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Monday, April 11, 2011

Vietnamese rice paper rolls

I've been craving Vietnamese food for the longest time ever. Especially Bún Thịt Nướng, Phở and Bánh mì . In that order. But since I've yet to master the art of cooking Vietnamese cuisine (since I'm more of a baker anyways), I decided to make my usual whenever I'm craving Vietnamese - Vietnamese rice paper rolls instead.

Ingredients; Vietnamese rice paper rolls 


I like making rice paper rolls as you can get as creative as you want with the fillings. You can choose a bunch of your favourite vegetables (as colourful as possible!), a variety of meats (chicken, pork, prawns), herbs (cilantro, mint), add everything onto one tiny piece of translucent rice paper and start rolling. How awesome is that!

For these rice paper rolls, I used a bottled spicy Korean marinade (supposed to be a marinade for pork ribs but I've yet to try it with pork...) to flavour some chicken breasts and firm tofu slices. I marinated the ingredients overnight for a stronger flavour, and panfried it on the actual day I was making the rice paper rolls.

A platter of vietnamese rice paper rolls

I'm not going to give an exact ingredients list cos it's really up to you to decide what to mix and match for your personal preference. I'm just listing down the ingredients that I used for as a reference purpose.

Vietnamese rice paper rolls
rice paper wrappers
rice vermicelli noodles
beansprouts, blanched for 30seconds
carrots, shredded
bell peppers, sliced thinly
plain egg omelette, sliced thinly
meat (tofu and mushrooms can be used for a vegeterian option), sliced thinly
fresh mint

Prepare the vegetables and set aside. Cook the rice vermicelli and drain well using a colander.
Set up the work station by laying out your ingredients and preparing a deep plate with warm water. Ensure that you have a wide area to work with as you'll have plates of ingredients, the water plate and two empty plates (one for rolling, one for the rice paper rolls). Quickly dip each rice wrapper into the water, covering completely, then remove and let the rest of the water absorb into the wrapper. Set the wrapper onto a clean plate for assembly.
Towards the one end of the wrapper, place a small quantity of rice vermicelli, stack the rest of the vegetable on top of the noodles, add the egg and meat, and lastly a few sprigs of fresh mint. Fold the ends in, encasing the stuffing and roll the rest into a tight log. Repeat for the rest of the rice paper wrappers and ingredients.

10 comments:

  1. haha you seem to post every week around this time when i'm in a computer lab classroom.
    we often eat this at my place since my dad is part Vietnamese. we use this root vege, chinese sausages, toasted peanuts too.
    dipping it in a oyster sauce + peanut butter sauce is yummmmmyy :D

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  2. very colorful indeed! i would definitely love yr version coz i really hate some outside ones that use all veggies. the beansprouts & mint taste so raw D: plus its korean marinade so... :p

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  3. haha really! i tend to like posting in the mornings, u get to surf net too in class? ^^
    wow, so do u get to eat like tons of awesome viet food at home?? (:

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  4. u dont like all veggie style? heh. i think it's the marinade tt ties things up here. thats why i didnt even use a dipping sauce for the rolls. the flavour is all contained inside! (:

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  5. i don't mind veggies but not everything raw one lor, esp u know how raw beansprouts got a kind of grassy taste. i'm a carnivore! hehe. what kind of dipping sauce would u make if u were to use? some use like soy/chilli based whereas the normal one would be a peanut sauce? i like the peanut one :D

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  6. Hey Michelle, I love your blog :) It's whimsical and delicious! Savoury and sweet :) Mmmmmmmmmm... I've seen the rice paper rolls in groceries but have not gotten around to pick some up, looks like I should, it looks amazing!~

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  7. This looks delicious! I love vietnamese food too and these springrolls look gorgeous, not to mention the fantastic photos!

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  8. hmmm depends on my filling ley. if eg is this, i'll use a spicy sauce to complement the spicy meat. normal i would prefer the sour/garlic/chilli/fish sauce kind u know what i mean? :)

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  9. min: thanks for the compliment! yeps, viet rolls are tasty cos it makes sure u eat a good variety of veg! (:
    simone: thanks! :)

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  10. spicy sauce like gochujang? hehe. oh really ah, sour/garlic/chilli... u don't like the peanut kind?

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