Butternut-ginger spring rolls recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large red onion, minced
• ½ cup minced peeled fresh ginger
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium-large butternut squash (about 3 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cubed
• ¼ cup fruit vinegar such as fig vinegar

• 1 pound (about 60) green beans, ends trimmed, steamed until crisptender
• 2 cups julienned fennel bulb
• 2 cups julienned scallion greens
• 2 cups shredded radicchio
• 2 cups chopped watercress
• 2 cups chopped fresh mint
• ¼ cup raspberry puree
• Lavender Salt (“Breakaway Flavor Blasts”)

• 1 package 9-inch round vietnamese or Thai rice papers (about 30)

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a chef’s pan or wok over medium heat. Add the red onion, ginger, and salt and pepper to taste and sauté for about 10 minutes, until soft. Add the squash and continue to cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring and shaking the pan often, until it too gets very soft but still holds its shape. Add the vinegar, mix, taste for salt, and transfer to a large bowl.
2. Place each topping in a small bowl and set the bowl of squash, the bowls of toppings, and an extra-large bowl of warm water (big enough to accommodate the rice paper) on a large work surface. Lay out a clean dry kitchen towel nearby. Place one rice paper in the warm water, let it get soft (1 to 2 minutes) and place it on the towel. Using a second towel, blot away all remaining water. Handle the rice paper gently, since it will tear easily. Put another wrapper in the water since the assembly will take a few minutes, just the time it takes for the next one to get soft.
3. Place 2 green beans horizontally parallel to one another, about an inch apart, near the bottom of the rice paper circle. This will be the “frame” into which everything else goes. Spoon on about a tablespoon of squash between the beans, then place small amounts of fennel, scallion greens, radicchio, watercress, and mint neatly on top of and around the squash, staying within the border of the green-bean frame. Don’t overstuff, or they will become unwieldy. Keep them svelte.
4. Begin to roll up the rice paper, starting at the bottom and keeping it as tight as possible. When you’ve got what seems like a tight seal over the filling, fold over the left and right sides slightly, spoon on a little streak of raspberry puree, and sprinkle on some lavender salt. Finish rolling the rice paper should stick to itself. Continue with all 30 rolls, setting them on a baking pan as you go (after you’ve made one layer, place a piece of parchment paper on them and start stacking another layer of rolls on top). When you’re done, slice them in half on a diagonal and arrange on a serving tray.