The Dish: Spring Rolls

The Restaurant: Moksa
The Chef: Patricia Yeo
The Dish: Spring Rolls 

Summer Roll Recipe

(makes 10 summer rolls)
--10 sheets Vietnamese rice paper (my favorite brand is Rose)
--1 cup beer + 1 cup water
--Pinch of salt

Filling

--10 pieces bibb lettuce with the tough centre rib removed
--¼ cup each julienne cucumber, carrots and red pepper
--¼ cup picked cilantro leaves
--10 mint and thai basil leaves, tough stem removed
--20 poached shrimp, cut into half lengthwise (optional, you can actually substitute any protein or simply leave it out…..generally if I am making a vegetarian summer roll I bulk up the vegetables using more variety; avocado, green beans, mung bean sprouts as well a bean threads)

Bring the beer, water & salt to a simmer. Working one sheet at a time, dip rice paper into the hot beer mixture. Remove and lay flat on a clean surface. Place a piece of bibb lettuce in the centre of the rice paper, top with herbs, julienne vegetables and shrimp. Pull the bottom on the rice paper over the filling, then the right and left side. Roll into a tight log, almost as if you were rolling a burrito.

Repeat with remaining rice paper. Store wrapped in clean, damp, lint free napkin or kitchen towel at room temperature.

Serve with nouc cham

*********

Sauce recipe:

Cilantro Lime Muddle

--1 cup roughly chopped, packed cilantro leaves, stems and root.
--3 bird chillies
--2 cloves garlic
--¼ cup sugar
--¼ cup fish sauce
--¼ cup lime juice

In a pestle and mortar, mash garlic, chillies and cilantro. Add sugar, pound to mix well. Add fish sauce & lime juice. Make fresh daily.

(Copyright (c) 2012 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)