Vietnamese Spring Rollsss

Hello there! How have you been? It's Queen's B'day long weekend here in Syd, again weather is not that great so naturally it's perfect timing for me to experiment some good food! ;P

After several posts of sweets, it's about time for a savoury one. So lately, I had dinner at a newly opened Vietnamese restaurant located on George St, miss chu (I knew about this resto awhile back as my dear friend, Loz brought us to the Darlinghurst branch for lunch).

Miss Chu is not your average restaurant, it's really a tuck shop - great place to grab a quick bite. We had a really late lunch so we shared a serve of roast duck & banana flower rice paper rolls, pork dumplings & vermicelli salad. 

The roast duck & banana flower rice paper roll was to-die-for, full stop.

Our yummo din-din! ;D (oops, ate a dumpling before picture time)

miss chu, 'the queen of rice paper rolls' has inspired me to make my own Gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls in Viet). They are really easy to make and use of market fresh ingredients especially herbs and minimal use of oil gets the big tick of approval from me and my foodie counterpart. It is not surprising that Vietnamese cuisine is ranked one of the healthiest cuisines in the world!

My workstation for prepping and making the spring rolls (soz for the mess!)

Lots and lots of fresh herbs, me likey!

Fresh spring rolls with dipping sauce and blended young coconut drink with avocado

Makes

20

Ingredients

100g vermicelli rice noodles
1 lebanese cucumber
1 cup chopped fresh mint
1 cup chopped fresh coriander
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup deep fried shallots
Cooked peeled prawns
Roast duck
Stir fry pork
Rice paper sheets

Dipping sauce:
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tsps sugar
Juice from 1 lime/lemon
1/2 cup water
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 red chili

Instructions

1. Place vermicelli rice noodles in a pot of boiling water, cook until tender, drain and rinse under cold water. Drain well and drizzle a lil bit of olive oil so they won't stick.

2. Working with one rice paper sheet at a time, submerge it in a shallow dish of hot water for about 5 seconds, or until it begins to soften. Carefully lift sheet from water and place on a cloth.

3. Assemble each roll as follows: at one end of the rice paper, place your choice of protein, add some cucumber, mint, coriander, basil, bean sprouts, shallots and vermicelli. Fold sides inwards, then roll-up tightly into a log.

4. To make the dipping sauce, sauté garlic until fragrant and soft, add fish sauce, sugar, lime, water and chili. Simmer on low heat. Taste and adjust as needed.

5. Serve rice paper rolls with dipping sauce.

Drink

Frozen young coconut juice - a refreshing drink you can get at any Asian grocers. 1/2 avocado and frozen young coconut juice blended...Ta-da! I now introduce to you the world's best coconut slushie ;P Enjoy!