Vietnamese Spring Rolls

mycookinghut July 29, 2008

Yes! Vietnamese spring rolls! Who doesn’t like spring rolls? Wrapped in the rice papers are juicy prawns, rice vermicelli, julienned carrots, bean sprouts, and Thai basil. Yum!

I started to learn about Vietnamese food when I was Australia. There are quite a number of dishes that I love. There was one dish that called Saigon Chicken is absolutely my favourite. Basically, it’s deep fried chicken served with sweet chili sauce. Not to mention, spring rolls (fresh or fried) were never a miss.

If you ask which I prefer, I would probably say the fresh vietnamese spring rolls. Vietnamese spring rolls are light and can easily be prepared and served as an entrée. Most of all, it’s summer now. So, vietnamese spring rolls will fit to your choice, if light, fresh and simple dish is what you are looking for. As for the main ingredient, I personally favour prawns. You can substitute with shredded chicken if you wish.

vietnamese-spring-rolls

The most important thing to go with vietnamese spring rolls is Nuoc Mam Cham – the dipping sauce. I am amazed how a simple dipping sauce can make my mouth bursting with flavours of all the ingredients. I think vietnamese spring rolls will be quite plain without it, don’t you think?

So, what do you need to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls?

 

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Yield: 2 persons

Ingredients:

4 rice paper
12 basil leaves
12 cooked prawns
30g rice vermicelli
20g carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
50g bean sprouts

Nuoc Mam Cham (Dipping Sauce):
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp water
juice of 1 lime

Method:

1. Fill a bowl with warm water. Dip a wrapper one at a time into the water for 1-2 seconds to soften. Lay the wrapper over a tea towel on a chopping board or a dinner plate. The wrapper should become pliable within seconds.

2. In a row across the centre, put 3 basil leaves, 3 prawns, some vermicelli, carrots and bean sprouts. Leaving about 4cm-5cm on each side. Fold the sides inward, then start to roll tightly and firmly from the end that is near to you into a cylinder, enclosing the filling completely. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

3. For the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients and stir well until the sugar dissolves. Serve spring rolls with dipping sauce.