Thai Spring Rolls

For the dipping sauce, combine sugar, water, vinegar and fish sauce in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar dissolves. Cool and stir through the carrot.

For the filling, soak noodles in warm water for 5 minutes to soften. Drain, then use scissors or a knife to cut noodles into short lengths. Use a mortar and pestle to pound the garlic, peppercorns and coriander root to a fine paste. Heat vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the garlic paste and cook for about a minute. Add the pork and cook until just cooked through. Then add the noodles, carrot, cabbage and fish sauce. Cook for about 3 minutes or until vegetables have softened. Taste and season with more fish sauce if needed. Remove from heat and stir through the coriander. Set aside to cool completely.

To make the spring roll wrappers, combine plain flour, self-raising flour and water. Mix until you get a thick paste. Add more water if the mixture looks more like a dough than a paste. Set aside for about 10 minutes to rest.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over low heat until it’s just warm to the touch. Dip your fingers into the spring roll wrapper paste, scooping up about 3 tablespoons of the mixture. Spread the paste over the base of the pan to form a circle roughly 15 cm in diameter. Use your fingers to scrape away any excess paste. Cook for about 30 seconds or until the wrapper has set, not browned. Peel the wrapper off the pan. Cover the wrapper with paper towel and repeat with remaining paste. Keep lifting the pan on and off the heat as needed to make sure the pan doesn’t get too hot.

Make the spring roll glue, by mixing the flour and water together to form a thick paste.

Place about a heaped tablespoon of filling onto a wrapper. Fold like an envelope and roll up, sealing with the spring roll glue. Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers.

Heat enough vegetable oil in a saucepan for deep frying. When the oil is hot, cook spring rolls in batches for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and drain. Serve with the dipping sauce.