So since Ryan and I don’t have a house to renovate for another couple of weeks, I can’t fill my whole blog with decorating right yet. In the meantime I thought what better to post than one of Ryan and I’s most favorite summer recipes? Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls. These are super easy to make, and best of all they take very little time on the stove to prepare. We love that they are fun to create, we just prep all the ingredients and roll our own and enoy them as we make them. Here’s how you can make them too:

Ingredients for the Rolls:

1. Package of Spring Roll Wrappers – At the Asian grocery or aisle
2. Package of Rice Noodles (sometimes called Rice Sticks) – Again Asian grocery/aisle, make sure to get the rice noodles, not cellophane noodles
3. Cooked Frozen Shrimp
4. Bean Sprouts
5. Matchstick Carrots
6. Leaves of Romaine Lettuce

So, I just quick boil the noodles, it takes about 3 minutes for them to cook, then chill them in the fridge. I thaw the shrimp in hot water in the sink and split each one down the middle. All of the veggies I just wash and put on the table in bowls. I’ll explain how to wrap and roll in a minute but first let’s get to the yummy peanut dipping sauce.

Ingredients for the Sauce:

1. Peanut Butter
2. Hoisin Sauce – Asian aisle
3. Coconut Milk
4. Rice Vinegar
5. Maple Syrup or Honey
6. Soy Sauce
7. Siracha Hot Sauce (or another chili paste hot sauce)

Notice how I don’t put any measurements or amounts, that’s because I never measure when I make this sauce, it is really easy. Just take a couple scoops of peanut butter, maybe 2 tablespoons, and microwave it for about 20 seconds. Then add about the same amount of coconut milk and hoisin sauce. Mix that all together. Add a splash of the remaining ingredients and you’ve got a delicious peanut sauce. I just taste after each ingredient and add things as I feel it needs it. Go ahead make it how you like it!

Now for the fun part, making the rolls and munching on your hard work (okay not really hard)…

Anyways, just take all the ingredients to the table and lay them out. Also you will need a pie plate of cool water. Dip your spring roll wrapper in the water, remove it after it is all the way wet, both sides, but don’t let it get soggy in the water. Lay it on your plate and let the water work for about 30 seconds. It will soften up and now fill away. I like to put the noodles on first, then bean sprouts and carrots, then shrimp, and lettuce last, but it doesn’t matter, Ryan does it differently. Now comes the tricky part: rolling. Fold the sides in first and stretch the wrapper over the filling, and roll it up. Then dip and enjoy and make another!

Here are 2 pictures to feast your eyes on, looks good right?

    

So tada! That’s Ryan and I’s dinner last night, and mine tonight because I had the leftovers, try them, they are really good and it is nice to eat something so cool and fresh. 

Cheers!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Old Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.