Thai Prawn & Pork Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are a beloved staple in Thai cuisine, offering a delightful combination of textures and flavours. These Prawn & Pork Spring Rolls combine succulent prawns with classic Thai flavours infused into the pork mince for a savoury treat that will leave your taste buds dancing. The recipe can easily be doubled, tripled etc depending on your needs.
Equipment
- Mortar & pestle or small food processor
Ingredients
- 16 large whole green banana prawns
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2-3 large coriander roots, with some stem, roughly chopped
- 3-4 cloves cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 250g pork mince (use regular, not lean)
- 8 frozen spring roll wrappers, thawed (See Notes)
- 16 large coriander leaves (left whole)
SPRING ROLL GLUE
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1 tablespoon water
DIPPING SAUCE (OPTIONAL)
- ½ cup caster sugar (or white sugar)
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon finely diced cucumber
- 2 teaspoons each very finely diced carrot and red onion
- 1 birds eye chilli, finely sliced (deseeded for less heat, if desired)
Instructions
PREPARE THE PRAWNS
- Peel and devein the prawns, leaving the tails intact.
- Using a small sharp knife, make a cut down the middle (lengthways) to butterfly the prawns, being careful not to cut all the way through. You want to open up the meat to allow the marinade to flavour evenly. Place into a bowl.
- Add the oyster sauce and fish sauce to the prawn meat and massage in with your fingertips to coat evenly. Cover and chill whilst preparing the pork filling.
PORK FILLING
- Place coriander roots, garlic, peppercorns and salt into a motor and pestle and pound until you have a roughly smooth paste. (Alternately use a small food processor or chopper).
- Add the pork mince and using a spoon, stir very well to combine. You are looking for a slightly sticky mixture. Cover and chill for at least 10 minutes for the flavours to infuse.
MAKE THE FLOUR GLUE
- Place flour into a small bowl and add water. Using a small spoon, mix to a reasonably thick paste. Set aside.
ROLLING THE SPRING ROLLS
- Leaving the wrappers together in a their stack, place onto a flat cutting surface. Using a sharp knife, slice the wrappers in half, from one corner to the other, on the diagonal to make triangle shaped wrappers. Set aside and cover with a slightly damp clean towel or cloth.
- Working with one triangle wrapper at a time, place onto a clean surface. Using a flat bladed knife (such as a butter knife), spread a tablespoon of the pork mince filling over one half of the wrapper. (Doesn't have to be perfect, just roughly spread out thinly - see images above in post). Place one prawn towards the bottom then fold the bottom wrapper over the prawn, roll up once then tuck the pointed side in and keep rolling tightly until there is about 5cm of wrapper left. Place one whole coriander leaf onto the wrapper and spread some glue over the end 2-3cm of the wrapper. Finally, continue to roll up to seal completely. Set aside and repeat with remaining wrappers, prawns and coriander leaves. Cover and chill until ready to fry.
DEEP FRY THE SPRING ROLLS
- Pour enough oil into a wok or saucepan to come one-third up the sides. Heat over a medium-high heat until oil reaches 180°C (when oil is ready, a cube of bread turns golden in 15 secs). Cook the spring rolls, in batches, for 3-4 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and prawns are cooked through. Drain on paper towel quickly then transfer to a wire rack. Serve hot with the Dipping Sauce if desired or any sauce of choice.
DIPPING SAUCE (OPTIONAL)
- Combine sugar, vinegar and water in a small pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil then simmer for 1 minute. Pour syrup into a small bowl and allow to cool completely. Once cool, add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Notes
- COOKS NOTES:
Oven Temps: Oven temperatures are for conventional, if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C.
Measurements: We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon = 5 ml, 1 tablespoon = 20 ml & 1 cup = 250 ml.
Herbs: All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed.
Vegetables: All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified.
Eggs: We use large size and eggs are 55-60 g each, unless specified. - SPRING ROLL WRAPPERS
I purchase my wrappers from the freezer section in Coles – don’t use the brand Woolworths sell – they are terrible. They stick together and are hard too separate.
To Thaw: Pop the frozen wrappers into the fridge an hour or so before rolling the spring rolls too ‘gently’ thaw. It helps with less condensation on the wrappers therefore less tears. - SAUCES TO SERVE WITH THE SPRING ROLLS
Although my Dipping Sauce above is our favourite sauce to serve with the spring rolls you can serve other sauces such as sweet chilli, soy sauce, dumpling sauce or a hot chilli sauce such as Sriracha.