Hue Spring Rolls....

On the afternoon of Sunday 16th the staff of the HCC invited me to pop in to show them how to pipe icing flowers in return for a quick session teaching me how to make Hue Spring Rolls...or lacy spring rolls. 
Rosemary and I had ridden round West Lake (twice) and she had a report to finish before Tet so I jumped at the chance to fiddle with food!

We had a ball with the royal icing...you've seen the piped flowers, we also tried to do drop flowers and leaves too...

leaves....

everything is set aside and hardens beautifully so they can be stored for ages

little drop flowers with sugar pearls...

Icing session over then it was onto the spring rolls.....I think I will just show you the pictures rather than waffle too much...

Ingredients, carrot, daikon, shallots, dill tips, mackeral...that's it!

julienne the carrot

and the daikon...

finely slice the shallots

The batter is a mix of rice flour, tapioca flour, egg and water...you dip your fingers in and quickly drizzle them over a hot pan...it's harder than it looks...you have to keep the bin close by when you're learning so you can quickly hide the stuff ups!!!

one of Mr Hung's ...mine were no where near as good...thankfully it didn't matter in the end...

when it's cooked you simply lift it from the pan...

a pile of wrappers...looks like spaghetti doesn't it?

it took intense concentration to roll these filmy little numbers...

after rolling - before cooking...

start off shallow frying over a moderate heat...

once cooked enough to become firm turn the heat up a bit to brown...

drain on kitchen paper...

display artfully round the dipping sauce....

crispy on the outside, a multitude of textures on the inside...crunchy soft and juicy...yummy!

It was great fun and a real education to see how simple something so wonderful could be...apart from marinating the carrot and daikon in a little sugar, pepper and rice wine vinegar there was nothing ..extra added.  Just fresh veg, herbs and fish!