It’s still summer, isn’t it? Then I’m still in time to talk about gỏi cuốn, Vietnamese sumemr rolls!
The whole Asian region is home to several kind of rolls, all to be traced back to China, and then exported to other regions, like Vietnam, thanks to the chinese immigrants over the centuries: some are fried, like the world famous chinese spring rolls, while other are fresh, like today’s recipe.
Vietnamese summer rolls are one of those recipes that are knowing a golden era, and CNN listed them in the 50 best dishes around the globe.
The vietnamese summer rolls base is the rice paper, called bánh tráng in Vietnamese, while the filling can vary greatly, depending on personal preferences and available products; while the traditional filling is pork and shrimp, with mixed vegetables and rice vermicelli (this version is called Goi Cuon Tom Thit), adding and replacing ingredients is pretty easy, since vietnamese regions too have several different versions, and even the rice paper can vary in texture and flavour across different regions!
The rolls are always sided with some kind of dip or sauce: usually it’s a peanut based sauce, mixed with a sweet sauce similar to chinese Hoisin, this kind of sauce coming from southern regions of Vietnam, while northern regions tend to use sour and spicy dips, with fish sauce, vinegar and chillies.
The platter of fillings
In my attempts, I used shrimp and braised tofu for the fillings, and I opted for a peanut sauce with lime and fish sauce, while for vegetables I just took anything fresh and crunchy I got in the fridge, like carrots, pepper, cucumber and lettuce.
Absolutely game changing is also stuffing herbs together with other ingredients: I had some cilantro, some mint and basil leaves; although traditionally thai basil is used, the few leaves I used were already enough to pack a real punch of freshness!
I tried a couple of times before, and I had pretty bad results, but I found out it was all my fault: the water in which the rice paper sheets have to be rehydrated needs to be slighlty warm and above room temperature, while previously I was using pretty warm, almost hot water, that obviously cooked the rice paper sheets and made them sticky and messy.
This time instead there were no issues during the folding process, just one roll ripped open a little, but the other ones mantained the shape pretty well.
It’s a shame I discovered them just now, since eating cold vegetable rolls will not be ideal anymore in a matter of a few weeks, at most, but I’m still pretty happy of the results I got!
