Vietnamese Noodle with Spring Rolls - Happy Chinese New Year to All

Follow up to my previous post, I’m still onto the Chinese New Year theme (well, the celebration usually lasts for days) and thinking about food that could be associated with good luck and wealth.

Another food item that came to my mind is spring roll. Because of its shape and colour that resemble the gold bar, it is considered an auspicious food for Chinese when it comes to celebration. Having spring rolls during Chinese New Year might get me chances to acquire some gold bars in the New Year. Umm, that would be lovely.

Spring roll pastry that I used, with 125 mm x 125 mm size

Apart from spring rolls, I was also thinking about noodle. Again, noodle is considered lucky food for Chinese. Because of its shape (long and continuing noodles), it represents longevity. It is not only served during Chinese New Year but also at any auspicious events, for example, wedding and house warming. So, here you go, the dish of longevity and wealth.

A dish that came to mind that could combine spring roll and noodle together is Vietnamese Noodle with Spring Rolls, fresh mints, herbs and vegetables. The noodles were also favoured by nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) as dressing.

Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle

The dish would also fit well with the hot summer spell we were experiencing this week.  It is also the dish that S and I love, it’s fresh and tasty and we can also use mints and herbs from our garden too.

Spring roll has always been my favourite and my friend's. It never fails to gain complements from my friends when I served this at any gatherings.  I suppose, hardly, anything can go wrong with deep fried pastry with the flavoursome filling, right? The spring roll filling is made of mince pork, prawn, carrot, celery and onion.  

Below are the recipes for spring roll noodle together with nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce). Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients, a lot of them are from pantry.

Vietnamese noodle with spring rolls recipe

Serve 4

Spring roll noodle ingredients

40 sheets spring roll pastry (small pastry size)

250 g mince pork or chicken (I prefer pork or mix of pork and chicken)

150 g raw prawn, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

½ medium onion, chopped finely

1 large stick celery, chopped finely

1 large carrot, chopped finely

1 tablespoon peanut oil

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon corn flour

2 teaspoons sesame oil

Vegetable oil for deep frying spring roll

400 g dry rice vermicelli (Vietnamese variety)

2 cups bean shoot

A handful of fresh mint leaves, or Vietnamese mints

A handful of basil leaves (optional)

Crushed peanut (optional)

Method

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Put garlic and onion into the pan and fry them until the onion become transparent, stirring occasionally.

Put mince pork and chicken (if using) into the pan and break them into small pieces. When the pork is half-cooked, put in prawns, carrots and celery and stir fry until carrots and celery are soften and prawns and mince are cooked. This will take 5- 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix oyster sauce, soy sauce, pepper, sugar, corn flour and one tablespoon of water in a small bowl. Stir until they are completely combined.

Reduce heat to low, pour oyster sauce and corn flour mixture into the pork mixture in the pan. Stir well to combine, the mixture will become thickened because of corn flour mixture.Turn off the heat and put sesame oil into the mixture, blend well.

Set the spring roll mixture aside.

Wrapping spring rolls

Put about 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and mix in 1 teaspoon of corn flour. Mix well and set aside. Take the spring roll pastry out of the freezer and follow the instruction on the packet (on how to handle the pastry).

Lay one sheet of pastry on a clean plate or chopping board, brush the edge of pastry lightly with water/corn flour mixture. Lay another sheet of pastry on top and seal to attach two sheets together (double lining the pastry).

Working on an angle corner (i.e. with the pointy corner towards you). Place a heap tablespoon of filling at the corner close to you, about an inch from the pointy corner. Lift the corner up to wrap the filling, roll the pastry until the filling is completely wrapped (the roll will now sit in the middle of pastry).

Brush the top right and left wings of pastry lightly with water/flour mixture, fold those two wings to meet and overwrap in the middle. Brush all pastry edges (two edges) with water/flour mixture, roll it up to enclose spring roll completely. Continue with the rest of filling and pastries.

Cooking vermicelli noodle by follow the instruction on the packet, drain and set aside.

Frying spring rolls - Fill a small pot or deep fry pan with canola oil  upto about 3 – 4 cm high and place it over medium-high heat. When the oil is ready (I like to test this buy dipping a chopstick into the oil, if there are bubbles around the chopstick, we are good to go), fry 4-5 spring rolls at the same time. Fry about few minutes on each side until they are golden brown.

Testing if the oil is ready by standing chopstick in the oil.
If there're small bubbles around the chopstick, you're good to go.

 

Drain spring rolls on kitchen towel and set aside.

Nuoc Cham Ingredients:

              

1 cup hot water

6 Tbsp fish sauce

4 Tbsp fresh lime juice, or lemon juice

4 tsp rice vinegar

4 Tbsp sugar

1 deseeded and finely chopped fresh red chili

3 cloves of finely chopped garlic

¼ cup finely sliced carrots (optional)

METHOD:

Combine water, rice vinegar and sugar in a big bowl, stir to combine and until sugar dissolved.,

Add the fish sauce, lime juice, chili, garlic and carrots into the mixture.

nuoc cham, Vietnamese dipping sauce

Assemble the dish:

Lay bean shoot (or any fresh vegies of your choice, it could also be lettuce leaves) in a big bowl, followed by cooked vermicelli noodle. Pile mint and basil leaves on top of noodle,

 Sprinkle crushed nuts. Arrange four-five spring rolls on top and serve with nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) and more mint and basil on the side.

Enjoy the dish of longevity and wealth!
Gong Xi Fa Chai, Happy Chinese New Year