The first thing to do for the prep is to cook the vermicelli noodles. All you need to do is cover the noodles with boiling water for about five minutes and then drain and run some cold water over them. Leave them to completely cool which gives you time to make a dipping sauce and prepare the other ingredients for the rolls.
I made my traditional dipping sauce which perfectly balances the sweet, sour, salty and spicy notes that a lot of Asian cooking is based around.
For this all you need to do is mix together:
- The juice of one lime
- 2 tsps of fish sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 medium red chillies, sliced finely
Mix well until the sugar dissolves. Put in the fridge until needed.
That makes just enough for about six rolls, so just adjust the measurements to suit. You may also wish to adjust it to suit your taste buds - whether you find it too sweet or too limey, just adjust as you see fit but this combo is perfect for me.
Prep for the rest of the ingredients is easy - grate some carrot, finely shred some lettuce and cabbage (I like savoy), chop some spring onions, coriander and chop up the vermicelli noodles so they're not too long.
Roughly chop some toasted peanuts, get some toasted sesame seeds ready (always handy to have in the cupboard) and your meat of choice (although with so many yummy fresh ingredients and flavours, these are just as yummy meatless).
I used prawns this time (and a couple with surimi which I love but understand it's not everyone's cup of tea). I have also made these with pork (pork and prawn are awesome and a favourite Vietnamese combination), a pork larb-type mince is also really yummy. But you could put what ever takes your fancy in them.
Mams first made us rice paper spring rolls after one of her two ventures to Vietnam some many years ago before Vietnam was the place to holiday and before Vietnamese food was in vogue. We were lucky enough to have what we referred to as a "Vietnamese Feast" once in a while which was a stunning array of spring rolls, chicken balls with peanut sauce, whole fish with chilli and my mouth is drooling while typing...
Anyway, I have adapted these rolls over the years. Also, Mams lightly fried the ones she made us which are SO good but I have left these ones un-fried (hence why Elliot won't eat them).
So get all your ingredients ready to go then put some hot water (not boiling, but hotter than warm) in a big dish and place the first rice paper sheet in it.
Rice paper sheets come in various sizes and shapes and are readily available in supermarkets. Big, small, mini, square, round - I prefer round and big - big mainly because you don't have to fiddle around making dozens and I put so many ingredients in I need a big one to hold it all.
Once the rice paper sheet becomes soft and workable (takes a couple of minutes) take it out of the water, shake off excess water and place the next one in the water (you may need to add more hot water as you do more to keep it warm enough). Place it on a chopping board.
Place your fillings on the rice paper roll - just below half way, leaving room on either side. If you are making these for others and want to make them nice and pretty you may have to think about how you layer your ingredients - for example, the rolls look nice and pretty with the prawns nicely showing on the top once you roll them so you would need to start with the prawns on the bottom and build from there.
Once the filling is in, fold the bottom edge of the paper over the filling and then fold the left and right sides towards the middle.
Then roll it up. Easy peasy. The rice paper sheets are actually a lot less fragile than the look so don't be too scared of them.
For super pretty presentation, just before you roll the last bit over, place some nice looking coriander leaves against the rice paper and then make the finally roll - rather impressive for a entree or light lunch and something that can be made in advance and kept in the fridge.
I then remembered we had the last of the Thai chillies off the plant that needed to be used and some ones sitting on the bench which were so very close to being past it, so I decided to try a homemade sweet chilli sauce.
I am a store-bought sweet chilli sauce hater. And if anyone puts that crap on a fine bowl of wedges and sour cream - well, that's sacrilege. Store chilli sauce tends to be sweet rather than chilli and well that just doesn't work in this house.
So, I made my own using:
I used prawns this time (and a couple with surimi which I love but understand it's not everyone's cup of tea). I have also made these with pork (pork and prawn are awesome and a favourite Vietnamese combination), a pork larb-type mince is also really yummy. But you could put what ever takes your fancy in them.
Mams first made us rice paper spring rolls after one of her two ventures to Vietnam some many years ago before Vietnam was the place to holiday and before Vietnamese food was in vogue. We were lucky enough to have what we referred to as a "Vietnamese Feast" once in a while which was a stunning array of spring rolls, chicken balls with peanut sauce, whole fish with chilli and my mouth is drooling while typing...
Anyway, I have adapted these rolls over the years. Also, Mams lightly fried the ones she made us which are SO good but I have left these ones un-fried (hence why Elliot won't eat them).
So get all your ingredients ready to go then put some hot water (not boiling, but hotter than warm) in a big dish and place the first rice paper sheet in it.
Rice paper sheets come in various sizes and shapes and are readily available in supermarkets. Big, small, mini, square, round - I prefer round and big - big mainly because you don't have to fiddle around making dozens and I put so many ingredients in I need a big one to hold it all.
Once the rice paper sheet becomes soft and workable (takes a couple of minutes) take it out of the water, shake off excess water and place the next one in the water (you may need to add more hot water as you do more to keep it warm enough). Place it on a chopping board.
Place your fillings on the rice paper roll - just below half way, leaving room on either side. If you are making these for others and want to make them nice and pretty you may have to think about how you layer your ingredients - for example, the rolls look nice and pretty with the prawns nicely showing on the top once you roll them so you would need to start with the prawns on the bottom and build from there.
Once the filling is in, fold the bottom edge of the paper over the filling and then fold the left and right sides towards the middle.
Then roll it up. Easy peasy. The rice paper sheets are actually a lot less fragile than the look so don't be too scared of them.
For super pretty presentation, just before you roll the last bit over, place some nice looking coriander leaves against the rice paper and then make the finally roll - rather impressive for a entree or light lunch and something that can be made in advance and kept in the fridge.
I then remembered we had the last of the Thai chillies off the plant that needed to be used and some ones sitting on the bench which were so very close to being past it, so I decided to try a homemade sweet chilli sauce.
I am a store-bought sweet chilli sauce hater. And if anyone puts that crap on a fine bowl of wedges and sour cream - well, that's sacrilege. Store chilli sauce tends to be sweet rather than chilli and well that just doesn't work in this house.
So, I made my own using:
- 200g red chillies (I used what we had of the Thais, red jalapenos and cayennes and also put a deseeded half of a super hot Bhut Jolokia - just to make sure it was hot enough)
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 large clove garlic
Cut off the chilli stems and deseed about a third of them (more to make sure the sauce isn't overloaded with seeds and less about the heat factor).
Cut roughly and put in a food processor with the garlic clove and a little bit of the vinegar. Process until finely chopped.
Put the chilli mix in a saucepan with the rest of the vinegar and sugar. Mix over a low heat for a few minutes until the sugar dissolves.
Bring the mix to a boil and then turn down to a medium heat and simmer until the sauce is thick - about 30-35 minutes.
Pour the sauce into a sterilised jar.
I was very impressed with the result. I had really taken a stab in the dark with the quantities and had no idea the heat level from those chillies, but it is pretty close to perfect.
It thickened a bit too much once it cooled so when I spooned it out to dip the rolls into I just mixed a teaspoon of warm water in to make it more saucey.
It is very spicy but nice and sweet and has a funky red colour. Overall a great success.
Dip rolls into either sauce and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy (Hoisin sauce is also very yummy with these).
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