Thai Hotel

The Thai / Lao Spring Rolls are easy to make and healthy because they are not deep fried. You can fill the rice paper with any ingredients you wish.

Spring Roll Basic Instructions:

1. Place a damp cloth over a flat surface.
2. Submerge a rice paper into hot water for less than 4 seconds.
3. Place the rice paper over the damp cloth.
4. Place fillings onto rice paper and arrange neatly.
5. Roll the rice paper tightly while tucking in vegetables.
6. Fold in the sides and finish rolling.
7. The rice paper should complete two rotations.

lf the spring rolls are made in advance of serving, place the damp cloth over the spring rolls to keep the rice paper moist.

Spring Roll Dipping Sauce:

Because this sauce is so good, you’ll want to double dip. Therefore, each person must have his own spring roll dipping sauce sprinkled with crushed toasted peanuts.

Spring Roll Dipping Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar or fresh squeezed lime
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup fish sauce
1 garlic clove minced
1 teaspoon dried crushed chilies

In a sauce pan, heat the water and vinegar to dissolve the sugar. Once sugar is dissolved, add garlic, chilies and fish sauce. Once cooled, this sauce can be stored in the refrigerator.

Toasting Peanuts:

I like to purchase whole roasted peanuts where I have to individually remove the shell and membrane. Do not roast salted peanuts–it removes the authenticity. Always garnish with crushed toasted peanuts.

Toasting Peanuts Instructions:

Toast unsalted peanuts in a shallow pan over medium heat. Shake the pan or stir the peanuts often to toast peanuts evenly. Stop toasting when 75% of the peanut surface is dark. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the peanuts into broken pieces. Sprinkle the crushed toasted peanuts over the Spring Roll Dipping Sauce before serving dipping sauce with the rice paper spring rolls.

At www.thai-laos-food.blogspot.com, there is a free video where you can see how to roll a spring roll.

Manivan Larprom, a Thai / Lao girl, teaches you how to cook Thai / Lao food with her home made videos at http://www.thai-laos-food.blogspot.com

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Ingredients:

1 garlic clove;

1 Red Chili;

1 Green Chili;

1 tablespoon squeezed Lime;

1 tablespoon Fish Sauce

In a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic and chilies until they are in small pieces. Add squeezed lime and fish sauce and mix. Pour the Classic Thai / Lao Hot Sauce into a small dipping bowl for serving. The above ingredients can be multiplied to suit the number of servings.

Most Thai and Lao chili sauce starts with these basic ingredients. You can substitute soy sauce for fish sauce but it would not be authentic nor classic classic.

Pour this sauce over rice or dip the sauce with sticky rice and grilled meat.

The basic ingredients that are used in Thailand and Laos include: garlic, chilies, fish or soy sauce, lime or rice vinegar, and sugar. However, the proportion of each ingredient varies depending on the dish. With the exception of dessert dishes, these ingredients are in most Thai and Lao dishes. Every dish has a unique balance of these basic ingredients.

For more recipes on hot sauces and Thai / Lao dishes, visit my blog. As well, there is also an instructional video on how the sauce is made by using the traditional method of a mortar and pestle.

A Thai / Lao girl who has a mission to teach others on how to cook Thai and Lao food. Her blog at http://www.thai-laos-food.blogspot.com/ lists many recipes. As well, there are some instructional videos that show the traditional cooking methods that are used today in Thailand and Laos.

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Food is like a drug. How true is that? This is especially true for me when it comes to Thai food. Once I get started on any Thai dish, I get addicted to more of the same. But hey, there has to be worse addictions that good food right? Some culinary writers describe Thai food as being similar to Chinese food but with a sting. Well, as someone who has lived in Thailand for a number of years now, I think the aromatic, delicious, hot, spicy Thai food is in a class of it’s own, and there is nothing to compare it’s uniqueness with.

Another fascinating fact with Thai food is the variety. If I lived here for a 100 years and tried a different dish everyday day, I don’t believe I would have time to sample it all. The county is split into 5 regions; North, Northeast, East, Central, and South and each region, province, and sub province, all have their own unique dishes and foodstuffs.

Thai food should not just be categorised as being hot and spicy though, as there are many herbs and spices which are also combined to give the individual dishes their distinctive tastes and aromas.

Ever heard of Thai food described using the 3 S’s of flavor? Spicy, Salty, and Sour. It’s the harmonious blend of these 3 that contribute to this gorgeous gastronomy. Let me break this down a little for you.

Spicy - Chili (Prik)

There’s a whole history on how the chili became a part of Thai cooking and I’ll save that for another article, but basically the Europeans, (Spanish or Portuguese) introduced the Chili into the old Siam in the 16th century, and it’s been and integral part of Thai cooking ever since. People who try Thai food for the first time should do so with extreme caution, as there are some dishes that burn your throat so hard that it’s painful to the inexperienced pallet.

Fish Sauce - Salty

Fish sauce is simply called “Nam pla” which when translated means water fish. In Thai cooking this us the second most important ingredient. Fish sauce is made by brewing fish or shrimp mixed with salt and decanting the fermented result into bottles. On its own it smells quite unpleasant but when added to the cooking or sprinkled over rice, it really does contribute to the exotic flavors of Thai food.

Lime - Sour

The lime known in Thai language as “Manao”, is used at every opportunity in a whole variety of Thai dishes. The main role of the lime is to repress the salty taste and strong odor of fish sauce.

Bon appetite!

Aleck Mann is a proficient writer and webmaster for Look at Food dot com where he writes on such issues as Living Longer and Healthier lives! and Diet Information. He also has many other food and healthy eating related pieces on the site.

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