vietnamese summer rolls with red pork and shrimp

"Spring roll" is a blanket Western term used to describe rolled, filled Asian appetizers. There are many and extremely dissimilar varieties of these spring rolls, from the Chinese chūn juǎn the term was derived from, to sweet rolls filled with red bean paste (eastern and northern China), to the Filipino lumpiang prito, a deep fried roll that can be filled with bean sprouts and grated vegatables. This recipe is for goi cuon, or Vietnamese spring, summer, or salad rolls.



Vietnamese salad rolls are rice paper filled with shrimp, boiled pork (I cheated and added a bit of extra flavor by roasting the pork in a sweet glaze), various herbs, and rice noodles. They are also delicious, and easy and fun to make. Throw a party; have friends wrap their own; eat them in the backyard with Vietnamese iced tea and spicy peanut dipping sauce.



Goi Cuon
adapted from Wandering Chopsticks
rice paper (It looks almost like thin, hard sheets of plastic. Do not be fooled! This is what you want and it is delicious)
rice vermicelli noodles (also labelled as rice sticks)
two carrots, grated
Vietnamese basil, mint, cilantro, rau ram (or any other collection of tasty green herbs)
1 lb shrimp
red pork (see recipe below)

set up
Boil the rice sticks for about one minutes, or until soft. Drain and set aside. Make the red pork (see recipe below). When cooled, slice the red pork thinly.



Arrange all of the fillings (noodles, grated carrots, rinsed herbs, shrimp (I grilled mine, but cook them however you like), and red pork) and the rice paper in nearby reachable places. Fill a bowl with clean, cool water.

Construction
Lay a sheet of rice paper in the water. Hold it under the water for fifteen seconds and then remove it to a clean, flat surface. The rice paper will still feel rather plastic-like and stiff, but it will soften as you go. In the center of the rice paper (a little lower than I have shown), lay three shrimp (or two, if yours are larger). Add carrots, slices of pork, the herbs, and the noodles.



Don't overstuff; experiment with a few rolls to figure out how much stuffing you should put in.



Next, fold three edges slightly in and then roll it up as tightly as you can. The faster you construct these, the less likely they will be to tear because the rice paper will be still stiff.



To make a peanut sauce for dipping, I mixed chunky peanut butter with coconut milk, a dash of fish sauce, and sriracha.

red pork
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
This makes more than you need for the rolls but, well, I really like pork.



2 lb pork butt, sliced into long segments about 1 inch in diameter.
marinade:
1/3 C sake
1/3 C soy sauce
1/3 C hoisin sauce
1 Tb fish sauce1 tsp sriracha

Marinate the pork for between one hour and six hours.

I ran out of hoisin (I only had about two tablespoons), so I replaced the rest with: 2 Tb barbecue sauce, 1/4 C brown sugar, packed, and an extra dash of fish sauce.

Preheat your oven to 375 when you're about ready to start the pork (about XXX hours before you want the rolls ready). Put water in a shallow dish (a brownie pan, perhaps) at the bottom of the oven. Balance a rack (cookie cooling sheet, for example) on top of the dish. Lay the marinated pork out on the rack and cook in the 375 oven for thirty five minutes.

Bring the marinade to a boil in a pot. Brush the pork with the marinade, flip, and then brush the other side. Do this several times during the baking. I brush it the first time about ten minutes in, and then repeat every five to ten minutes, or whenever I'm bored with whatever else I'm doing in the kitchen.

To finish off, bring the oven to 400 degrees and roast until the outside of the pork is caramelized, about ten minutes. Slice the biggest piece of pork in half to check for doneness (there should be no pink) or use a meat thermometer.



Let the pork rest while you prep everything else.