Vietnamese Salad Rolls

I supposed to post Vietnamese Salad Rolls before my Breaded Curried King Oyster Mushroom. Too bad, I didn't have time to take pictures on New Year's eve. On that night, I chose Vietnamese Salad Rolls with Vietnamese Barbecued Shrimp Paste on Sugar Cane as the meat filling. Nonetheless, I made other shots of Vietnamese Salad Rolls on January 3, 2009.

It's very refreshing appetizer and easy to make. The idea of serving Vietnamese Salad Rolls was popped up in my head when I remembered how fun my husband and I had to roll the Vietnamese Salad Rolls. About 2 months ago, we were hunting around a restaurant that still opened after 10 PM. Most restaurants are closed around 10PM here. We ordered Vietnamese Salad Rolls with choice Shrimp Paste on Sugar Cane as the meat filling. The fun part was, they serve all the fillings and rice papers on the round trays, so we had to roll them by ourselves.


The difference between my version and the restaurant was hoisin sauce. The hoisin sauce that the restaurant served was without chopped chillies and left the fresh chillies on salad roll assemblers since not all people can handle the heat. While, I myself served the hoisin sauce by adding chopped chilies in.


Vietnamese Salad Rolls

Ingredients:
12 - 15 round rice paper wrappers
½ package rice vermicelli
8 barbecued/fried shrimp paste on sugar cane
Fresh Thai basil, fresh chives (optional)
bean sprouts
1 head butter lettuce or regular lettuce



Dipping sauce:
12 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup water

Garnish:
minced peanuts
chopped chilies
shredded carrots (if you like, in this case I didn't add any)



Directions:
1. Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Place rice vermicelli in boiling water and boil it for 5 - 6 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water.

2. Heat a small saucepan, then add olive oil and garlic and simmer for 30 seconds. Add Hoisin sauce and water to the mixture. Stir it frequently until the liquid is mixed. Bring the sauce to a boil again for another 1-2 minutes.

3. Fill a large bowl with warm water. Dip one rice paper in the bowl for 1 second to soften. Lay wrapper flat on a rice paper tray, and place desired amounts of noodles, lettuce, bean sprouts, mint, chives, barbecued shrimp paste, in the center. Roll the edges of the wrapper slightly inward. Beginning at the bottom edge of wrapper, tightly wrap the ingredients. Repeat with remaining ingredients.


Dipping Sauce
Pour Hoisin sauce in a small bowl, garnish with peanuts and chopped chilies. Serve the salad rolls with the sauce.

Tips:
One of my readers on Multiply asked me how to avoid broken sheets, since the rice paper is really thin after soften by warm water. I did a trick, by laying a dried sheet on a rice paper tray, then soften the sheet by pouring warm water over.