Guys Love Cooking: Grilled Pork Fresh Spring Rolls with Fish Sauce

It may not be as warm in the Netherlands as in Vietnam, but it's still a great time for authentic spring rolls. Guys Love Cooking have taken us around the world in our weekly collaboration with them. This time, they tell you how to make 15 spring rolls in under an hour. Fresh spring rolls have Vietnam written all over them. There are meat and vegetarian versions, eaten across all of Vietnam accompanied by various dipping sauces like fish sauce and hoisin sauce. Together with Pho, they are Asian country's most recognizable dish. This week's recipe is something extremely easy that we put together during a fantastic Autumn day. The last few days have been wonderful. Sunny and a bit chilly; perfect. The weather is supposed to stay like this for more days to come. Bock beer is also in full swing and there is nothing else we need. In the last few weeks we traveled the world with our food. This weekend's recipe is taking us back to beautiful Vietnam. It’s a wonderful starter that really takes no time to make, and you’ll eat something quite different.

For this recipe there is no need to run to your nearest Asian grocery store. The ingredients can be found in just about any supermarket. Rolling them may take a while to get used to the process. The first few might look a bit odd: closer to a ball than to a roll.

Grilled Pork Fresh Spring Rolls with Fish Sauce

Prep Time: 40 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes Yield: 15 rolls

Ingredients

Rice paper (dry): 15 slices Dry Rice noodles: 130 g (4.6 oz) Mint leaves: 1 bunch of 50 g (1.8 oz) Coriander leaves: 1 bunch of 50 g (1.8 oz) Lettuce: 1 bunch of 60 g (2 oz) Cucumber: 1, thinly sliced Ground pork: 300 g (10.6 oz) Lemongrass: 20 g (0.7 oz), minced Shallot: 20 g (0.7 oz), minced Salt: 1 tsp Ground peper: 1/2 tsp Sugar:1 tsp Frying oil Dipping fish sauce (See our separate, 10-minute recipe)

Method

Mix the ground pork with the minced lemongrass, shallots, salt, ground pepper and sugar. Divide into 20 g (0.7 oz) portions and roll each into a roll measuring roughly eight centimeters by one (3 x 0.4 inch). Heat up a grill pan over a medium fire. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of frying oil over the entire surface, and grill each pork roll until golden on both sides. Leave to cool. Meanwhile, cook the dry rice noodles for about 3-4 minutes in hot water. Remove them and let them dry. Set aside to cool. Quickly soak the rice paper in water and place them on an even surface like a plate or chopping board. Add a slice of lettuce, four mint leaves, four coriander leaves, four slices of cucumber, a bit of rice noodle (1/5 of a handful), and one of the grilled pork rolls on top of each other, near a border of the rice paper.

Roll the rice paper from that border, then take the left and right corner of the roll toward the center and continue to roll. Repeat the same steps for the rest of the rice paper. Finishing the dish: Present the rolls on a plate with a small sauce cup of dipping fish sauce.