Now, I know what you are thinking... "spring roll?? eurgh they are normally a soggy, stringy vegetable filled, cooked from frozen buffet filler". However, not in Vietnam. Over there you'd do well to find a menu where these little parcels do not feature in either a fresh or fried form.
Firstly, the fresh type which is sometimes referred to as summer rolls and in vietnamese Gỏi Cuốn. The word spring roll describes the freshness of the ingredients used. The typical ingredients in fresh spring rolls include; boiled pork, shrimp, chicken or tofu, fresh herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, chives and rice vermicelli, all wrapped in moistened rice paper.
Secondly, the fried variety Chả giò, this is mainly made from seasoned ground meat (normally, pork and shrimp), mushrooms and diced vegetables such as carrots, kohlrabi and jicama, rolled up in a sheet of moist rice paper. My first experience of the fried spring rolls was in Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh City, it proved to be a great starting point to my journey through the culture and cuisine of Vietnam. The variety in Ho Chi Minh were smaller and more compact then the long thin variety further north, but still packed full of flavour.
After travelling further north to Hoi-an (my favourite destination in Vietnam), again my first
taste of the place was fried spring rolls. However, these were much better than the variety in Ho Chi Minh and the locals gave us a lesson in how to eat them. The spring rolls are served with pieces of rice paper and lettuce, the idea being that you wrap lettuce and then rice paper around the roll then dip it in the lovely sweet sauce... perfect!
Now for the exciting bit, how to make them yourself, at home! Yes I said it, and don't think...'well I can't get the right ingredients', you can! Everything is now easily available in any chinese supermarket or china town near you and even some commercial supermarkets may have them.
Firstly, if you are planning on visiting Vietnam and heading to Hoi-An, I would like to recommend Cafe 43, this is where we were taught some great dishes from Vietnam, with a cooking class which was just $5 and then the price of the dishes you choose to prepare from the menu. Furthermore, as a place to eat in general, it's great! A wide variety of dishes (some of which will be featured in this blog) with a friendly, family orientated atmosphere, attracting a lot of travellers, I can not recommend this place enough!
Ok lets begin:
Ingredients for Fried Spring Rolls with Shrimp:1. 1 tin Chickpeas- finely chopped to make a paste
2. 150g Minced Shrimp
3. 1/2 tsp ginger
4. Quarter Carrot
5. 4 Spring Onions
6. 1/4 Sweet Potato
7. 1/4 Taro (similar to sweet potato, which can be used instead)
8. Soft rice paper - Dau Xanh
1. Boil sweet potato + Taro until soft.
2. Mash together sweet potato, taro, ginger and chickpeas.
3. Grate Carrot and chop spring onions
4. Put 1 tbsp vegetable oil to a hot pan, add the spring onion, cook for 2minutes.
5. Add grated carrot to mashed mixture, then add cooked spring onions (without the oil)
6. Add mince shrimp, 1/2 tsp garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar.7. Mix/mash all ingredients together using hands, until it all sticks together (like a dough)
8. Take rice paper, place one large tsp of the mixture at the bottom end, make a long sausage, roll to halfway then fold the edges and keep rolling to the end. (see video below)
9. Fill a pan 1/2 full with vegetable oil for frying - cook on a low/med heat - fry for 7/10 minutes - until crispy and brown.
Video showing how to form the spring rolls:
Ingredients for spring roll dipping sauce:
- 1/2 Red birds eye chilli
- 1/2 tsp Garlic
- 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 lemon
- 2 tsp Fish Sauce
Mix it all together and there you have it:
Fried shrimp spring rolls with dipping sauce
6G5YZDEW8R5W
|
No comments:
Post a Comment