Vietnamese fresh rice rolls

Sorry for the hiatus – it’s been a crazy time at both work and play, I realise I still haven’t written any posts on our UK/Spain trip or had the time to even read my favourite foodie blogs (you know who you are). Things are thankfully winding down as the year draws to a close so I really need to dedicate some time to catch up.

A quick post on a GENIUS idea for making Vietnamese rice rolls. I love these – the herbs keep the rolls so light and add a fresh punch of flavour to each bite.

The genius idea is from Gordon Ramsay. I’ve made these rolls before and meticulously had plates and bowls lined up so that I could individually add each ingredient before rolling them up. It a fiddly affair and always ended up taking a really long time and making a mess, which meant that I made them less than I would have liked to.

Ramsay’s tip was to make a huge bowl of noodle salad with all the ingredients, so it’s just a matter of taking a small handful of the noodle salad, placing that in the rice roll and rolling it up. Simple. Why hadn’t I thought or realised this before ??

This recipe is very adaptable – add more or less of anything to your taste.

Ingredients makes about 12 rolls 

1. 12 round rice paper sheets
2. 50g dried rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in hot water until soft, then drained
3. 50g raw prawns, cooked in a small amount of water – reserve the cooking liquid
4. large red chilli, seeds removed, finely sliced
5. large handful shredded iceberg lettuce
6. large handful coriander leaves, chopped
7. handful mint leaves, chopped
8. handful of basil leaves (Thai basil if you can find it) chopped
9. 1 – 2 tbls fish sauce
10. splash sesame oil
11. juice of small lime
12. 100g bean sprouts

For the sauce:

1. 4 tbls hoisin sauce
2. few teaspoons of the reserved cooking liquid from the prawns
3. 1/2 small red chilli, seeds removed, finely sliced
4. 1 tsp peanuts, lightly toasted and crushed

Method

1. Mix the noodles, prawns, lettuce, chilli and herbs together
2. Mix the fish sauce, sesame oil and lime juice and dress the noodle salad
3. Dip the round rice paper sheets in a bowl of hot water for a few seconds until you feel it soften
4. Add a small handful of the noodle salad along with some bean sprouts lengthwise and roll – the rice paper will continue to soften and become “sticky” which makes it easier
5. Set aside on a plate – don’t keep them too close together or you run the risk of the rice paper sticking to each other and tearing

For the dipping sauce:

1. Mix the hoisin, prawn cooking liquid and chilli together, top with the crushed peanuts