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Cuốn tôm thịt - Fresh spring/summer rolls: Fun and Fat-Free!

These are traditional Vietnamese spring/summer rolls which are very refreshing, healthful, and non-fattening.  You can serve them as appetizers, or as the first course for dinner in the summertime or anytime.  You will use dampened  rice papers in which to wrap the boiled lean pork and shrimp with lettuce and various herbs.  Then to serve, you will use either dipping sauces made of fish sauce, lime juice, minced garlic and sugar or bean sauce with ground peanuts - or a sauce of your own invention.  A young Asian-American aerospace engineering doctoral student I know served them with a turkey and shrimp filling and a cranberry sauce dip he dreamed up for a recent Thanksgiving feast.  As a second appetizer, he and his girlfriend offered turkey breast slices grilled on skewers and served with coconut-peanut sauce and fresh, spicy cucumber relish.  

 

 

Ingredients
  • 1 package of 4 ounces of dried round thin rice noodles
  • 12 dried medium rice paper rounds (sheets). The OK brand is a good choice.
  • 1/2 pound of lean pork 24 medium shrimps, peeled and deveined
  • 1 English or fresh pickle cucumber
  • 1 bunch of fresh mint
    1/2 bunch of coriander leaves
    12 Boston lettuce leaves or any leaf lettuce
  • 1 long red hot pepper

    Dipping Sauce
    Fish sauce dip

  • 1 glove of garlic crushed or minced
  • juice of one fresh lime or 1/4 cup of rice
  • vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
  • 4 tablespoons of water
  • 1 fresh hot chili red pepper minced(optional)
  • Mix all ingredients together then serve as dipping sauce for the rolls.

Peanut dipping sauce

  • 3 tablebspoons of sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of fermented soy bean sauce
  • smashed (or fermented soy bean paste)
  • 4 tablespoons of water
  • 1 fresh hot red chili pepper minced (optional)
  • 3 tablespoons of roasted peanuts crushed
  • Mix all ingredients together. Bring to boil, taste it. If it's salty add a little more sugar. It should be on the sweet side.
Preparations
  • Boil the water in a large sauce pan with a pinch of salt. Put the noodles in the pot, bring to a boil again for 1 minute. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set the noodles aside.
  • In another medium size pot boil 4 cups of water. When it boils, put the pork in the sauce pan. Lower the heat and cook the pork until clear juice comes out when pricked by a fork. Drain and set aside. Boil the shrimp for 5 minutes; then drain them and set aside.
    When they are cool, slice the meat into slim lengths of 3 inches and split the shrimp in half lengthwise.
  • To prepare the herbs: wash them and rinse them dry. You can use a salad drainer to remove all of the water. Set them aside.
  • To prepare the rice papers...
  • There are two ways to do it:
  • 1- You can put them between dampenned paper towels and cover all with a dampenned and clean cloth towel for 10 minutes before using the rice papers.
  • 2- You can wet about 4 rice papers each time then wait for a few minutes before using them.
  • When the rice papers are pliable you should start to roll them with the ingredients as follows:
  • Put a piece of lettuce on the rice paper. On it put 3 thin slices of cooked pork, a thin slice of cucumber, mint leaves, a few sprigs of coriander and one tablespoon of cooked vermicelli along the length of lettuce. Then try to roll the package in the shape of a sausage. After one turn, line 3 pieces of shrimp, cut side up, along the roll and finish rolling. This is for display, because you can see the pretty pink shrimp through the translucent rice paper. Put the seam down and cover the roll with a damp paper towel or with plastic paper to keep the roll soft. Finish all of the remaining rice papers in the same way.
    You can make these rolls ahead of time, early in the day. Wrap them with plastic and keep them in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 hours.
  • Serve the rolls with fish sauce dip or with peanut dipping sauce - or a sauce of your own invention. A bright crimson cranberry dip is made by adding some cranberry jelly to the fish sauce dip. Voila!