Please excuse the
quality of the photos I'm using here since they're from my SLR, converted to
digital and a couple of years old. I
still haven’t taken new photos, usually because I’m too busy making and
devouring these delicious morsels.
Vietnamese Spring
Rolls are fresh, crispy and make a perfect light meal.
Vietnamese
Spring Rolls
Ingredients:
·
9 rice paper rounds aka Bánh Tráng, rice paper wrappers, spring
roll skins
·
3.4 oz (about half a pkg) rice vermicelli aka rice noodles and
rice sticks
·
30-40 medium shrimp peeled, de-veined, cooked and halved
(optional)
·
10-12 leaves or so of lettuce - green leaf, red leaf or romaine
·
1 carrot -peeled and julienned
·
1 cucumber - julienned
·
1 daikon (a Japanese radish) -peeled and julienned
·
1 large avocado - peeled and sliced
·
1 bunch watercress
·
A couple of handfuls of mung bean sprouts
See
suggestions at the end of the post for additional options
Here's my mise en place.
Instructions:
I like to have everything cut and ready to go once I began
rolling. First I take the rice noodles and put them in a bowl. They
are very thin and crunchy. I then pour some hot water (boiled on the
stove top in a tea kettle) on top to soften them, about ten minutes.
(Note: If you are cooking your own shrimp you can use the leftover, already
warmed water to soften your noodles.)
Once they are soft, I then stop the cooking process by draining
them in a colander and rinsing with cold water (this also helps when I have to
handle them in a minute). The rice noodles are in the clear bowl in the
picture above...the white indistinguishable mess.
For
the rice paper I use a jelly roll pan because I like to have space to maneuver
the wrapper around. I've also used a large dinner plate and a large bowl
with warm water, whatever you have handy. The skins only need to soak for
a few seconds just to soften up the wrapper and make it pliable (but not
mushy). Once this happens I place it on my work surface, in this instance
it's a cookie sheet. I've also done this on the back of a jelly roll pan,
a large dinner plate and on a really clean counter; whatever works.
Because I'm all
about presentation I put the shrimp down first because this is what you will
see through the top of the roll. Again, this is just my personal
preference. Some people like to have everything chopped up and just
thrown in and if I was short on time I'd probably do that too (okay, I probably
wouldn't but I'm just saying you could, no worries).
Then it's just a matter of what ingredients you have and what you like. I prefer to bite in and have the shrimp and avocado right next to one another so that's what I add next.
Then I pile on the
veggies. I just tear up the watercress and lettuce leaves (and any herbs
I might be using) and I julienne (cut up into matchstick strips) the carrots,
cucumber and daikon. Again it's just a matter of how you like to cut up
your veggies, I certainly didn't cut them all uniform and perfect but nice easy
strips to be able to chop into and break off without having the whole thing
come out when I go to chew, I hate that.
Note: daikon is a
Japanese radish that I've found in a lot of stores even here in Podunk.
It resembles a parsnip (but does not taste like one) but is white, may or may
not have the greens on top and isn't as tapered. They are yummy and
here's a snapshot of some...
After throwing in
the vegetables, including the washed mung beans, I add a bit of the rice
noodles. Nothing is really measured and I add and subtract the amount of
an ingredient and specific ingredients depending on who is going to be eating
them.
Then I roll.
I do one good tight roll (the wrapper is pretty malleable but do be careful of
holes and tears) then fold in both sides and continue to roll, just like when I
make enchiladas.
See how
pretty. There really isn't any seasoning to them that comes with whatever
sauce you decide to use. I've made a peanut sauce, a pumped up hoison
sauce, and a chili fish sauce but usually I use my old standby of soy sauce
(tamari) and wasabi.
Suggestions:
These can be made with any mix of veggies and herbs and with or without a
protein or even the rice noodles. Some other possibilities for the
protein include: chicken, crab, tofu, etc. Sometimes I add basil, mint,
radishes, sugar peas. Pretty much anything goes. I prefer to keep
it light and crisp with a bit of a bite that's why I like daikon and watercress
in mine.
I find a majority
of these ingredients at my local market (in a town of about 1500). If
your market has an Asian section (even a couple of shelves like mine) you can
usually find the rice noodles, rice paper wrappers, tamari and wasabi paste or
wasabi powder. I have to go fifteen minutes to the Safeway in the next
town to get the daikon and they have everything else too.
These are really
versatile and can easily be vegan depending on the ingredients you choose to
use. It's also nice because they are gluten-free, especially if you use
the wheat free tamari like I do.
Since Daddy doesn’t
like the rice paper he just gets all of the other ingredients tossed together
as a salad with the wasabi tamari as dressing.
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