I had these for dinner tonight as a treat for being injured and home alone on a Saturday night. Dad had just got some pork and fennel sausages from the butchers and with little ingredients available and not feeling like anything really heavy I thought some rice paper rolls would be perfect.
Usually I use pork or sometimes chicken for my rice paper rolls but anything you like to eat I think is good enough! These guys are so yum and thanks to my 'The Songs of Sapa' cook book by Luke Nguyen (of Red Lantern) I now know how to make a superb Hoisin dipping sauce. If you like Vietnamese food and cooking I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I was so excited to get it as a Christmas present the SBS series that the book follows is worth a watch too.
To make the rolls fry a couple of sausages in their own fat no oil necessary and prepare thinly sliced cucumber and carrot. Add the vermicelli rice noodles to boiling water, these cook really quickly but will need to cool down before using them. If they're too warm they could break the rice paper when rolling.
I use this brand of rice paper and thought I'd include a picture to make life easier if anyone reading happens to be looking for some! I like this brand as opposed to others as they are easy to handle, relatively thick so they won't break as you start to roll. All you need to do is to fill a dish the size of the paper with hot water. The hotter the water the quicker the paper will soften. Soften the sheet just before use and use your hands to immerse it in the water so you know when it is soft.
Lay the soft rice paper on a clean bench or tea towel and place a small handful of noodles a third of the way up, add one or two thin slices of sausage, a few slices of cucumber and carrot and a few leaves of Vietnamese mint. Fold the bottom over, the sides in before rolling to the other edge pushing quite firmly as you go to get a nice firm shape.
For the Hoisin dipping sauce you will need half a cup of Hoisin sauce, 1 and a half tbl spoons white vinegar, half a cup of milk, 3 tsp crushed peanuts and 1 birds eye chilli thinly sliced. Combine hoisin and vinegar in a pan and heat, add the milk, stir until just boiling then remove and allow to cool before adding the chilli and peanuts. This will keep in the fridge for up to a week. PS I am often too lazy/hungry to heat this sauce and can safely say that is tastes good adding it all together with a quick mix!
After reading this, I feel the need for an Asian food hit, guess it's Yum Cha for me tomorrow. They look great J
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