Laotian Spring Rolls
Laotian spring rolls are perfect as a finger food or to compliment any dinner, these will be a crowd favorite again and again.
Ingredients
FILLING:16 6-inch rounds rice paper
1 lb. cooked shrimp, deveined and peeled, cut each in half lengthwise
1 cup red or green cabbage thinly sliced or chopped (You can substitute with your favorite lettuce)
2 cups Rice vermicelli cooked and drained (I use bean thread or cellophane noodles instead)
2 carrots julienned or cut into thin even strips
1 cucumber julienned or cut int thin even strips (I don't use cucumber - your choice)
1 cup fresh mint leaves (I'm not a fan of mint and omit the mint leaves)
½ cup fresh Thai basil leaves
½ cup fresh cilantro
½ cup scallions chopped
DIPPING SAUCE
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
1-2 teaspoon chili-garlic paste
1 tablespoon crushed peanuts
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
½ cup of water
Salt to taste
lime wedges
Instructions
Lightly oil your fingertips and a plate or cutting board. Quickly dip a sheet of rice paper into a bowl of hot water and turn all away around to get the rice paper soft. Remove as soon as the paper goes "limp." If you take too long, the paper will get too sticky to handle. Then lay it on a lightly oiled, large cutting board or plate.From 1/3 of the top of the rice paper, place 3-4 pieces of cooked shrimp layering on top of each other, sliced side up. You want the nice shrimp side exposed one it’s all rolled up. Add a small amount of rice noodles and then carrots, cucumber, and cabbage. Spread the remaining herbs on top, place 1-3 mint leaves neatly on top. You also don’t want to over fill as it will be tough to roll. Like folding a burrito, fold the top over, roll once while tucking in all the ingredients. Fold the sides in and roll the rest of the way down. And repeat to make as many as you like.
Dipping sauce, blend sugar in ½ cup of water, add fish sauce chili garlic sauce, add salt to taste. Add crushed peanut, chopped cilantro to dipping sauce.
And serve with lime wedges on the side. You can substitute any of the ingredients to make it Vegetarian or Vegan.