Strawberry Mango Spring Rolls

The strawberries were on sale and I had to think fast about what to make for a potluck on a holiday. I remembered this tasty looking recipe for fruit spring rolls off the recipe blog How Sweet It Is, which has lovely, mouth-watering pictures and an interesting obsession with caramelized bacon... (you can check it out here: http://www.howsweeteats.com/).

I mistakenly didn't pick up any Kiwis for her recipe, but I made do with what I had.

In my family, spring rolls are the gold standard in potluck terms. So you can see how I was excited to change the recipe up a bit and make a sweet dish.


rolls

-1 carton of strawberries (mysteriously missing a handful since last night)
-2 mangoes (the yellow kind)
-handful of fresh mint
-package of rice paper

(be careful not to drop it, it might as well be eggs)


sauce

1/3 cup of honey
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 lime (original recipe calls for lime zest, but my lime had grown quite old in the fruit bowl so I thought juicing it might yield better results)

So you simply have to cut up the fruit and mint, roll them in rice paper and stir together the sauce.

I say simply because I've been making these since I was a child, but here are some tips on the rice paper rolls if you have difficulty

1. Not all of them are going to look nice, best you face this reality early, set aside the ugly ones and eat them yourself!

No one will ever know. On that note, it's also really hard to make them all the same size, once you've made a dozen, though, the differences are hardly noticeable.

2. Use a shallow pan that is just larger than the rice papers, I like to use a pie pan but something even larger might be easier.

3. Fill a whole kettle and boil it. I have a pretty high tolerance for hot water and rice

paper cooks very quick (like in and out in a split second) in hotter water. You can start by putting boiling water and cooling it down with a bit of warm water.

4. As your going, top up with a little hot water from the kettle and when you feel like the water has become so salty that the rice papers are not softening, dump it and start again.

5. Make only one at a time and don't leave any floating while you're rolling another, the longer they stay in the water, the softer they get and the more they'll break.

6. As you roll them, sortof like a miniature burrito, they're pretty flimsy but as they dry a little they'll firm up, making them much easier to eat.

7. Finally, try not to stack them, the paper once softened is really sticky and they'll probably fall apart as you're trying to pick them up.

Good luck!

These are a tasty treat!


Diagram from Foodie Calls blog, see it here