Last night I tried wrapping rice paper around some marinated and baked tofu and then searing the packages on each side that I could reasonably sear - some were too small. I used medium-high flame, which I think was probably too high, because the thin rice paper went past golden-brown quite quickly. The end result was Not Delicious. Even the perfectly browned parts of the paper had little flavor of their own, so the coffee-like too-dark flavors dominated. More salt may have helped (the filling was underseasoned too), but it may also have just made it salty.
In looking for guidance on how to improve the technique before I experiment with it this afternoon, I came across
this recipe from Ming Tsai, but his technique is essentially the same as mine, though he uses high heat and doesn't season the paper at all.
This person baked the packages, which I will definitely try. Deep frying is the obvious alternative, but that would make this technique far less useful and I'm not willing to make that compromise.
For lunch, Di and I made simple mushroom and tofu dumplings in a shiro miso and genmaicha broth with bok choy. A fun little project and satisfyingly warming lunch for a dreary, rainy, cold Sunday.
