The Best Spring Rolls
Prep
30m
Cook
10m
Total
40m
Bigly says
Listen. We need to talk about spring rolls, because there is a LOT of confusion out there and somebody has to clean it up. People mix them up with egg rolls. People mix them up with summer rolls. People order them at the airport — at the AIRPORT — and call themselves connoisseurs. The spring roll discourse is a total disaster, and I'm here to fix it. Once and for all. End of discussion.
We're talking FRESH spring rolls today. Goi cuon. The Vietnamese kind, the translucent rice paper kind you can see straight through, pink shrimp and green herbs and white rice noodles arranged inside like a stained glass window for your dinner. The Vietnamese have been doing this for centuries — older than half the countries on your map, older than the fork in some places, look it up, I had a guy look it up — and the rest of the world is still catching up. Beautiful food. Almost too beautiful to eat. ALMOST. Because I eat them. I eat dozens. Servers in Vietnamese restaurants recognize me on sight. They nod. I nod back. We understand each other.
Now here's the secret, and I'm giving it to you straight. The water is WARM. Not hot. Hot water turns the rice paper into wallpaper paste and you'll be stuck to your cutting board for the rest of the afternoon, sad. Warm water makes it pliable, silky, cooperative. And you layer the ingredients in the same order EVERY TIME so they show through the wrapper in a clean pattern — lettuce as a bed, then noodles, then herbs, then shrimp arranged in a perfect pink stripe. Looks like art. Tastes like vacation. That's the bottom line.
Ingredients
- 12round rice paper wrappers (banh trang), 8.5-inch
- 12 oz (about 24)large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 4 ozdried thin rice vermicelli noodles
- 1 small headbutter lettuce or green leaf lettuce
- 1/3 cupfresh mint leaves
- 1/3 cupfresh cilantro sprigs
- 1/3 cupfresh Thai basil leaves(regular basil is fine if you can't find Thai)
- 1 cupcarrots, julienned
- 1 cupEnglish cucumber, julienned
- 1 tspkosher salt(for the shrimp poaching water)
- 1/3 cupcreamy peanut butter(the natural kind that you have to stir)
- 1/4 cuphoisin sauce
- 1 tbsprice vinegar
- 1 tbsplow-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbspfresh lime juice
- 1 clovegarlic, minced
- as neededwarm water (for the dip and the wrappers)
- 1 tspsriracha (optional)
Steps
- 1
Bring a small pot of water to a boil with the salt. Add the shrimp and poach 2 minutes, until just pink and curled. Drain and transfer to an ice bath to stop the cooking. Once cool, slice each shrimp in half lengthwise so you have flat halves with the pink side intact.
- 2
Cook the rice vermicelli noodles according to package directions (usually 3-4 minutes in boiling water). Drain, rinse under cold water until completely cool, and toss lightly to separate the strands.
- 3
Make the dipping sauce: whisk together peanut butter, hoisin, rice vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, and 3-4 tbsp warm water in a small bowl until smooth and pourable. Stir in sriracha if using. Set aside.
- 4
Tear the lettuce leaves into 4-inch pieces. Pluck the mint, cilantro, and basil from their stems. Have all ingredients arranged in front of you in the order you'll layer them: lettuce, noodles, herbs, vegetables, shrimp.
- 5
Fill a wide shallow dish with warm (not hot) water. Slide one rice paper wrapper into the water and let soak for 10-15 seconds, until just pliable but not floppy. Lift it out and lay flat on a clean cutting board.
- 6
On the lower third of the wrapper, lay down one piece of lettuce. Top with a small handful of noodles (about 1/4 cup). Add a few mint, cilantro, and basil leaves. Top with a pinch of julienned carrot and cucumber.
- 7
Just above the filling, arrange 4 shrimp halves in a neat row, pink side down (this side will face out when rolled).
- 8
Fold the bottom of the wrapper up and over the filling. Fold in the left and right sides. Then roll up tightly, keeping the shrimp pressed against the wrapper so they show through. Place on a plate seam-side down.
- 9
Repeat with the remaining wrappers. Do not stack the finished rolls or they'll stick — keep them spaced on the plate, covered with a damp towel if not serving immediately.
- 10
Slice each roll in half on the diagonal. Serve with the peanut dipping sauce.
One more thing
Eat these within an hour of rolling. Don't refrigerate them overnight — the rice paper gets tough and rubbery, sad, a disaster waiting to happen. Make them, eat them, that's the rule. And the peanut sauce? Double the recipe. You'll thank me. People always thank me — they call, they email, they walk up at the grocery store, they say, 'Bigly, I doubled the peanut sauce just like you said,' and I look them right in the eye and I tell them, 'That's because I'm right. I'm always right about peanut sauce.' Make them on a Sunday. Make them with the family. Slice them on the diagonal so the shrimp shows. Tell your friends.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best Spring Rolls.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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