Banh Trang

About 5 years ago my partner and I took the long journey to Vietnam, via Bangkok (which is always a treat to stopover in).  We spent 3 days in Ho Chi Minh, formerly known as Saigon.  We visited the Chu Chi tunnels just outside the city, where my barely 5ft girlfriend got to fire an AK47 Kalashnikov assault rifle (wearing a pair of stereo headphones as ear protection).  We also visited the "Museum of American War Crimes" which has now diplomatically been renamed the "War Remnants Museum".  We toured some paddy fields and stopped off in a little village to watch banh trang being made.  

Banh trang are Vietnamese rice papers.  They are made by pounding the rice to a powder, adding water to create a paste, then this is spread very thinly over a steamed surface to make the papers - a little like gozleme (if you have ever eaten them in Turkey).

As I often do, I continued to peruse Rick Stein's "Far Eastern Odyssey" (having made the stuffed rotis yesterday).  I saw a recipe for these wonderful, crispy, deep fried rice papers.  Indeed, these papers can also be served steamed, but I rather prefer the slightly oilier deep fried variety.

They are much easier to make than they are to cook!

Pre-cooked banh trang

For those of you that have never eaten cuisine from this area of the world, it is not unusual to find a combination of pork and prawns - the Asian equivalent of surf n' turf!  These particular varieties are no exception:

•   Combine 300g pork mince, 150g prawns (defrosted!), half a grated carrot, a handful of cooked vermicelli noodles, 4 spring onions (chopped), a small onion or some finely chopped shallot, a teaspoon of palm sugar and about 5 minced garlic cloves in a bowl.  Season it well with pepper.
•   Rick says to add a whole beaten egg, but I find that it is not necessary to use.  The mixture binds very well without it.
•   Add some nuoc mam, about 2 tbsp.  If you cannot get the vietnamese variety you can use the thai fish sauce which is widely available (but not as tasty). 

 To make the rolls, get yourself a clean teatowel, dampen it in the centre.  Also have a large bowl of warm water.  Add a rice paper to the warm water, soften it for 10 seconds or so.  Remove it and put it on the teatowel. Add 2 tablespoons of the mixture near the bottom of the circle.  Roll the roll! Pull the sides in and roll it up so you have a nice little package.  Try to limit the amount of air you have inside - this is key.

This is where the fun begins.  I decided to deep-fry my rolls, in a deep fat fryer.  Let's just say I had an explosive time.  This method (at 190C) is far too invasive.  I switched to my wok, and then shallow fried them.  This was also difficult as some of the packages exploded (due to residual air inside), but they turned out well after you get the hang of it.  Not packing the pan with rolls is highly recommended!

I heartily advise you serve it with a lime, chilli and nuoc mam dipping sauce, along side some crispy lettuce.

Will I cook them again, though, is the question?