Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Vietnamese Salad Rolls

I found this recipe on the Gourmet Slueth website recently and since I love the lettuce wraps at PF Changs, I figured why not give it a whirl?  There are of course recipes online for their lettuce wraps and I have one of them printed out of course... But the appeal for me with these? They looked light, COOL! (which can be a bouns in our heat) and tasty as well as being something NEW!



I have been in a slump lately, getting tired of the same old food, dished up over and over.  I have been looking for new things to try, different things and if it is simple to make, cheap, goes a long way and easy- I'm definately in!

A couple of weeks ago I bought the frozen shrimp for a couple of other recipes, and a few other things that cross over into other dishes as well. That's the beauty of some of these recipes and kind of why I chose them. You can buy one thing that you use in three or four different dishes. Definately keeping the cost down, use the stuff up before it goes bad and the dish as well as the flavors are diverse. 

Here is the recipe from GS- for those who choose not to go over and have a peek or for some reason can't.

Ingredients
8 ounces fresh raw medium shrimp, deveined and tails removed
8 large round rice paper wrappers
8 ounce package rice vermicelli noodles, cooked according to instructions
1 large carrot, julienned thinly
3 tablespoons thai basil, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
4 leaves romaine lettuce, chopped
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
½ cup San-J Thai Peanut Sauce

Instructions

Prepare vermicelli, set aside.

Prepare all vegetables and place on a tray for easy assembly of the rolls.

In a small saucepan, poach the shrimp until pink throughout. Drain and cool.

Cut each shrimp in half lengthwise and set aside.

Fill a large bowl with warm water. Dip one wrapper in the warm water for 10 seconds to soften. Drain the wrapper of excess water and place in flat on a cutting board.

In a row across the center of the wrapper, place 2 shrimp halves, a handful of vermicelli, carrots, basil, mint, cilantro, and lettuce, leaving about 2 inches uncovered on each side. Top with 1/8th of the chopped peanuts. Fold the uncovered sides inward, then tightly roll the wrapper. Repeat with the remaining rolls to make 8 rolls total.

Heat the San-J Thai Peanut Sauce, if desired, by placing the sauce in a microwaveable bowl and heat on medium for 1 minute.

As with any recipe there are variations to be made. I skipped the carrots- didn't have any this time. I forgot to add the basil, left the mint as a side to add if you like and skipped the peanut sauce. I also skipped the rice paper wrapper (couldn't find any) and used a head of lettuce in it's place- obvious in the picture...  Instead I threw in some green onions since they were handy (on the window sill) and used soy sauce.  
 
I also chopped everything up before cooking the noodles. Chopping it all up was the most time consuming part of the dish, but we all know- good things come to those who wait and this is definately one of those things worth the effort and waiting for!

4 comments:

Sherry Sikstrom said...

thats it! when it cools down in AZ I am heading down for the winter to let you cook for me , or you could come up now!

Cut-N-Jump said...

I'll head up there for the summers, you can come here for the winters. Deal?

Kaede said...

You all OK out there? I read about the dust/sand storms and sent up a prayer.

Cut-N-Jump said...

Kaede- Thanks for the concern. We are fine and actually they look a lot worse than a lot of people think they really are. I was out feeding with the girls when it hit. Just a lot of wind and dirt flying around.