Summer rolls

Today I attempted to make vietnamese summer rolls for the first time! I received a great cookbook from a friend at my wedding shower and the front cover was a picture of these beautiful summer rolls! I went through my cookbooks today to try and find something yummy to make. As soon as I picked up this book, I was sold! I needed to have them! So I will share with you my version of the rolls. I didn't have all the ingredients in the house, so I needed to improvise. The original recipe was made with jumbo shrimp and pork tenderloin, but I decided to make mine vegetarian. So here we go!

Ingredients
-4oz of rice vermicelli or I used a quarter cup of rice
-tender lettuce, such as boston or oak leaves, I used baby bok choy
-1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin stick, I grated mine into small peices, both work well
-1 small cucumber, sliced thinly
-6-12 small, thin scallions
-round rice papers
Ingredients that I added
-celery, cut into thin sticks
-a small handfull of bean sprouts

1-Fill up a bowl with warm-hot water.

2-Dunk the rice paper into the water so that the whole peice is wet. Do not leave it in too long. If it becomes too wet it will be difficult to use.
3-Hold the wet rice paper open in your hand and start to fill it with your delicious veggies! I did not take pictures of the folding process because I had a hard time with it ;)

4- I added my celery to the top just before the last fold to give it a nice touch.

I most definately need more practice with the folding, but they turned out well! They were very yummy. The book says they are best served with a spicy peanut sauce or a sweet sour and spicy fish sauce called Nuoc Cham. If you would like to original recipe of this just contact me and let me know! Here is how to make this sauce. It has  a very strong taste, but with the roll, it is very enjoyable.

3/4 cup of fish sauce
1/2 cup of granulated sugar (wisk the sauce and sugar together)
3/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
1 large clove of garlic
1 to 2 thai chilies

YUM!
It took alot of time to prepare these... but they were well worth it!
Give it a try!
xo