Beavans Button: Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

I just cannot get enough of the Asian food Katie and I learned how to make while we were away. Vietnamese fresh spring rolls are probably one of my favorite things to eat. And they aren't that hard to make, once you figure out where to get rice paper (turns out its actually found in most grocery stores in the Asian food isle). So here is an authentic recipe for Vietnamese spring rolls with a sweet and sour dipping sauce.

Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls with Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients
For the spring rolls:
2 large carrots
1 cucumber
4 rice papers, large size
12 mint leaves
2 tbsp dried onion flakes
1/2 cup fresh baby spinach leaves or green lettuce leaves
8 large shrimp, cooked (or 12 small shrimp)
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar

For the dipping sauce:
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 red chili, diced (or a small spoonful of chili paste, depending on how spicy you want the sauce to be)
Juice from 1/2 a lime
1 tsp rice wine vinegar

With a cheese grater grate the carrots. Peel the cucumber and grate it until you reach the seeds. Keep turning the cucumber until it is fully grated with only the core remaining. Discard the core. In a bowl combine the grated carrot and cucumber, vinegar and sugar and stir. Set aside.

For the dipping sauce, in a small bowl combine the vinegar, sugar, garlic, lime juice and chilies and stir. Set aside to serve with the spring rolls.

Take one rice paper and wet it under very cold running water. Lay the rice paper on a flat surface and wait about 1 minute until it is fully soft. Meanwhile, take the carrot/cucumber mixture in your hands and squeeze out all the excess liquid. Put the mixture in a separate bowl once all the liquid has been squeezed out. Take about 1/4 of the mixture and arrange it at one end of the rice paper, leaving about 1 inch from the edge on all sides (see pictures). Arrange 3 mint leaves and 1/4 of the spinach or lettuce on top of the cucumber and carrots. Sprinkle with dried onion flakes. Roll the rice paper over once. Fold over each side (again, see pics) and place 2-3 shrimp on top of the roll and. Now keep rolling the rice paper until the roll is finished. Repeat with the other 3 rice papers until all the rolls are finished. Serve 2 per person with the sweet and sour dipping sauce.

Variations:
Instead of shrimp you can also use crab or fried pork. Sometimes I add cooked vermicelli rice noodles which make the rolls more filling. You can put almost anything you want inside the rolls, so get creative!