Vietnamese Spring Rolls

This is one of the most popular Vietnamese dishes and also one of my favorite! It can be served as an appetizer but can sometimes be filling enough for a whole meal. There are many versions of the spring roll, but the Vietnamese Spring Rolls uses rice paper and is eaten fresh, not fried. There are a variety of ingredients that people put in their spring rolls depending on their preferences. Here is how I make my Vietnamese Spring Rolls with a simple hoisin/peanut dipping sauce.

DISCLAIMER: I normally do not measure the ingredients that I use. Everything is eyeballed and guesstimated but I will try my best to provide you with some type of measurements!

Ingredients:

• Rice Paper Rolls
• Shrimp
• Pork Meat
• Lettuce
• Cilantro
• Cucumbers
•  Rice Vermicelli / Noodle

Ingredients for dipping sauce:

• Peanut Butter (Crunchy or Creamy)
• Hoisin Sauce
• Water

Steps for the Spring Rolls:

1.) Boil the shrimp with the skin on. Once the shrimp is cooked, drain it and then peal the skin. You can use whole pieces of shrimp but I prefer to cut them in half.

2.) Boil the pork meat. You can use pork belly or regular pork meat (sorry, I don't know the proper name for the parts of the pig but I am sure any type of pork meat without the bone would work fine). Pork belly probably works the best, but sometimes the fat part is too thick for me. I normally cut off most of the fatty part. After the pork meat is fully cooked, cut it in thin slices.

3.) Boil the rice vermicelli/noodle. Any time of rice noodle should work. Once they are cooked, drain all the water out and let the noodles dry. Here are some of the ones that I've tried:
 

4.) Wash the lettuce (I like to use Romaine lettuce or the red leaf lettuce). Once it is dry, cut the lettuce into thin strips.

5.) Wash the cilantro. You can leave them whole, but I like to cut them into smaller pieces about 1/2 an inch long.

6.) Cut the cucumbers in thin, long slices. I like to use the Mediterranean cucumbers because they are very crunchy and does not have a lot of chewy seeds.

7.) Now you are ready to roll all those ingredients together in the rice paper!! There are many different brands of rice paper (called banh trang in Vietnamese). Sometimes it is also call "spring roll skin", "tapioca wrapper", or "spring roll wrapper". Before using these, they need to be quickly soaked in warm-hot water so that they soften up.

It would be a lot easier for me to show you how to roll the spring rolls than to try and explain it in writing. However, I was not able to upload a video in time but I found a great short video that you can watch.

 





Steps for the dipping sauce:

1.) Heat up a pan with Hoisin Sauce. This is the same sauce that I use for Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup)!! Use about half a bottle or more/less depending on how much spring rolls you make.

2.) Slowly add in about 1/4 a cup of water. The water helps loosen the thick Hoisin sauce. Stir frequently so that the Hoisin and water blends together. Add more water if the sauce it still too thick. Don't worry if you've add too much water because the sauce will slightly thicken once it cools down.

3.) Add about a spoon of peanut butter. You can use either the creamy or chunky peanut butter. Stir the peanut butter until it blends in with the Hoisin sauce.

4.) Let the sauce cool down before serving. Add some spice to it with Sriracha or any other chilli sauce.

As always, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do and let me know how it goes!

Tuna Macaroni Salad

One of my favorite side dishes everrrrrrrrrrrr. I got this dish from my friend's sister a couple of years ago. This is very very simple and tastes great with turkey, chicken, ham and all of the above.

DISCLAIMER: I normally do not measure the ingredients that I use. Everything is eyeballed and guesstimated but I will try my best to provide you with some type of measurements!

Ingredients:

• 1 Box of Pasta (I like to use either Elbow or Rotini)
• 2-3 Sticks of Celery
• 3 Cans of Tuna (use the ones that comes in chunks)
• Light Mayo
• Miracle Whip
• Salt & Pepper
• Lemon

Steps:

1.) Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta with a pinch of salt and about a teaspoon of oil. Follow the directions on the box.

2.) Drain the pasta and then put it in the fridge to cool.
  

3.) Cut the celery sticks into small pieces, about 1/4 of an inch thick. I usually cut off the top white part of the celery and only use the middle greener portion. I find that those pieces are crunchier and tastes better too. 

4.) Mix in 1/2 cup of light mayo and 2 cups of Miracle Whip with the chopped celery.

5.) Drain 2 cans of tuna and leave 1 can with the tuna juice. Mix the 3 cans of tuna with the mayo, Miracle Whip and celery.

6.) Add a pinch of salt and pepper and then squeeze in 1/4 fresh lemon juice to the mixture.

7.) Once everything is evenly mixed, add it to the cooled pasta and blend it all together. If the pasta looks too dry, you can add more mayo or Miracle Whip.

This is one of the easiest side dishes to make and it will surely be a crowd pleaser. I love this cold salad, especially during Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know how yours turn out!