mtlfoodblogbackup: Summer Rolls (Gỏi cuốn)

This entry has been long promised. Brigitte and I both had a sudden lusting for these rolls, which are not-deep-fried spring rolls. I suppose you could deep fry them, but chances are they'd fall apart, and most of the ingredients are raw anyway. That's what's so good about them; they have a satisfying crunchiness that cannot be surpassed, at the same time tasting like you're eating a herb garden.

So here it is (click pics to embiggen):

Summer Rolls

Not perfect cylinders, but it'll come with practice

Ingredients
The "essential" ingredients, in other words the ones that should always be there are

Carrots, finely julienned
Bean sprouts, blanched for 20 seconds in boiling water and then plunged into an ice-water bath
Vietnamese rice noodles, any size or shape, soaked in hot water until soft, then plunged into an ice-water bath
Some form of meat filler, such as shrimp sautéed in garlic and sesame oil or shredden chicken
Mint, whole leaves
Cilantro, whole sprigs

You can go to town on the other stuff. Yesterday I put in:

Enoki mushrooms (they look almost like cooked spaghetti with little heads), lightly sautéed and rapidly cooled
Green onions, shredded
Cucumber, peeled and seeded, cut in julienne strips, then lightly salted for five minutes, then rinsed, with excess water removed
I added basil leaves to my green mixture, plus hearts of romaine lettuce for extra crunch.

And of course, the wrapper, which happens to be Vietnamese rice wrappers (see photo) which are made of liquid rice that is dried on bamboo lattices in the sun (hence the patterns on them).

Method
Get all your ingredients prepped completely first. I make a list of the order I'm going to layer them in. All the ingredients should be at room temperature or below. For shrimp, slice into thin strips or small pieces; whichever you prefer. My list is:

Shrimp
Mushrooms
Cucumbers
Noodles
Carrots
Green onions
Bean sprouts
Mint
Basil
Cilantro
Lettuce

To moisten the rice wrappers, I have a neat trick: using a three-ply paper towel (Bounty etc. -- don't do what I did yesterday and use a cheap supermarket brand -- they'll all fall apart), moisten with warm water and lay on a cutting board. Moisten another towel and have it ready. Put a rice wrapper on the bottom towel, then cover completely with the second one.

After about a minute, the wrapper will be completely soft. Roll the top towel up just over the halfway point of the wrapper, and start layering the ingredients in the middle, making sure not to put too much in, and leaving about a 1.5-inch space on either side. The last ingredients, the leaves and lettuce, will help bind the other ingredients together. Now, carefully roll the bottom of the rice wrapper over the ingredients, moving the top paper towel up as necessary. When the wrapper is completely over the ingredients, start to fold it underneath them, like you're rolling a cigar. At this point, fold the sides of the wrapper in like the sides of an envelope and continue rolling until it's (hopefully) a tight cylinder.

At this point, cover a plate or a plastic container with more moist paper towel and put the roll in. When you have two or more, take care that they don't touch, or they may stick together and rip.

Cover with more moist towels and voilà. They're best eaten right away, but they'll last about 12 hours in the refrigerator. Dip with a peanutty satay sauce or anything else you prefer. Like I said, I like mine with ghost pepper sauce.