Servings: —
goi cuon-VIETNAM, CAMBODIA
Long ago in Paris, I learned to make these roll-ups from Salme, the aunt of a friend. Salme had fled Estonia during the Second World War and taken refuge in France. When I met her, she had been married to a Vietnamese doctor for almost thirty years. They’d spent several years in Vietnam in the late forties, then had returned to France.
Salme made wonderful Vietnamese food. She was quick in all her movements and alert, the last person you’d expect to have the patience to hand-roll rice paper roll-ups. In fact, she’d figured out, like many gifted cooks before her, that the work goes quickly if you have many hands doing it, someone to talk with as you work, and an efficient system for getting the work done. So the basic recipe for rice paper roll-ups should begin: “”Gather one or two friends round your work area to help.”” The work goes quickly, and it is fun when done in good company. You can make these up to two hours ahead, then cover them with a damp towel until ready to serve.
Serve whole or cut in half, as appetizers or as part of a meal.
Ingredients
12 medium shrimp, fresh or frozen
3 to 4 ounces dried rice vermicelli, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes and drained
15 rice papers (about 8 inches in diameter)
1½ cups bean sprouts, blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds and drained
¾ cup Carrot and Daikon Pickled Salad (page 85), or substitute ¾ cup grated carrot tossed with 1 teaspoon sugar and I tablespoon rice vinegar
½ cup packed mint leaves
30 chives or Chinese chives, or substitute greens from 6 to 8 scallions, cut lengthwise into slivers
½ cup packed coriander leaves
ACCOMPANIMENTS
Vietnamese Herb and Salad Plate (page 68)
Vietnamese Must-Have Table Sauce (nuoc cham, page 28)
or Vietnamese Peanut Sauce (nuoc leo, page 28)
Directions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the shrimp, bring back to a boil, and cook just until pink and firm to the touch, 1 to 3 minutes. Lift out immediately with tongs or chopsticks and transfer to a plate to cool.
Bring the water back to a boil. Drop in the soaked vermicelli, cook for 2 minutes, or until soft, and drain. Refresh with cold water, drain, and set aside.
Remove the shrimp shells, devein, and cut the shrimp lengthwise in half down the back. Set aside.
Place a large bowl of warm water by your work area. Moisten a tea towel or cotton cloth thoroughly with water and lay it flat on the work surface. Working with 1 rice paper at a time, immerse the rice paper in the water. It will soften in less than 3o seconds. Lift it out and place it flat on the wet cloth. Place about 1 tablespoon of noodles on it, spreading them in a line across the wrapper about one third of the way from the bottom edge. Lay about 1 tablespoon bean sprouts and a heaping teaspoon carrot salad along the line of noodles and then sprinkle several mint leaves along it. Start to roll up the fillings in the wrapper, then place 2 shrimp halves along the length of the roll. Fold over the ends to seal in the filling, then roll up another half turn. Place 2 chives or a sliver or two of scallion along the crease, letting one end stick out past the end of the roll. Place several coriander leaves along the crease, then finish rolling up. Moisten the edge with water and set on a plate, seam side down. Cover with a damp cloth and with plastic wrap, then repeat with the remaining rolls.
Serve immediately, or set aside for up to 2 hours, covered with the damp cloth and plastic wrap to prevent the rice paper wrappers from drying out. Serve on a platter or on individual plates, whole or cut crosswise in half.
To eat, place a leaf of lettuce in your palm and lay a roll-up on it. Wrap the lettuce leaf round one end of the roll-up (as if you were wrapping a cone in a napkin) – Use a small spoon to drizzle on the sauce as you eat, mouthful by mouthful.
MAKES 15 roll-ups; serves 10 as part of a rice meal
Nuoc charn-VIETNAM
Nuoc cham is the basic Vietnamese sauce that goes on the table at almost every meal. It brings out the flavors of the food and sparks the appetite. Everyone has a favorite version: This one includes a little vinegar, which gives it a fresh sharp edge. Even if the amount of sugar seems high to you when you make it for the first time, try it this way at least once before you start making adjustments.
¼ cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons rice or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
I small clove garlic, minced
I bird chile, minced
Several shreds of carrot (optional)
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar completely. Serve in one or more small condiment bowls. Store in a tightly sealed glass container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (after that, the garlic starts to taste tired).
MAKES just over ¾ cup sauce
Vietnamese Peanut Sauce
Nuo leo-VIETNAM
Nuoc leo may read like a close cousin of satay sauce, but it’s very distinctively Vietnamese. It’s a little chunky and salty, and reddish brown in color. Rich with peanuts and ground pork, sour with tomato, and salty with fermented soybean sauce, it makes a great dip for cucumber slices and other raw vegetables, for Rice Paper Rollups with Shrimp and Herbs (page 177), Grilled Lemongrass Beef (page 225), or Vietnamese Grilled Pork Balls (nem nuong, page 252).
1/4 cup Dry-Roasted Peanuts (page 308)
Scant 2 tablespoons tamarind pulp, dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm water, or substitute scant 2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons peanut oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons ground pork
3 tablespoons fermented soybean paste (tuong in Vietnamese; dao iiao in Thai)
About 1cup water
½ teaspoons sugar
1 to 2 bird chiles, minced
Generous squeeze of fresh lime juice (optional)
Place the peanuts in a food processor or large mortar and process or pound to a coarse powder; set aside. If using tamarind, press it through a sieve; reserve the liquid and discard the solids.
Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over. high heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry until it is starting to change color, about 15 seconds. Toss in the pork and use your spatula to break it up into small pieces. Once it all has changed color, add the soybean paste and the tamarind or tomato paste and stir to blend. Stir in 1/2 cup of the water, then stir in most of the ground peanuts, reserving about i tablespoon for garnish. Stir in the sugar and chiles. Add up to 1/2 cup more water, until you have the desired texture: a thick liquid, pourable but not watery.
Serve in small individual condiment bowls or in one medium bowl with a spoon so guests can drizzle sauce onto their food or onto their plates. Serve warm or at room temperature, squeezing on the optional lime ‘nice and sprinkling on the reserved ground peanuts just before serving.
The sauce will keep well -sealed in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for 1 month. Reheat it in a small pan and simmer briefly before placing in a serving bowl.
Makes about 2 cups sauce