Hearty and Colorful Vietnamese spring rolls for Entertaining

Ingredients

• Toss the chicken breast with the marinade seasonings, let it marinate for 30 minutes, and then pan-fry.
• Feel free to use other varied ingredients like carrot, apple, pear, cabbage, mung bean sprouts, radish sprouts, enoki mushrooms, and perilla leaves.
• Instead of water, honey, and vinegar in the fish sauce dip, using the juice from canned pineapple makes it taste even more refreshing.

Steps

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   1. Thinly slice the chicken breast and cut it into thin strips, then season it.

   Add 1 tbsp mirin (cooking rice wine) or cheongju (Korean rice wine), 1 tsp salt, a little ground black pepper, and a little garlic or onion juice. Mix gently with your hands, let it marinate for 30 minutes, and pan-fry in a pan until golden on both sides.

   2. Peel the shrimp, blanch them briefly in boiling water, pat dry with paper towels, and set aside.

   Separate the egg yolks and whites, fry each into thin egg sheets, let them cool, and slice into thin matchsticks.

   Cut the cucumbers into three parts, roll-cut each piece, and slice into thin matchsticks.

   Remove the insides of the bell peppers and cut them into thin strips.

   Cut the imitation crab stick into 3 pieces and shred into thin strips.

   (Feel free to use other varied ingredients like carrot, apple, pear, cabbage, mung bean sprouts, radish sprouts, enoki mushrooms, and perilla leaves.)

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   3. This is the main ingredient of Vietnamese spring rolls, rice paper. When you take it out of the package, it feels stiff like this.

   I bought a package containing 40 sheets. That one package yields enough to serve 3 generous plates.

   If you go to a large supermarket, it will be in the noodles section. The price is around 3000 won.

   4. If the water is too hot you could burn your hand, so be careful. Dip the paper in pleasantly warm water, and it will soften within 10 seconds.

   As the water cools down it takes longer, so pour in a little hot water now and then to keep up the temperature.

   Even if it feels tedious, you need to dip them into the water one sheet at a time to roll the ingredients.

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   5. Spread the paper taken from the water onto another plate, arrange the ingredients evenly on top, and roll it up tightly.

   It has natural stickiness and holds together firmly, so it is convenient.

   6. Now let's make the sauces. First is the peanut sauce.

   Mix together 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp regular soy sauce (jin-ganjang), 1 tbsp corn syrup (mulyeot), 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp onion juice, and 1 tbsp mustard sauce.

   Adjust the amount of ingredients to your personal taste. Savory peanut sauce goes so well with Vietnamese spring rolls.

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   7. This is a dressing for fried food salads, made with everyday mustard sauce.

   Mix together 2 tbsp mustard sauce, 8 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp vinegar, 0.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp prepared yellow mustard, and a little ground black pepper.

   Adjust the amounts of ingredients to your taste as well.

   8. The original sauce for Vietnamese spring rolls is made with fish sauce.

   Fish sauce is made in Southeast Asia by fermenting salted fish.

   It is a seasoning made in a very similar way to our Korean fish sauce.

   Since I didn't have fish sauce, I made it using sand lance fish sauce instead.

   Mix together 1 tbsp sand lance fish sauce (or anchovy fish sauce), 3 tbsp water, 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp minced onion, and 1 minced Cheongyang chili pepper (hot green chili).

   If you use the juice from canned pineapple instead of the water, honey, and vinegar here, it gives an even more refreshing flavor, so be sure to use it if you have canned pineapple.

Ppunwife's tips

• Dip the rice paper in comfortably warm water and it will soften within 10 seconds; as the water cools down it takes longer, so add a bit of hot water now and then to maintain the temperature.
• Because they are sticky, they can stick to each other. Leave a small gap between rolls on the bottom layer, and place the upper rolls diagonally between the gaps of the bottom rolls so they do not stick and can be picked up cleanly.
• Cover with plastic wrap, keep cool in the refrigerator, and serve at the table.

FAQ

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