Gourmet's summer rolls. Photograph: Felicity Cloake
Rice paper rounds are used to wrap up the filling ingredients, but this needs treating with some care; it must be soft enough to roll, but not so soft that it tears in the process. I encounter a variety of wisdom intended to help me achieve this. Brissenden suggests dunking them in warm water and then rubbing them with wet hands until "there are no longer any brittle patches". Gourmet is also in the hot water camp, suggesting leaving them in for 15-20 seconds "until soft and pliable" and Tran and Vu just pat them with wet fingers, although, in a note underneath, they go on to say they finally figured out that "the simplest way to prepare the rice paper is to submerge it in boiling-hot water before rolling. This makes it very soft and easy to work with, and the water evaporates quickly so that the rice paper is not soaked." I try out both methods in the interests of fairness, and discover it's quite fiddly to test the softness of rice paper in boiling water. The patting method works much better, but it's far easier to do as Stein and Luu do and simply dunk the rounds in cold water. Stein leaves them to soak for one minute, and Luu whips them straight out again – but I find these far too brittle to roll. I won't give an exact time, but instead of leaving them to soak, I'd pat them in the water until they feel pliable: