I spent last Christmas in Northern Vietnam, in a small, very remote mountain village near the Chinese border, called Sa Pa. We had to take the night train up and from the train station it was about an hour’s drive up and down a mountain side – needless to say, I felt nauseous after just 10 minutes in the car. It was not a fun journey but once we got there, it was totally worth it. Not only was the scenery breathtakingly beautiful, but so was the food. We spent a leisurely three days trekking to nearby villages and eating delicious food made with locally grown organic produce (that’s all that was available!) It was freezing cold so we ate lots of warming noodle soups and drank ginger tea (and I might have had a few mugs of hot chocolate).

While there, I also took part in a cookery course organised by Sapa Rooms which is a boutique hotel that is very involved in community development. All their chefs are former street children and the food they cooked was some of the best I’ve ever eaten – beats many of Dublin’s top restaurants any day. It was obvious they were all very creative and passionate about cooking. The chefs taught us three basic Vietnamese dishes – pho bo (noodle soup), spring rolls and banana flower salad. I’ll post the soup recipe another time and I’d love to make the banana flower salad again, if only I could find banana flower somewhere ( if anyone knows where to get it in Dublin, please let me know! ).

So, we’ll start with the spring rolls. Fresh Vietnamese spring rolls are left un-cooked, they’re kind of like salad wrapped in rice paper. I wouldn’t normally be a big fan of fresh mint, but I really love it in these spring rolls. I would recommend that you buy the best quality organic herbs and vegetables you can afford as the quality of the vegetables (mainly the carrots and cucumber) really makes a huge difference. I like have to these regularly for lunch or as a light bite to nibble on while watching TV.

You can buy rice noodles and rice paper in all good Asian shops. Try to get square rice paper sheets, if you can.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

50g vermicelli noodle (or thin rice noodles)

Rice paper sheets (square)

1 Egg, fried

20g Unsalted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

20g trimmed bean sprouts

1/4 cup carrots cut into thin long julienne strips

1/4 cucumber, peeled and cut into thin sticks (remove the centre)

1/4 mango cut into thin sticks

Fresh mint leaves

Fresh coriander

Fresh garlic chives, cut into 10cm lengths (or spring onions)

Prepare the noodles according to instructions

Fry the egg (on both sides), place on a chopping board, roll it and then cut into thin strips

Soak 1 rice paper sheet in a bowl of warm water for about 30 seconds or until soft. Make sure you don’t soak it for too long or it will tear. Place on a clean work surface or a plate

Place 2 sticks of cucumber and carrots on the sheet (towards the bottom, but not right on the edge as you want to be able to fold the edge over)

Add a little of the noodles, peanuts, bean sprouts, spring onions, egg and mango.

Top with 1 or 2 mint leaves and a coriander sprig.

Roll up carefully but firmly to enclose filling.

If the rice paper tears or if the roll is very loose, you can take another sheet of rice paper, place the spring roll on it and roll up again.

Cut the roll in half and tidy ends.

That’s it. No need to cook.  As it’s up to you how much of each ingredient you put in each roll, you’ll probably find that you have some ingredients left over and others you don’t have enough of (the quantities above are just estimates), so keep everything handy so it’s easy to chop up a bit more carrots or whatever you need. Make sure you cook enough noodles as you don’t want to run out of them. I always make lots of noodles and use any leftovers for a noodle salad the next day.

Rolling the spring rolls is a bit tricky at first but practice makes perfect!

It is best to serve these fresh, as soon after making them as possible, as the rice paper tends to get quite dry after few hours.

Serve on their own or with a dipping sauce. A traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce is made with quite a lot of sugar as well as with fish sauce, so I prefer to make my own with soy sauce or just use plain soy sauce. Here’s one variation of a soy sauce based dipping sauce that I like:

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup Tamari or Soy Sauce

1/2 Lime, squeezed

1tbsp Rice Vinegar

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp Agave syrup

1/8 cup water

dash of chilli powder or fresh chilli, chopped

Mix all ingredients together. Taste and adjust according to your own taste preferences.

Tags: asian , egg , spring rolls , travel , vegetarian , vietnam , vietnamese