Spring Rolls

Here is an all time favorite in our house. It is the meal that I believe won AB over years ago. I ate at my first Vietnamese restaurant in about 1991 with an ex-boyfriend. This was back in the time when Vietnamese = Thai = Chinese and there's a difference? Yeah, now I know. Anyways, I LOVED the spring rolls and the following weekend went on a search for rice papers to make them. Since this has become a staple in my house.

This is all prep time, busy time. No sitting around waiting for something to cook. We divide and conquer and between the two of us dinner is on the table in 30 minutes. Fair warning that in order to do this in 30 minutes or less you probably need some additional hands and some good planning.

All ingrediants are available online or in well stocked grocery stores.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

1 package rice paper
1 package rice noodles or bean thread

Optional fillings (we do lettuce, bean sprouts and cilantro and satay chicken)
1 cucumber, julienned
Leaf lettuce, torn into individual leaves
Bean sprouts
Any other vegies you feel like
Cilantro
Mint leaves
Basil
Chicken
Shrimp
Pork

Sauces:
Peanut sauce (easy to make with recipe or buy purchased)
Vinegar sauce (2 parts vinegar, 2 parts sugar, 1 part water, bring to boil and sprinkle with cayenne pepper if desired)

Marinate the chicken anyway you choose - we do a satay marinade (yes I know it is Thai... 1/2 c coconut milk, 1T each of cumin, coriander and turmeric, 6 cloves minced garlic, 2 t white pepper, 2 T brown sugar, mix, marinate chicken for at least one hour and up to overnight.) Grill the chicken, shrimp, pork whatever if you want meat.

Prep your vegies and boil your noodles. Rinse noodles in cold water.

Boil water for the rice papers. We serve everything together so that each person can make their own rolls. Put a big pot of water in the middle of the table for softening rice papers and let each person fill with their choice of ingrediants.

Roll like a burrito and enjoy!