Vietnamese Spring Rolls!

These rolls are one of the famous dishes from Vietnam known world wide. It is known from its rice paper prepared by grinding rice with a little water, laying them out, and then drying them. It takes only a small amount of water to bring the sheets back to their soft pliable form! If you want to do it yourself, you might want to try it out with some friends. It can be a really interesting activity for everyone! But be warned, take too long, and the rice paper will become too sticky and soft so you better move fast!

Ingredients:

For the Spring Rolls:

6 sheets rice paper

2 large leaves of green lettuce, cut into small pieces

3 ounces rice vermicelli, cooked

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

12 mint leaves

Shrimps, cooked, peeled, deveined and cut in halves

For the Dipping Sauce:

1 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

3/4 clove garlic, minced

1 1/4 tablespoons white sugar

1/3 teaspoon garlic chili sauce (Chirashi)

2 3/4 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon finely chopped peanuts

Procedure:

1.) Bring the water to boil. Boil rice vermicelli 3 to 5 minutes, or until al dente, and drain.

2.) Dip the rice paper in a large bowl of warm water so it will become soft

3.) Place the rice paper on a flat area, then stack small amount of lettuce, rice noodles, cilantro, mint leaves, and 3 shrimps

4.) Roll the rice paper

5.) In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, sugar and chili sauce together. Another bowl, mix hoisin sauce, peanuts, and chilli sauce. Serve the rolls with these two sauces.