Bass and crappie spring rolls, page 86 with spring roll dipping sauce, page 87

Ingredients inside the spring rolls

I do believe this is the last of the bass/crappie/bluegill recipes in the book. I've been looking forward to making these spring rolls for some time. In the spring I planted a Thai basil plant and have been watching it grow knowing that I needed 12 leaves for this recipe. Finally this week I felt like the plant was big enough that it could afford to loose 12 leaves without totally doing it in. It's spring roll time!

We also have mint growing in garden, so that just left cilantro as far as herbs go. We bought that at the farmer's market this weekend. The fish is lightly fried, then there's also noodles, avacado, and peanuts in the spring rolls as well (by the way, if you're not familiar with spring rolls I think of them as a cold/fresh ingredient/not fried version of an egg roll). I've never made spring rolls before but have had them at a few Vietnames restuarants and quite like them. Adventures in cooking, here I come!

The action shot

The funniest thing about the spring rolls I made is that they were literally the size of small burritos rather than egg rolls. I started mounding up the pile of ingredients in the rice paper wraps and supper sized them I guess. And, you know what? They were perfectly good that way. We had them for dinner tonight, rather than as an appetizer, so what does it hurt to have burrito sized spring rolls? It's America after all. Hey, would these be good with nacho cheese squirted on top? Hmmm. That's a pretty disgusting thought, actually.

The other thing I learned that I've never done is that I guess I've never in my life filleted a fish. Surely that's not the proper way to spell the past tense of fillet. Not sure. Anyway, I had to fillet the fish for the recipe and couldn't think of a way around it this time. I'm not so keen on cutting the largest hunks of meat off an animal and disposing of the rest. That, and I've never learned how to do it.  I whittled away at three small bass to get enough meat for this recipe, all the while thinking, "There's got to be a better way at doing this". Later in the day, I was glancing at the boys' magazine on conservation and in it is filleting directions (The magazine is free to Missouri citizens, by the way. It's called Xplor and is produced by the Missouri Department of Conservation). So, you start at the head end apparently. Who knew?! How odd that I'd be making something as exotic as bass spring rolls while also learning something as rudimentary as how to fillet a fish.

Fishished product. Like the sumo wrestler platter? My cousin made it.

Anyway, I'm glad I've gotten making spring rolls and attempting filleting under by my belt. It seems like both skills could come in handy in the future.

As to ye recipe evaluation part of the blog, two thumbs up.  The spring rolls were really great as was the dipping sauce. Setting aside the fact that this book helps you cook with many kinds of native Missouri meats and plants, it's also a fantastic reference for how to make all sorts of exotic recipes.  I love Cooking Wild in Missouri!