Vietnamese Shrimps Spring Rolls

I think I wrote about the Vietnamese spring rolls or summer rolls before but never really provided the method of making it.  Since I make this quite often now and have been playing with variety of fillings, I am definitely getting better.  I will show you a picture of my ingredients and guide you along in my next page (if you are a newbie of course).  As for my ever popular peanut hoisin dipping sauce, you can get the recipe here.  I have perfected the recipe, so you don't have to go else where for the recipe, just get it here!

This is definitely an appetizer or snack or lunch (it's great for picnic too) that you can make ahead of time.  It also becomes one of the food that I prepare for Evy's school lunchbox.  I cut the veggie, par-boil the vermicelli and shrimps and make the hoisin peanut sauce the night before.  Then, on the next day, I just have to wrap it with a rice paper and enclose it with a cling wrap individually (so that it won't dry out and easier for her to eat) .  I also pack a small container of peanut sauce for her to dip.

The ingredients as you can see from above are par-boil vermicelli, par-boil shrimps (I cut it into half), fresh cilantro (you can also use mint or basil), raw carrot, scallion, romaine lettuce heart (you can also use green/red leaf lettuce or iceberg) and Mekong square rice paper (you can use round rice paper too).  This was my first time trying the Mekong square rice paper because I was attracted to "premium quality" stated and decided to give it a try.  I liked this brand as it was not easily tear and easy to wrap.

Instructions:

Take a big bowl and add some lukewarm water in it.  Take a piece of the dry rice paper and put it into the lukewarm water.  When soften, take it out and place on your clean cutting board.  Take 3-4 pieces of shrimps and put it one inch above the border (from the bottom) and place it in the middle.  Top with vermicelli, some cilantro, scallion and carrot and lastly a piece of the lettuce.  Fold the rice paper on top, flip both ends to cover it and roll it up.  Place on a plate and finish the rest.  You can cover it with a cling wrap before serving.  Serve with hoisin peanut sauce and Sriracha chili sauce.

Note:  The filling is very versatile, you can use most thing you have in the refrigerator such as cucumber, radish-carrot pickle, BBQ meat, leftover roasted chicken, leftover fried chicken breast (discard the fried skin), sausages, imitation crab sticks, etc.  Have fun!