Vietnamese Spring Rolls are a filling yet refreshing midday meal option, especially for hot summer days. Unlike other spring rolls, Gỏi Cuốn is served fresh at room temperature or cooled - not deep fried. These highly customizable rolls can be changed to your liking or dietary needs, but traditionally contain shrimp, pork, vermicelli rice noodles and a variety of fresh herbs wrapped in rice paper. Served with a peanut-based dipping sauce or fish sauce (or my personal favourite, hoisin sauce), Gỏi Cuốn is just as easy to make as it is to eat, and leftovers can be saved in plastic wrap (though it’s best eaten fresh!).
Gỏi Cuốn (southern Vietnamese term) is called Nem Cuốn in northern Vietnam. Other common terms around the world include rice paper rolls, salad rolls, spring rolls, summer rolls, Vietnamese rolls, cold rolls, crystal rolls, and soft rolls.
Ingredients:
2 lbs shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 lb pork belly or pork shoulder
2 Tbsp salt (divided)
1 shallot (peeled and thinly sliced)
1 package edible rice paper wrappers (bánh tráng)
1 package vermicelli rice noodles (bún)
1 head of leafy lettuce
Assorted fresh vegetables and herbs: bean sprouts, cucumber, garlic chives, mint leaves, Vietnamese coriander
Hoisin sauce OR Peanut sauce OR Fish sauce (nước mắm)
Sauce extras: pickled carrots and radish, crushed peanuts
Directions:
Cook the noodles: follow the instructions on the package to cook the vermicelli rice noodles. After cooking, drain the noodles under cold water to stop the cooking process and cool. The noodles should be room temperature (not hot) by the time we start rolling, or else the rolls will fall apart.
Prepare the pork: scrub the pork belly or pork shoulder with 1 tablespoon of salt and rinse with cold water.
Cook the pork: add shallots, 1 tablespoon of salt, and enough water to cover the pork into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the pork belly in whole and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, or until easily punctured by a chopstick. Remove pork from the pot, rinse with water, and pat dry. Refrigerate while preparing the rest of the ingredients. Afterwards, slice the pork as thinly as possible (to make for easy rolling).
Prepare the shrimp: if frozen, thaw the shrimp in a bowl of water. Peel the shrimp (if unpeeled) and devein using a sharp knife on the outer edge of the shrimp’s back. Here is an additional resource for peeling and deveining shrimp. Rinse in water.
Cook the shrimp: in the pot used to boil the pork, add the shrimp and boil for 1-2 minutes, until the shrimp is no longer translucent (should be white/orange/pink). Remove the shrimp from the pot, and slice in half along the back of the shrimp.
Prepare the fresh vegetables and herbs: wash and dry the vegetables and herbs (lettuce should be separated into individual leaves, and cucumber should be sliced into thin, long pieces to go into the wrap). Herbs can be left whole to easily pick up and assemble in the wrap, but feel free to cut into smaller pieces if desired (I would not recommend dicing into tiny pieces - the crunch is part of the texture!).
Prepare the sauce: your sauce of choice is up to you. Fish sauce is salty and pungent, hoisin sauce is salty and a bit sweet, and peanut sauce is, well, peanut-flavoured (sweet, and a bit sour). Fish sauce is the most watery, while peanut and hoisin sauce are thicker (better for dipping, in my opinion). Any of these sauces can be purchased individually, or mixed at home (here is a good hoisin-peanut mixed sauce recipe). This is also where you can add in the optional pickled carrots and radish, and crushed peanuts into your sauce, in a small dipping bowl.
Assemble the rolls: in a bowl of hot or warm water, quickly wet the rice paper and allow excess water to drip off before laying flat on a plate, making sure not to let the soft rice paper fold over itself yet (it will stick!). If your rice paper is square-shaped, have one of the corners point towards you (making it diamond-shaped); if your rice paper is circular, orientation doesn’t matter. On the lower third of your rice paper, add the lettuce, noodles, veggies and herbs. Begin tightly rolling the roll from the bottom up, stopping halfway. Add the pork and shrimp slices face down onto the rice paper, so that it will show clearly on the outside (giving it a pretty and appetizing look). Fold in the two sides of the rice paper over your fillings to close the ends of the roll, and finish rolling the rest of the rice paper upwards. Dip the end of your roll into your preferred dipping sauce, and enjoy!
Serves: 24
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