First, I need to apologize for not being able to blog for a loooooooooooooong time. It's my last semester before graduation and I was taking an additional certification course as well. Now that it's all over, I hope I have more time to post topics and pictures of food. Some of these posts, including this one, has pictures which I took previously since the last post.
The first picture here shows your basic salad roll ingredients which include the rice paper, rice vermicelli noodle, lettuce and bean sprouts. The only meat I used for this recipe is shrimp but the real version has this very delicious Vietnamese ham as well as pickled carrots with it.
As with any recipe posted on this food blog, it's very easy to modify to your own taste. Using the basic ingredients on the first picture is what makes it a "salad roll". This next picture is the ingredient for the peanut sauce. I got it from my Vietnamese classmate back in highschool who got the ingredient from her grandmother. So you bet.. this is the real deal!!
Want the exact recipe for the sauce? Post your email address on the comment section and I'll send it to you. But I can tell you now... the secret ingredient is fried garlic!
When you're done making the sauce leave it aside and set up your wrapping station. Now wrapping is another whole deal. For the longest time, I made salad rolls which were too soggy. Hence putting cling wrap over them to save them for tomorrow's lunch was impossible. The problem was that I over soaked the rice paper on warm water. The trick is you just give it a quick dip and the laws of physics will take place making the water spread out and soften the rice paper for you. Probably soak it anywhere from 20-50 seconds on water that is a bit above lukewarm. Don't use newly boiled hot water as it could completely dissolve the rice paper.
If you want to make a nice presentation use the lettuce leaf as a base to hold all the noodles and other veggies in place. The meat should be placed in between the rice paper layer and the lettuce leaf. From there you just roll away and do your fancy plating. Some people like sauce on the side in a small saucer. Some people like the sauce drizzled on top. I've done both for the purposes of this food blog. Notice the fried garlic bits?
