Sunday, August 24, 2008

Fresh Summer Rolls

The first time I tried Vietnamese food was with Diana. I really like their noodles soup or Pho and their Vietnamese rolls. I like all the fresh herbs they put in it. Making summer roll is fun to do at home. They are full of fresh crispy raw vegetables and herbs and make a great appetizer or light meal. One thing good about this roll is you can put any kind of fresh vegetables you like in it. Here is my version of summer rolls.

Ingredients :

1/2 pound fresh shrimp + salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of julienne carrots
1/2 cup of julienne jicama
1/2 cup of julienne mango
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
some fresh mint
a handful of red leaf lettuce
a handful of glass noodles or vermicelli - soak in hot water until soft and drain
rice paper wrappers

Dipping sauce :

4 tbsp of thai cili sauce
2 tbsp of fish sauce
2 tbsp of rice vinegar
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1 clove of garlic - finely chopped

1. Marinate the shrimp with salt and pepper and grill until cooked through.
2. Dip one rice paper wrapper into hot water for 6-7 seconds or until soft and pliable. Shake off excess water and place it on a flat surface. Place three or four shrimp on the rice paper, then top it with some noodles, vegetables and finally the fresh herbs and wrap it up like a burrito or spring roll.
3. Repeat with remaining filling and rice paper wrappers. You can serve these cold with dipping sauce.
4. For the dipping sauce just mix all the ingredients and serve.

Note : You can put in any kind of cooked meat or vegetables you fancy in these summer rolls.

23 comments:

Jin Hooi said...

First time visit your blog, wowow.. such a great blog!! Will definately come back more often for those lovely recipe ;-))

Fitness Foodie said...

These look so fresh and summery. I love rice wraps, especially with cilantro.

Kiersten said...

I love rice wraps! Very yummy, especially with lotsa chilli sauce. :)

Cat Cat said...

Gert,
My first time eating vietnamese food was a few weeks ago with a bestfriend of mine... Never had Pho before and first time eating it was delicious... Hmmm, will go back and have some more... My friend loves vietnamese food and had this summer roll. It was good - dipped in some kinda peanut sauce.

vanillasugarblog said...

I need to start making these and stop wasting money buying them at Whole Foods. Were the wrappers really sticky to work with? That dipping sauce, I'm all over that, YUM!

Little Corner of Mine said...

I love your summer rolls! I made my version not long ago too. :)

Jun said...

gert..pagi2 dtg rumah u..make me hungry la...hehe

Anonymous said...

You did a fabulous job.... goodness these look delish!

Anonymous said...

They look great! I love making them - ever since being introduced into the rolling of our own, we definitely eat them more often!! So good!

Anonymous said...

Wah, looks easy! Must give it a try since hubby loves this kind of rolls. I prefer the vietnamese egg rolls.

Unknown said...

wow...the shrimps...look so tempting! i'll try to make these sometime :)

Beachlover said...

Gert,your summer roll really look good.The last time I make this roll,I dip the rice paper too long in the cold water!1 At last I just thrown all away!!going to try one more time still left some rice paper wrapper.

Salt N Turmeric said...

Gert, those rolls look so sedap. i bet its better than the ones i had at cpk. their sauce is practically drenched w ginger tht it tasted bitter. yucks.

ICook4Fun said...

Lao Cha, thanks for stopping by.

Parker, thank you :)

Pinky, yea the spicier the better :)

Cat, I love Vietnamese food especially all the noodles soup :)

Dawn, the wrappers is easy to work with. Try to get the 'Rose' brand wrappers as they are a bit thicker and also not to soak the wrappers too long in the water :)

LCOM, I have to check out your version :)

Jun, ha ha...

Girl Japan, thank you :)

Chez US, thank you. Its fun doing this with the family :)

Puteri, its easy. This rolls is healthier than the fried spring rolls :)

Rita, shrimps taste so much better than meat :)

Lesley, the key to this wrap is not to soak the rice paper too long in the water. Just a few second its good.

Farina, you should give this a try as you can put anything you want in it :)

Nate @ House of Annie said...

Very nice. We do these every once in a while too.

I like your use of mango in this dish. Could you have used daikon radish instead of jicama?

Dee said...

wah- you finally did it. I'm in Paris now. note: your traffic feed says paris~ thats me ^_^

Everything here is so beautiful. and also the bakery and pastries. slurps.

Unknown said...

looks so good...and healthy too... :)

ICook4Fun said...

Nate & Annie, that is a good idea of of using daikon but for me I will pickle it with some vinegar and sugar first :)

Dee, you are in Paris already :) Yeap I finally made this. We should do this when you come home next week with the grill pizza :)
Think of us when you eat the pastries o.k :)

Mikky, yeap super healthy :)

Anonymous said...

I saw some rice wrappers for the spring rolls at the supermarket, but I was hesitant to buy them because I was not sure about the "dipping in water" instruction... Now that I have read your post, I will definitely give this a try! :) Thanks for sharing.

ICook4Fun said...

Ning, once you get the hang of the rice paper, it will become easier to handle :)

Anonymous said...

Just now I remembered I bought a pack of rice wrapper a while ago and it was still there in my kitchen, lol. There is no instruction on the package and I forgot what the promoter told me about till I read this post. This is very refreshing and absolutely great for summer, will try out soon

Anonymous said...

nice blog + tempting recipes.

just tried them last nite, my DH lurve them so much, bcs of the crispiness of the vegies. i didnt have shrimp so i just substitute with grilled meat, which i then thinly slice them. but i believe shrimp is stil the best choice!

about the rice wrap, my 1st 2 pieces were failure. i soaked them a lil bit too long. so i only dip the frozen kulit popiah (bought from supermarket) in hot water for 1 second. it turned out sooo good.

have olready dreaming eating them again, so i stil got the juliened carrots and sengkuang n wil make them again for dinner tonite. this popiah basah vietnam style is very healthy!

ICook4Fun said...

Momsbasic, I never use frozen kulit popiah for summer rolls. I used the Vietnamese summer roll wrappers.