These spring rolls are filled with lime-chili cooked shrimp and lots of fresh vegetables and herbs, and accompanied by the most crazy-good dipping sauce inspired by my time in Cambodia. February’s cooking resolution accomplished!
About halfway through making these spring rolls I thought I had a Dani California Cooks recipe creation situation gone wrong. I’m telling you - making spring rolls look pretty is hard work. I had everything set up all cutesy in my kitchen. I had Nate on the couch working away on his computer. I had country music on. I was (for once) not wearing workout clothes. I was ready for a relaxing afternoon of assembling some Academy Awards party worthy spring rolls!
Aaaaand it took quite a few times. And quite a few google searches of tips and tricks on how to roll spring rolls properly. And much frustration grumbling on my part. This tutorial in particular was very helpful. But Nate and my mom assured me that even if they didn’t look perfect, they were still going to taste great (they are excellent encourag-ers). But I really did want them to look perfect, but alas. Not this time. I’ll keep you posted on next time because there definitely will be a next time - Mom and Nate were right - they were delicious! I think everyone who ate these at the Oscars party was surprised with ho flavorful and and restaurant-quality these tasted. I think a lot of home chefs are intimidated to recreate asian dishes at home because the flavors seem so complex, but as long as you stock your pantry with a couple of the basics, you can certainly DIY.
But the sauce, oh the sauce. Finger-licking good. When Nate and I were in Cambodia, we made fried spring rolls with this delicious sweet and spicy dipping sauce. The actual spring rolls themselves were pretty flavorless, if I recall, but we were pretty much drinking the sauce with a straw. So I wanted to incorporate some of those base flavors with the addition of peanut butter and some rice wine vinegar to really take this dipping sauce over the top. These were all then delivered to Eric’s house as the appetizer to viewing the Oscars, and I had several party attendees ask me for the recipe. I told them they had to wait for the blog post (ha!). So here you go, eager chefs! This is another cooking resolution that I will definitely be making again.
- For the rolls:
- 2 dozen shrimp
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lime, juiced
- ½ tsp chili flakes
- 2 dozen rice paper wraps
- ½ cup cooked thin rice paper noodles
- 1 bunch fresh mint leaves
- 1 bunch fresh basil
- 1 cup carrots, julienned
- 10 large romaine leaves, broken into thirds
- For the sauce:
- Juice of 4 limes
- ½ cup sugar
- 6 tbsp fish sauce
- 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- ½ finely minced fresh shallot
- 2 tsp finely mined jalapeno chili
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- In a medium saucepan, cook your shrimp in the olive oil over medium heat. Add in the lime juice and the chili flakes and cook through
- Remove from pan and let the shrimp cool before starting the assembly
- In a bowl of warm water, submerge two of the rice paper rolls until softened. This should take about 30 seconds, but remove before they start to curl
- On a flat surface, lay the two rice paper rolls. On one half of the roll closer to you, place one piece of romaine lettuce, a pinch of the rice noodles and a couple of the julienned carrots
- On the second half of the roll farther away, place two shrimp, three leaves of basil and three leaves of mint
- Fold the right and left parts of the rice paper rolls inward, and then wrap the rest of the rice paper roll up like a burrito
- Place on a serving dish
- Repeat until all of the shrimp is gone! Make sure the rolls aren't touching each other on the serving dish or else they will stick to each other
- If they don't look perfectly pretty, they will still taste awesome
- For the sauce, mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk thoroughly or place in a mason jar and shake until combined
- Before serving, whisk or shake one last time
- Enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by! 
