If you ever get a chance to visit the Richmond District in San Francisco, be sure to walk along Clement Street between 2nd and 11th Avenue. The area is a less touristy Chinatown with a few other ethnicities mixed in. Here you’ll find some of the cheapest produce markets intermixed with import stores and a variety of ethnic restaurants and bakeries, click here for pictures of the area. If you’re hungry, stop at a small, family-run restaurant called Mai’s Vietnamese Restaurant. The owners are so warm, friendly and helpful and the ingredients are incredibly fresh and delicious. They’ll teach you how to cook the thinly sliced beef in hot vinegar and roll it into spring rolls if you order the Bo Nhung Dam, which I do every time. With a little advice from White on Rice Couple, I began to make these fresh spring rolls at home. It’s a light and fresh meal that leaves you satisfied but never stuffed. I added my own touch by dipping them in a sweet and salty peanut sauce.
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Spring Rolls:
2 (8″) rice papers
6 thin slices cooked steak, preferably top round
1 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrots
sliced cucumber, bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, diced apple, chopped peanuts
fresh mint (optional)
Peanut Sauce:
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter w/ salt
1T soy sauce
1T lime or lemon juice
1T honey
1T fresh grated ginger
1T chili powder
1/2 cup skim or coconut milk
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the peanut sauce except for the peanuts. Pour 1/4 cup of prepared sauce into a small bowl and add about 1T chopped peanuts. Don’t add the chopped peanuts to the leftover sauce, they will lose their crunch after a few hours.
2. Fill a 9″ baking dish or pie plate with 1/2″ hot water. Slide the rice paper into one side of the dish and submerge to the bottom. Feel the rice paper and wait until it completely softens and the crosshatch marks have disappeared, about 10-15 seconds.
3. Remove rice paper from the water and let it drip a few times. Place on a large plate and line 3 slices of steak down the middle. Top with cabbage, carrots, spinach and any other ingredients. If this is your first time, use less vegetables than you think. Take one side and fold tightly over the ingredients and roll up. Slice in half and dip in peanut sauce. Repeat steps 2-3.
Additional Info:
Modify the ingredients to your taste but I recommend using only fresh vegetables as cooking them weighs down the whole meal. The meat can be replaced with chicken, pork or more veggies.
Site Updates: I’ve rearranged the categories and added new ones such as Low Carb, Gluten Free and Vegetarian. There is now a scroll bar and random display order for the blogroll, and more blogs have been added (with more to come).
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Now we’re talkin! This is my kinda dish! BTW that peanut sauce from before worked out great on some seared shrimp and calrose rice. Keep it up!
Awesome, glad you liked it! ~ Nick
Hmm, cooking the meat in hot vinegar. That’s something I haven’t heard of before. These look gorgeous!
Vegetarian category? Yay! Thanks :]
I often put plain or baked tofu in instead of any kind of meat. Just taught a whole class how to do these to save money. When you buy them premade in a store, they cost upwards of $4 for 2 of them. The wrappers are so inexpensive so why not make them at home?
I make a spicy citrus sauce with peanuts for mine. Although these days, I’ve switched to almonds to eliminate the fear factor.
Thanks for the post.
They are an incredibly cheap dish to make and so satisfying! Citrus sauce sounds great, you’ll have to send me the recipe. ~ Nick
Awesome! Those look spectacular! I just can’t get the hang of working with rice papers–so frustrating!
Really? I picked it up after my first one! Just soak it till the bumps are gone and lay it out flat on the plate. You can roll them up quite tight, they won’t break and they stick very well to themselves but it does require some skill =). Good luck! ~ Nick
I love Spring rolls! These look great!
Just a reminder that I changed my blog address: http://www.megansmunchies.com/
To see that steak peeking through the translucent rice wrapper makes my mouth water!
you know I make these a lot purely because of the sauce? LOL! I love these! Great photo too
Wow, looks great!
Your spring rolls look fantastic! And I’m with Elle – I love making these, but the rice papers can try your patience :-)
those are so beautiful and fresh looking!
They look so tasty, fresh and healthy, the sauce is off the charts!
Yum, yum, yum! White on Rice Couple taught me how to do spring rolls too!
Looks really delicious and the sauce sounds great! I would add a little bit of red chili!
Nick, never tasted spring rolls with pb sauce.. you did such a wonderful job :)
Cheers!
Gera
I can’t stand cabbage. But other than that these look tasty (and so light!). Maybe I’ll just make them and omit the cabbage part… and YUM steak.
That new camera is treating you well. Those pictures are great!
Fun recipe!!
The close up’s look fabulous! These rolls are so beautiful and the peanut dip looks out of this world. You’re a spring roll expert now!
gorgeous!! and they looks delicious :) i’ll have to give it a try sometime…
Out here, we call those things “summer rolls”. When fried, we call ‘em spring rolls.
Excellent looking spring rolls. I’ve never seen them made with beef before, but it sounds great. Looks pretty easy as well :D
love this! i have always looked for a good peanut sauce recipe! and now I know where to come from. I ADORE thai satay and peanut sauce.
Oh the fresh spring rolls look amazing too of course!
happy Sunday! :)
great job! they look wonderful and so fresh. and of course you had the peanut sauce to accompany! I just put Thai food on my to learn list for this year! ;)
Yes! The leftover tenderloin in my fridge has found a recipe. And the added bonus of peanut dipping sauce!
Delicious! I eat this once a week!
I know its been a while, but your stuff looks great, and I just posted a Peanut Butter Stuffed Jalapeno blog and a story to boot!
My wife is Vietnamese – here’s how we do these:
Cook pork and shrimp – slice thin
rice paper
vermicelli noodles
lettuce
Thai basil (NOT regular)
purple basil
rao thom (thin leaf)
heart shaped leaf
mint
cilantro
cucumber
sauce:
mince lots of garlic and Thai chilies
oil in saucepan – saute until fragrant
add peanut butter (chunky) and hoisin sauce
Enjoy!