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As I spent the last 3 years trying to
get into better shape, I found one food
that I can eat until I'm blue in the
face without hating myself after spring
rolls.
[Music]
Now, whether you call them spring rolls,
summer rolls, fresh rolls, salad rolls,
doesn't matter because they're all
incredible rolls. That wasn't as funny
as I thought. Anyways, today we're
making three protein options for these
spring rolls. a juicy pork, a plump
shrimp, and a crispy tofu. I may not be
vegan, but I have always loved tofu. It
just absorbs whatever flavor you put on
it, and it's just good. But we'll just
start with our pork. Now, you can use
pork belly, but I like to use pork
shoulder or pork butt. Traditionally, if
you're going to do pork belly, you're
just going to want to blanch it. And
then, I don't know, it's not the best
bite. Just my opinion, but do whatever
you like. We're just going to start by
cutting this into chunks. That'll give
us a nice strip size amount of meat.
We're also going to want to cut this
against the grain. So, first thing I'm
going to do is cut it with the grain.
So, that way we can easily flip our
piece and cut nice thin slices against
the grain. When you cut it like this,
your piece will end up being super
tender and you won't end up ripping out
all of your meat when your first bite.
Nobody likes that. And also, feel free
to trim away any excess fat that you
really don't want to bite into. And it
doesn't matter too much if all your
pieces are not the same length. As long
as they're the same thickness, it'll
cook evenly, you'll be good to go. And
now that we have about a pound of our
thinly sliced pork, we can just go ahead
and set it to the side because we're
going to season it. Now, this is
arguably going to be the longest part
because you're going to season and cook
the meat. However, if you decided to
just do shrimp, it's a lot quicker cuz
we're really just going to boil it. And
then this whole recipe comes together in
just a matter of minutes because it's
really just fresh produce. But I really
like pork, so we're going to do pork.
We're going to start off with a piece of
lemongrass. You cut the tip off, you cut
the butt off, remove the husk, and then
we just going to very thinly slice.
And once that's thinly sliced, we're
just going to go ahead and continue to
mince that all the way up. We don't want
it quite a paste. We just don't want
large stringy pieces of lemongrass. And
then once we've got about a4 cup of all
that minced, we're just going to move it
over to our pork and then slice up a
shallot. Now, it doesn't have to be a
full shallot, but the shallots at my
grocery store were miniature. So, this
is just going to be one shallot today,
which I don't actually know if it's
miniature or just normal size. And the
rest of the shallots I've been seeing at
the grocery store are extra large
shallots. But either way, you just don't
need a ton of it. Just, you know,
enough. Call it half a shallot. Go ahead
and thinly slice this guy.
Again, you want this pretty small. So,
you don't want big chunks of shallot
because it's going directly on the meat.
So, feel free to run through it with
your knife a couple times just to give
it a nice pass. And then the last little
bit of chopping is just some garlic. Go
ahead and smash and strip a few cloves.
And then just run your knife through it
until it looks like the shallot
lemongrass. And make sure you get all
those bits off your fingers because
don't want to waste any garlic. And now
into this mixture, we're going to add 2
tbsps of light soy sauce, 3 tablespoons
of fish sauce, a tablespoon of oyster
sauce, a couple tablespoons of
preferably not crystallized honey, but
work with what you got. I should just
microwave this, but I'm already
committed. I'm sure I'm going to regret
it later. 2 tbsps of brown sugar and
some black pepper. Now, you can also
salt this, but the way that I see it is
that there's a lot of salt in the fish
sauce, a lot of salt in soy sauce, and
you're also going to be dipping it in a
salty sauce. So, you know, you can if
you want. If you were just doing this on
its own, maybe you'd want to salt it.
Now, preferably using a glove, but you
can also just raw dog it, I guess, if
you want, or use a spoon. You're just
going to mix this all together. Then
once all that's nicely mixed, you're
just going to go ahead and set it to the
side while we prep the rest for meat.
Well, protein. Next up, we have our
shrimp, which we're not going to do
anything fancy to literally like all you
need is a pound of shrimp.
This is more than a pound. This is 2 lb
now that I'm looking at it. I did ask
for 2 lb. Why did I ask for 2 lb?
What am I doing? Where was my head this
morning? We'll pretend that you can't
see half of this. This is just a pound.
All you need is shrimp, peeled and de
veained. You can even just use cocktail
shrimp pre-cooked in the grocery store
if you really want to. Nobody's going to
know. You're going to put it in a
wrapper and dip it in a sauce. It's
okay. The shrimp I got today not only
are twice the amount that I should have
gotten, but they have just the tails on.
So, all I have to do is pull the tails
off. This is going to take a while.
Now, once your single pound of shrimp is
peeled and devained, all you have to do
set it to the side cuz we're just going
to boil them later. And the very last
bit of protein prep is tofu. And the
first thing we're going to do is drain
out all the water. Now, if you don't
like tofu, I would I would like to ask
you why. Let me know down below. Do you
not like it because you don't like tofu?
Because you've had it and you thought,
"Man, this is kind of gross." Or because
you haven't had it and you're like, "Ah,
it's a vegan thing." So, like, that's
gross. Meat. Go meat. Cuz I'm I'm always
genuinely curious because as someone who
loves meat, I also love tofu and go hand
in hand for me. So, please let me know
why it is that you don't like it.
I'm waiting.
Now, you're going to take a paper towel
and you're just going to pat dry your
tofu blocks and one package of firm
tofu. It's all you really need, unless
you're all about the tofu, which case go
for it. Two boxes, two packages, three,
four, five, six would be ridiculous, but
five is okay. And you're just going to
pat them dry. You could alternatively
press all the water out, too, which is a
great way to go about this, but it takes
a lot longer. So now all I'm going to do
is just cut this piece of tofu into
these strips because I'm going to throw
these on a pan and sear them up. Doesn't
need to be anything crazy, but just all
generally around the same size.
Seriously, if you're not about it, you
don't know what you're missing. And once
they're all thinly sliced, you can just
go ahead and put this to the side with
the rest of your meat. Now, to cook our
pork, if you have the option to, please
grill it over charcoal. It's just going
to taste better. But realistically
speaking, the other option is to do it
in the oven or do it in the air fryer.
Today, I'm opting for air fryer because
the air fryer does not heat up my house.
And as someone with no AC, that's a
green flag. Now, I'm going to start by
just giving the basket of my air fryer a
solid spray of neutral oil. And
remember, don't use a liner because a
liner will block the airflow and make
your food soggy. I know that it's more
work to then clean out your air fryer,
but you're going to get better tasting
food and I think that's worth it. So,
now in your liner free air fryer basket,
go ahead and lay down your meat in a
single layer. You want to make sure
you're not overcrowding your air fryer
because then it's going to block the air
flow and then it's not really air frying
anymore. This is definitely going to
take you a few batches and that's
totally okay because the way we're going
to do this going to do a batch, work on
some other stuff. Throwing a batch in,
work on some other stuff. Okay, that way
we're not wasting any time. And we're
going to do 400 about 8 minutes and then
we'll check on it. Now, to cook our
shrimp, it's pretty straightforward. You
just need boiling water, a small pinch
of salt, and then you're just going to
drop in your shrimp to cook.
Ah, carefully. And then after about 30
seconds or once those finish curling,
we're just going to move those over to
an ice bath. This is going to help keep
them nice and plump and juicy. Then you
just repeat with that other pound of
shrimp that you accidentally bought. And
then after about 45 to 50 seconds, just
remove them and place them in an ice
bath. Now we'll just go ahead and pause
this at 8 minutes. Oh yeah,
look at that. That looks freaking
incredible. Oh yeah. Incredible. So now
all we need to do is just go ahead and
remove our cooked pieces and repeat with
the rest. Now, to cook your tofu, I
recommend a non-stick pan versus a
stainless steel pan because tofu is
really delicate and you don't want it to
rip. So, with that said, on mediumigh
heat, I'm going to go in with a thin
layer of neutral oil. Using the spray a
lot today, don't know why. And then once
that's nice and hot, we're just going to
lay down our tofu in a nice thin layer.
Well, thin layer is a single layer. And
once these are on here, you can go ahead
and just leave them alone, more or less.
You can move them around so they brown
evenly, but they don't require a ton of
work. Then after you've got a few
minutes on that first side, you should
be able to just carefully flip them over
and then let the other sides fry. Now,
optionally, once these are all fried up,
you can add a sauce. It's not super
common or technically needed, but it's
also nice, right? Like same way we
seasoned our pork, we're going to season
our tofu. I like to use a musubi glaze.
The same stuff I would use to make
spamusi. Basically, just a glorified
teriyaki sauce. Give or take a couple
ingredients. But if you have teriyaki
sauce, just use that. Works great. So,
all we need to do is just turn our heat
down a little bit cuz we don't want it
to sear off too quickly and burn. I'm
just going to drizzle on a little bit
right over top. Very carefully, you can
toss it, but you do run the risk of
breaking tofu. But once every piece is
nice and coated, you'll just let it sit
and then you can just carefully remove
each one and set it to the side. Now,
for the rest of our fillings, it's
mostly just vegetable prep. There are
two things that we'll need to cook
still, but we'll get to that. And
really, the most important thing to know
is that this can really be whatever you
want. The vegetables I chose today are
ones that I like and enjoy my spring
rolls, but if you don't like these, you
could pick something else. Or if you
want to try something new, add something
new. If you have something in your
fridge that you want to get rid of
that's about to go bad, perfect time to
use it. But for me, it starts with a
carrot, which I'm just going to cut into
discs so that way I can then julian it.
And this kind of stuff doesn't really
necessarily have a correct amount. It's
more of like what do you like? So, if
you don't like a lot of carrots, but you
might want a little bit for color,
you're probably not going to do nearly
as many carrots as I do. But if you love
carrots, and you're like, man, you know
what? I want my spring roll, just
carrots.
>> That would be weird, but you could do
it. So, when you're deciding on how much
of something to get, just think about
how much do you or the people who are
going to be eating your food like it. I
really hope that you guys cannot hear
all the construction going on outside
because I can hear it all the time.
Next up, we have some cucumbers, which
I'm also going to do basically the same
thing I did to my carrots. And I'm just
going to cut them on a bias so I can cut
those into matchixs. You also could just
cut these straight into spears. Same
thing with the carrots, but I like
having it broken up more so we can be a
little more spread out, more of a full
bite, if that makes sense.
Sick.
Next up, we have some garlic chives,
which technically speaking aren't garlic
chives because the grocery store was out
of garlic chives, but they had Korean
chives. So, I grabbed these. And I'm
just going to cut the tips off of these.
And I'm going to cut the butts. I'm just
not really a butt guy. And then from
here, I'm just going to go ahead and cut
this into about 3in sections or divided
into three bundles. Now, next up, we
have the herbs, which are the things I
have not washed yet. Everything else is
easy to wash beforehand, but the herbs,
because they're so leafy, I find that
works a little bit better if you just
wash them after you cut them because
you're not cutting them a ton. I'm just
going to cut about 3 in off the bottom
and throw this away. Then I'm just going
to put them in my tiny salad rinser,
salad spinner, whatever you want to call
it. Spray them down with water, give
them a good spin, and then we'll move on
to the next one.
Cool. This is cilantro. I don't know if
I said that before, but this is
cilantro. Did I not say it? Next up, we
have some Thai basil, which if you don't
like Thai basil, feel free to skip, but
I like Thai basil. This is one where I'm
just going to individually pluck each
leaf off because I don't want any of the
stem. This one's a little more hands-on.
I won't blame you for skipping it. And
because it's basil, I want to be a
little more gentle.
[Music]
And the last of the herbs is going to be
mint, which personally I'm not a big fan
of, but I'm not just making food myself.
So, mint. You're just going to have to
trust that I actually rinsed this and
cuz I wasn't going to make you watch me
do it for a third time. That would be
ridiculous. Next up, we have some bean
sprouts, which may or may not be ready
to eat. Depends on where you got your
bean sprouts from. Mine are thankfully
ready to eat. So, I don't really even
need to do anything with them. They're
just existing, done. If yours are not
ready to eat, then you'll just need to
blanch them really quickly, run them
under cold water, and you'll be good to
go. And for the last bit of vegetable
prep, arguably the most important, are
lettuce. Now, I have some green leafy
lettuce here, but if you want to use
romaine, if you want to use iceberg,
really it's up to you. Green leafy is a
little more common. You could use red
leafy. Leafy, red leaf. Have I been
saying leafy, but green leaf was on
sale, so green. I like to just go ahead
and start by cutting off the butt
because that's just going to split all
of it up for us. Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Only some of you will get this lettuce
booty.
I made a mess. And then depending on how
long your lettuce pieces are, you're
just going to want to cut them either in
half or into thirds. And then we'll just
wash this inside of our spinner. And for
the lettuce especially, you want to make
sure you get it really dry because any
leftover moisture is going to sogg out
your lettuce and that's not going to be
good inside of. So what helps too is
after you've spun it for a little bit,
go ahead and move your lettuce around so
that way all that centrifugal force is
now forcing the moisture in a different
direction than it was before. Now for
our last two fillings, we have
vermicelli noodles. Just just a thin
rice noodle. It adds a little bit more
fluff and a little volume to your spring
roll. And the second is an egg roll
wrapper, but not just the way it is.
We're going to roll them up and then fry
them and so it's a nice crispy little
bite inside. Again, both are optional,
but would highly recommend. For our egg
roll wrapper, we are just going to take
them out of the box bag. Then we'll just
peel back each individual sheet, lay it
flat, add a little bit of water to the
end, and then we're going to roll it
fairly loosely. Should look like this.
You don't want it to be too tight
because if it's too tight, you're going
to end up with a dense, not crispy bite
of dough. You don't want that, man.
They're really just making all the noise
today. And then once you have a nice
bundle of those all rolled up, you're
just going to drop them into some
350°ree oil and let them fry for about 2
minutes or until they're lightly golden
like this. And then you'll just
carefully remove them and let them drain
out on a wire rack. And then, of course,
you're just going to want to repeat this
process until you've gone through all of
your egg roll wrappers, including the
extras you made, because you're going to
snack on these while these are frying,
and you don't want to run out of them.
So, you make extra. Not only is it the
right decision, it's the smart decision.
Now, for your noodles, definitely refer
to your packers direction on how long to
cook them. But if they're thin like
mine, which and these are different from
the ones I showed you earlier because I
realized I had an open bag already and I
didn't want to open a new bag. These are
going to cook really fast, so just stay
close. And just like that, in about 45
seconds, they're done. Then you're just
going to want to rinse these under cold
water to remove any starch and stop the
cooking process.
Now for our first sauce, about 3/4 cup
of peanut butter, creamy of course, 3
tbsps of hoyen, 6 tbsps of soy sauce, 3
tbsps of meaten, and 6 tbsps of sweet
chili sauce. Most people do sugar, but I
think sweet chili sauce is the way to go
personally. Then we'll just very
carefully whisk that together because if
you're not careful, it's going to splash
everywhere.
And now, depending on how thick you like
your sauce, I want mine a little
thinner. You can just go ahead and thin
it out with a little bit of water. And
then, of course, when we go to plate it,
we'll finish it off with a little bit of
crushed peanuts.
And now for our second lighter but not
necessarily less calorie sauce. Fish
sauce which starts off with a third cup
of fish sauce followed by a/3 cup of
water/2 cup of fish sauce and 1/2 cup of
water. Losing my mind today. I'm like
the worst YouTuber ever. Followed by a/2
cup of sugar. Some lime juice about a
third of a lime. And then just whisk
that all together till the sugar's
dissolved. Alternatively you could do
this over the heat and it'll be a lot
quicker but then it's another pot I have
to watch. I don't want to do that. Then
we'll just finish it off with a few
cloves of crushed and roughly chopped
garlic as well as a few Thai chili
peppers. And you don't have to add these
in. It doesn't even necessarily make it
all that spicy unless you get a piece of
Thai chili pepper on there. But because
we're not cooking it down, it shouldn't
be too bad. And now all that's left to
do is roll. Now you're going to start by
dipping your rice paper in cold water.
This is because cold water will help it
from becoming too pliable too fast. Now
the first thing you're going to want to
lay down is your lettuce all the way
towards the back of your paper. Then
just follow that up with any toppings
that you want as well as a little bit of
noodles. And you can't forget the
crunchy roll. Then I'll just finish it
off with a few sprigs of cilantro as
well as my preferred meat of choice. We
lay this down in the front so that way
it's nice and pretty when we tuck it to
bed. Now carefully peel up the back of
your rice paper. And using your fingers,
you're just going to go ahead and press
all of that filling in as you tuck
forward. Then take one side and fold it
over. Then the next. And then all you
have to do is just roll it all together.
And just like that, you're left with a
beautiful spring roll. Thank you so much
for watching. I really hope that you
enjoyed it and I really hope that you
learned something. Here's a photo of me
jumping over my grandpa escape park.
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