Lemongrass Chicken Spring Rolls

Cooking with Morgane

Ingredients

10 rice papers 28cm
150g dehydrated rice noodles
¼ cucumber
⅓ Iceberg salad
50g bean sprouts
1 carrot
1 tbsp white rice vinegar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Herbs: mint, cilantro, Thai basil,
ngorgai, vietnamese cilantro, shiso

Chicken marinade
4 chicken thighs
1 lemongrass
10g ginger
1 tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tsp clear soy sauce
½ tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce


Steps

  1. Lightly cut the flesh so that the marinade gets into it. Put them in a mixing bowl. Crush the lemongrass and finely mince it. Cut the ginger into chunks. Put them in a mortar, add 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar and crush them. Then add 1/4 tsp ground pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp fish sauce, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce and mix all. Add the marinade to the chicken and mix well. Let it rest for at least 1 hr
  2. Cook 150g of rice noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain them, rince with cold water and let them drain for 1 hr. Once cooled, make several cuts with scissor
  3. Cut 1/4 of a cucumber into small sticks, 1/3 of the lettuce into small pieces. Season 1 grated carrot with 1 tbsp white rice vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar
  4. Put 1 tbsp of oil in a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, put the chicken pieces. Let them brown for 4 minutes on the meat side and 5 minutes on the skin side. Remove them and let them cook down for 10 min before cutting them into pieces
  5. Wet a clean cloth and wring it out. Spread it on a board. Fill a large bowl with very hot water. Quickly dip a rice paper in the water, put it on the cloth. Add some chicken pieces, thai basil, mint, cilantro, carrots, bean sprouts, cucumber, lettuce, and rice noodles. Flap both sides towards the center. Both sides must be straight and parallel. Roll by keeping the ingredients inside and tighening until the end. Keep them under a dry cloth to prevent them from drying out
  6. Serve with dipping sauce

Peanut Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
5 tbsp hoisin sauce
5 tbsp water / milk / coconut milk
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp sugar


Steps

Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small sauce pan on medium heat and fry the garlic until golden brown. Add hoisin sauce, water, peanut butter and sugar. Stir well and simmer on low heat for 1-2 minutes until thickened. Transfer to small bowl and top with crushed peanuts

Sugarcane Prawn (Chao tôm)

Helen Le

Ingredients

500 g tiger prawn peeled and deveined
50 g pork paste optional
20 g spring onion white part minced, green part choppped
1 tbsp fish sauce
salt, sugar, pepper, stock powder to taste
sugarcane split into thin sticks
crushed roasted peanuts
scallion oil


Steps

  1. Ground the prawns in a food processor into a fine paste. Mix with the pork paste until well-combined. 
  2. Season the paste with salt, pepper, sugar, chicken stock, fish sauce and spring onion (white part)
  3. To increase the stickiness, throw the paste into the bowl for 20 times. Grease hand with some vegetable oil and wrap the paste aroung the sugarcane stick, leaving one end as an handle. Repeat until finish. 
  4. There are 2 options to cook: Either to deep-fry at 150°C or to grill. If you go for grilling option, steam the prawn skewers for 5 minutes to shape the form and then grill at medium level to get grill pattern.
  5. Arrange the sugarcane prawn skewers on a plate wit fresh greens and garnish with scallion oil and crushed peanuts.

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce Recipe (Nuoc Cham)

Viet World Kitchen

Ingredients

3 tablespoons lime juice (1 fat, thin skin lime)
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup water
2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

Optional additions:
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
1 or 2 Thai chilis, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon homemade chili garlic sauce or store bought (tuong ot toi)


Steps

  1. Make limeade. Combine the lime juice, sugar and water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Taste and as yourself this question: Does this limeade taste good? Adjust the flavors to balance out the sweet and sour.
  2. Finish with fish sauce. Add the fish sauce and any of the optional ingredients. Taste again and adjust the flavors to your liking, balancing out the sour, sweet, salty and spicy. Aim for a bold, forward finish -- perhaps a little stronger than what you'd normally like. This sauce is likely to be used to add final flavor to foods wrapped in lettuce or herbs, which are not salted and therefore need a little lift to heighten the overall eating experience. My mother looks for color to gauge her dipping sauce. When it's a light honey or amber, she knows she's close.