about six minutes. Now once they're done, plunge them in an ice water bath until completely cold, then rinse them thoroughly. That's it. Now let's make the peanut sauce. That's peanut sauce, ya nasty. So you're gonna start with half a cup or 148 grams of hoisin sauce, a quarter cup or 60 grams of smooth peanut butter, one tablespoon or 15 grams of sambal, or any sort of spicy you like, two tablespoons or 28 grams of rice vinegar, this is a fancy yuzu rice vinegar, two cloves of grated garlic, and finally thin it out with a quarter cup or 60 milliliters of warm water. Whiz that together and then drink the entire thing. Just kidding, that would probably not, probably wouldn't feel great. It's pretty intense. Next up is gonna be fried crispy shallots, and they're very easy. Just get yourself about six to eight shallots, cut their tops off and peel them but leaving them whole, then I would really recommend using a mandolin over a knife, and slice them a little thinner than a quarter of an inch. Once you have all your slices, get a deep pan like a cast iron skillet, and fill it up with at least one and a half inches of oil. Add your shallot in, yes, while it's cold, then place it over medium high heat, and while that's coming up, you're gonna constantly stir them with a pair of chopsticks. You'll notice that they start to bubble and then fry, and just keep stirring and frying. You'll know they're almost done once they begin to stop bubbling so much and they start to color. Please understand these will color very fast and burn very quickly if you don't pay attention. Once the bubbling begins to subside, and they're almost to a nice golden brown, immediately remove them and drain them on a paper towel. You pull them a little bit before because they will continue to brown after pulled out of the oil. Oh my gosh, it's time for Papa Learning Corner. You know, the reason why that matters is it's called heat carryover. That's because heat continues to stay after you remove it from a hot area. It's not like it just instantly goes away. Let those cool completely, and you have crunchy shallots. Now these won't be used in the traditional shrimp one, but the way that I like to plate up the peanut sauce is I like to take a small handful of toasted peanuts and a small handful of your crispy shallots, place them in a bag and beat them, lovingly, with a mallet or a pot until you get a nice little crumble, and I like to sprinkle that on top of my peanut sauce when serving, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Okay, so we have the majority of our components. Let's start with a traditional shrimp spring roll. Fill a medium-sized pot with water, place it on your stove, and bring it to a boil. Optionally, you can add aromatics like shallot or ginger like I did here. Once it comes to a boil, drop in one pound of peeled and deveined shrimp. Cover with a lid and turn the heat off and let them poach for three to four minutes. Then remove them and immediately drop them into an ice water bath to cool, and that's it. You have beautifully poached shrimp. Now, to assemble our shrimp spring roll, first get a medium-sized bowl, add in one to two julienned carrots. I used a julienne peeler, by the way, for this one. Ew, Josh is cheating, wah. Yeah, well, you know what? It was faster, all right? One to two Thai chilies that have been thinly sliced, a quarter cup or five grams of torn mint, a quarter cup or five grams of torn cilantro, and a quarter cup or six grams of torn Thai basil. Hit that with the zest of one lime and toss together to combine. Now we're ready to assemble. Get some round rice paper sheets. These are also available at Asian markets. Also have a link in the description. Fill a large bowl with enough warm water to submerge it in and, well, submerge one rice paper sheet for about two to three seconds or until it becomes a little bit malleable. Pull it out. Place it on a cutting board. Add a few leaves of lettuce of your choice, these are little baby Boston leaves, followed by your vermicelli noodles. I mean, look at those dangly boys. Some of your carrot herb salad, followed by more lettuce, and of course your poached shrimp, which, by the way, have been sliced in half, like so. Arrange your shrimp as you like to make a nice little design. Then fold the right side over, then the left side over, and, well, roll it all the way up. It's kind of like a rice paper burrito in a way. Place it to the side and then repeat with the rest of your shrimp ones, and you have a beautiful shrimp spring roll. One of my favorite things about spring rolls is you can do this. This is the true original glizzy. There was no other glizzy until this. Homemade spring rolls, extremely easy, but without further ado, give it a little dunkaroo. Ah, my shrimp fell out. Thank you, bacon. You're a funny man. Stop looking at me, bacon. Maybe it's because it has everything that I want in it, but to me, this is the perfect spring roll. It's traditional, it's relaxed, it's great for when it's hot outside, but you can also eat this during the winter and be perfectly happy. All the flavors match beautifully. One thing that I would note is when you make it yourself, I mean, you are essentially probably going to make the best spring roll you've ever had because you're putting everything that you want in it. Now, tradition is great, but what if we made a little bit of a upgraded version, if you will? This one's for the chefs. Get yourself one Spam Classic can, remove your Spam and cut it into quarter-inch slices like so. Then cut those slices in half to get some nice little rectangles. Get yourself a medium-sized pan, heat it over medium-high heat with enough oil to coat the bottom and once that's ripping hot, add your Spam in batches to avoid overcrowding and sear for about two minutes or until beautifully seared and crispy. Give it a flip and sear for an additional two minutes. Now, another thing you can do is brush it with some hoisin sauce after you flipped it and brulee it with a kitchen torch to get a little bit of a glaze. Optional, but recommended. In a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon or 14 grams of granulated sugar and whisk in 1 tablespoon or 15 milliliters of hot water. Whisk that until mostly dissolved, then add 2 tablespoons or 30 milliliters of lime juice and 2 tablespoons or 30 milliliters of fish sauce. Whisk that together and adjust acidity and sweetness if needed. I know I have more than three here, that's because today the grocery store decided to only supply tiny little baby ugly garlic, followed by two Thai chilies that have been very thinly sliced. Whisk that together and you've got a nok cham dressing. Now, we're going to assemble this similarly, but with one small change. Get yourself one cucumber, cut off the ends and cut it in half, then using a mandolin or a sharp knife, shave it into nice little ribbons like so, almost like a pappardelle pasta. Now, to assemble this, it's very similar. Rehydrate one of your rice papers, place it on your cutting board and evenly shingle four ribbons across the center of your rice paper. Keep them nice and uniform like this and press them down so that they stick, then add your lettuce and your vermicelli noodles that look like, I don't know, like little intestines for some reason. Uh, sorry, that's gross. Your carrot herb salad from earlier, then lightly dress those noodles in your nok cham dressing, more lettuce, a generous handful of your fried shallots. I mean, look at that. That alone would be a perfect roll. Add your seared and glazed spam. I cut this one in half again so that it would fit a little better. Fold the right side over, then the left side, and yet again, starting from the bottom, roll all the way up and around to create the most beautiful, almost green glizzy spring roll. You know, this looks so beautiful on the outside, I think we need to get ourself a little cross section. And I mean, other than that annoying noodle that's sticking right there, that is one of the most beautiful cross sections I think I've ever seen. Now let's give these a little taste test. We have the Spam Enhanced Ultra Glizzy Goblin Spring Roll. Now, this kind of has a little bit of reminiscence to the Asian-Hawaiian combo of the Spam Musubi, but now we've got sort of a Vietnamese sort of combo going on with the Spam. Sauce. Spam. Bop bop. You're chewing. That fresh nok cham hits. And you've got the lettuce, and then that salty, fatty, rich, whippy, and glazed spam hits you. I mean, I don't think you could make a better version of this. There is a pork version of a spring roll. This outdoes that by a million and, billion, patrillion, is that a word? Turn number? Is that a number? I don't know the difference between a word and a number. A patrillion. Whether you're more traditional, you know, you want the traditional shrimp, lettuce, a little bit of carrot, nothing else, cool, then this is your way to go. But if you want to go on a roller coaster to flavor town, then the Spam Spring Roll welcomes you. Mmm. This peanut sauce is so good. I don't have many words. This is just so good. Honestly, the Spam one had more of an Asian taste to it than this. Thank you for letting us eat, Josh. Thank you. But do you want to know what else is a green glizzy? These are just making less and less sense every day. Alright guys, and that is it. So, we made spring rolls. First off, humongous thank you and shout out to Spam for sponsoring this video and for making these spring rolls one of the most delicious spring rolls I think I've ever made. And you even saw, Vikram and TJ, both of them actually liked the Spam one more. We're really upping what we consider tradition and I think it's just one of those things. You see respect being paid, but you also bring in a new thing to sort of a traditional flavor and now you have these two combos that then make something greater than the sum of its parts. Kind of like how Spam Misubi was invented. So, I don't know if we invented a new spring roll, but if we did, hey, remember that Josh Weissman coined it? And if you use it, that'll be about $300 billion. So, just so you know. You could just keep a jug of this peanut sauce in your refrigerator and just maybe if you walk by the fridge, you know, pop the top, take a little sip. That's gross. Maybe not that. But if you enjoyed this video or you learned something, leave a like, subscribe, and I will see you next time.