Homemake: Goi Cuon

We love goi cuon in summer. When it's hot, sticky and humid outside, nothing beats biting into a cool rice paper roll bursting with salad, prawns and mint. Refreshing and healthy!

Goi cuon is sooo easy to make and is an easy formula for a relaxed DIY dinner party. About half an hour of prep beforehand is all you need.



GOI CUON (Vietnamese prawn rolls)

16 rice paper rounds (banh trang)
200g rice vermicelli
400g pork mince
2 cloves garlic
500g cooked prawns
1 packet bean sprouts
shredded lettuce
flat garlic chives
mint

Peanut sauce
crunchy peanut butter
hoisin sauce
chilli sauce or fresh chillies (if preferred)
crushed peanuts (to garnish if preferred)
hot water

1. Cook the rice vermicelli by soaking it in boiling hot water for 10 minutes. Gradually tease the noodles apart with chopsticks to ensure all threads are cooked through.
2. Finely chop the garlic and stir fry with the pork mince, seasoning to taste.
3. Peel the prawns (remove vein if preferred) and cut in half along its length ie. so it still looks like a whole prawn from one side.
4. Wash the sprouts, lettuce, chives and mint. Cut the top half of the chives into 10cm lengths. Chop the remainder into 1cm shreds.

Banh trang rice paper sheets

Making the sauce
I always make this sauce on instinct and never measure. Generally I suppose I use roughly equal measures of peanut butter and hoisin sauce but feel free to make to your preference. I tend to prefer mine extra peanutty and extra thick (for increased dollop factor!).

1. Combine about 3Tbs peanut butter with 3Tbs hoisin sauce and mix thoroughly.
2. Add chilli sauce to taste NOTE: The sugar in the hoisin counteracts the heat of the chilli so you will need to add lots to taste anything! We love Turbo Supercharge for its 10++/10 habanero heat factor.
3. Add hot water to thin as required.
4. Garnish with extra crushed peanuts if preferred.

Assembly

1. Place all ingredients on the table and have a large wide-mouthed bowl of hot water on the table within easy reach of everyone. Top this up as required.
2. Quickly dip and rotate one rice paper sheet into the bowl of water. TIP: It is sufficient to merely ensure the entire surface is wet. The rice paper will still be hard but trust me, it will soften on your plate as you start assembly. Overcooking your sheet will only make breakage more likely!
3. Place wet rice paper onto a flat plate.
4. Place two teaspoons of pork mince about 1/3 of the way up your rice paper sheet. Add vermicelli, sprouts, lettuce, chive shreds and mint as preferred. TIP: Resist the urge to overload on the ingredients as this will make it harder to roll.
5. Lift bottom flap of sheet and fold over your ingredient line. Holding your ingredients tightly with your index fingers, roll the whole thing once over using your thumbs, ensuring you try and remove as much air as possible (see, I told you not to be greedy). Fold in the left and right hand flaps.
6. Place three prawn slices "nice" side up onto your roll. Place a flat chive garnish on top so about 2cm of it sticks out on one side.
7. Hold the ingredients tightly again and roll over so you now have one compact parcel.
8. Cheer, eat and roll again!

Variations
Meat/Vegetarian: We often substitute the pork mince with thin slices of boiled pork belly. Alternatively you can use shredded boiled chicken or go completely vegetarian if preferred.

Salad fillings: Go crazy with whatever tickles your fancy. Today we felt like adding julienned cucumber for extra refreshment. You could also add blanched asparagus, red capsicum, enoki mushrooms, pickled julienned carrots, finely shredded cabbage...as long as everything is chopped finely and easily biteable and you're aware of harmonising not competing flavours.

Sauce: I've had this served with nuoc cham before which some people do prefer, however I find the sauce ends up dribbling all over my fingers!