Rice Noodle Rolls. a study on techniques used

My granddaughters love dim sum and I am always looking for activities to do with them when I babysit. 

I can't believe that there are so many ways to make the rice noodle rolls; fry, steam and even microwave.  The steaming process also varied.  Videos of this being prepared on the Vietnam as street food, showed some vendors steam the noodle on cloth, others steamed the noodle on a baking sheet that fits into a steaming oven.  The batter used for the street vendorsis very thin and is cooked very quickly, then quickly rolled into a roll.

I am a cast iron cook and do crepes on these pans with success.  So I first used my cast iron, even a no stick pan and each crepe stuck!!  I was so tempted to add an egg to the batter!  The steaming method worked better, I used two casserole dishes, but found after each baking, they had to be cleaned. Hmmm! The results were delicious just not pretty to look at! 

The batter 
This is the first recipe I used and it does need to have more liquid added as is thick.  See below for the modified batter used.  I have added this recipe to the blog as rice flour can be found in the Asian aisle of a supermarket.  

• 1c Rice flour 
• 1c water
• 1 T oil
• salt 

Loosen the side of the noodle from the dish with a spatula and let cool. 

Tiger shrimp was steamed for the dish and coarsely chopped.

Let the noodle cool before handling as the noodle will rip when lifted to add the filling if you don't let it cool for a few minutes..

This weekend, my son invited us for dim sum with the girls and I took great interest in their Noodle Rolls

The noodle roll also had ripped and fallen apart with handling!

As you can notice the end is very thick and was also gummy!

Back to the drawing board to review the batter.  Most of the batter used more water in portion to the dry ingredients as much as 1/2 to 1c of water.  The flours varied in mix, some used just rice flour, some a combination of Tapioca and Rice flour, other also added Cornstarch or Potato starch to the Rice and Tapioca flours.  

This time my batter was 

•  1 1/3 c Rice flour
• 1/3c Tapioca flour
• 1/2c Cornstarch
• 2 c lukewarm water
• 2 c boiling water
• salt
• 1 Tablespoon Oil

This batter used lukewarm and hot water as in this Savoury Rolled Cakes


Method

• Whisk the mixture and before each pouring
• Spray the rectangle container* with oil or use a brush to cover lightly
• Pour a very thin layer in pan, this can either be steamed in your wok, or
• Microwave for 1 minute at a time and check if the crepe is done.  In my microwave on high power, it took 2 minutes.
• Brush the roll with oil 

*The containers that are used varied, some used an aluminum pie plate or baking dish, another a 8X8 steel pan, which just floated on the water in the WOK to steam. 

Another lined the container with saran wrap and lifted the saran warp to the work area.  Not sure how safe it is to cook on saran wrap. 

Some had muslin cotton sewed with a cord to tighten around a pot to steam the noodle.  

Many recipes use a non stick frying pan with a lid to steam the noodle with success. The cooking time was also much shorter here. 

Depending on the method used to cook the noodle, the cooking times vary, although I did find you can not wreck the noodle in cooking only in handling the noodle.  I was after a very thin noodle, but this also varied, some were about about a 1/4 thick, so again personal preference.  Some had filling scattered on the noodle while cooking, while others added their filling to the batter!  The world of Rice Noodle Rolls was most intriguing, given that I am not a dim sum fan!  

Let the noodle cool for about a minute, add your filling to one end and roll.  

This batter worked well although it did take a longer time to steam it, some of the recipes said it took as long as 10 to 12 minutes. then I remember that you can also microwave it.  The above is the picture of the microwaved noodle.  

This worked well and I will be doing this with the granddaughters as certainly safer than having a wok with boiling water!

Filling

• Ground pork
• Mushroom, chopped
• Ginger
• Onions chopped
• garlic, chili flakes opt

Sauté the onion and mushroom in olive oil.
Sauté the ground pork until cooked, break up the large pieces
Add Minced garlic and minced fresh ginger.

Dipping sauce can be your favourite sauce; Sriracha, Hoisin Sauce or Nuoc Cham 

Nuco Cham 

1 lime ( juice and rind)
1 T sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 small garlic clove, finely minced

1 or 2 Thai chilis, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce

1 shredded carrot

Now all  these noodles need is a garnish of julienned cucumber, lettuce, Julienned carrots and herbs!