Fresh Spring Rolls & Nuoc Nam

After that horrible analogy, we segue into fresh spring rolls! I have always had a soft spot for fresh spring rolls and the contention is who invented it? Thais claim to have invented it, and so do the Vietnamese. Filipinos have their version of the lumpiang sariwa and the lumpiang hubad, and the Chinese have a lot of spring rolls--fried, fresh, steamed and even baked. The nice thing about this contest for the ownership of the spring rolls is that the more people who claim it, the more expansive the flavor arena is. I have enjoyed fresh spring rolls with a nice array of vegetables, I have enjoyed it with succulent meats. I have tried fresh spring rolls with an assortment of fish flakes, I have tried it with an earthy rich thick sauce made of shiitake mushroom broth. I have dipped it in nuoc nam and in curry. I have had it with egg, with beans, with finely sliced breaded chicken, with seaweed and tuna sushi. So as more and more cultures claim the spring roll, the more expansive and flexible the spring roll gets.

First, make the dipping sauce. With fresh spring rolls, the sauce has to be made first so when you've finished making the actual rolls, you are ready to serve them.

For the Nuoc Nam (Vietnamese-style sauce), simply combine the following in a bowl:

2 tbsp white sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water
3 tbsp vinegar
3 tbsp fish sauce
chopped garlic and chili
juice from 1/2 a lime

For the spring rolls:

60g dried rice vermicelli noodles cooked as per package instructions
8 rice wrappers (22cm diameter)
8 large cooked prawns - peeled, deveined and cut in half
8 lettuce leaves
12 leaves fresh Thai basil, chopped
12 fresh mint leaves, chopped
3 sprigs fresh coriander, chopped
2 leaves lettuce, chopped
1 chili, finely chopped
1 tbsp of peanuts, coarsely chopped

Prep all of the ingredients and make a nice and efficient layout on your space. The thing with fresh spring rolls utilizing rice paper is that you have to work fast. So let's start with the basics: rice paper, dipped in hot water. There's no specific time to follow, the faster you take it out, the better so as soon as the rice paper is completely covered in water, you're good to go. Lay the rice paper flat. Place the lettuce leaf on the rice paper. Place the vermicelli noodles on a nice row across the center, followed by the chopped herbs and prawns, and roll. You can roll it sandwich style, by folding two opposite edges inward before you start rolling or you could just roll and leave the two edges open.

Experiment. Instead of prawns, try shiitake mushrooms, tinapang bangus or shredded roasted chicken.