Friday 8 May 2015

Vietnamese Spring Rolls



Lately I've been hankering for Vietnamese Spring Rolls and discovering that FreshCo sells rice paper wrappers for something like $2.50 made my Vietnamese Spring Roll dreams closer to reality.

I used this recipe from All Recipes but a lack of Rice Vermicelli meant substituting in the buckwheat noodles in my pantry. The first time I made these mint or basil weren't included but adding both definitely upped the freshness factor when I picked them up for a second go around.


A bag of frozen cooked shrimp is always in my freezer so these took me all of 10 minutes to do up. Though usually stuffed with shrimp, the rice paper wrappers are merely a vehicle to deposit other tasty food combinations into my mouth so I toyed with two variations using left over from my fridge.


Variation 1:
Salmon and Roasted Green Beans

Left over from a previous dinner the Salmon and Green Bean combo was not the lightest and contrasted too much with the thin rice paper. Though it rolled up well, there was a heaviness that didn't jive with the light and fresh conception of a Spring Roll. This would have worked better in a bread type wrapper like a taco or pita.


Variation 2:
Chicken, Mirepoix and Edamame

Scooping out the guts from some left over chicken soup, the chicken, carrots, onions, celery (collectively known as a Mirepoix to start most dishes) in small cut up pieces was a good fit for stuffing. The Edamame added something with a good springy chew factor to offset the actual chew factor of the chicken. I'd do this again, but I'd probably season the chicken some more.


The AllRecipes link gives the recipes for two sauces based from fish sauce and hoisin sauce. If I'm not feeling lazy, I'll mix up the fish sauce option but sometimes adding some hoisin with some nut butter is much quicker. 


Om nom nom!

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