Pork and shrimp Spring Rolls is a traditional food in Vietnam. Vietnamese usually make it for their daily meals. The herbs mix nicely with sweet shrimps and pork. The taste is incredible. The rolls can be a dinner for the whole family. It is suitable for special moment. To help you making your own, we wrote a tutorial on how to roll the spring rolls. Hopefully it’ll help you to venture into this dish.

For the pork and shrimp spring rolls:

• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• about 1/2 pound (8 oz) boneless pork loin or shoulder
• 1 (8-10 oz) package dried rice vermicelli noodles or “rice sticks”, cooked to package instructions.
• 1 small head of lettuce
• 1 medium cucumber, cut into thin strips
• fresh herbs: mint, asian basil. Vietnamese coriander, Vietnamese perilla or cilantro
• about 12 (8-inch) rice paper wrappers or rice paper spring roll wrappers

For Hoisin Peanut dip:

• 1/4 cup hoisin ( If hoisin dip is too thick, add water to thin out the dip)
• 2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter, almond butter or cashew butter.
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:

1. For the hoisin peanut dip: In medium bowl, combine all dip ingredients together. Use a fork to help blend well.
2. Cook the dried rice vermicelli noodles according to the package instructions.
3. For the rolls, start by preparing the pork. Bring medium pot of water to boil and add pork. Boil the pork on medium heat for about 15-25 minutes or until the pork is cooked. Remove from water, allow to cool and slice into thin strips.
4. For the shrimp, heat a medium pan, add vegetable oil. Lay shrimp on pan and sear on both sides till shrimp becomes pink and cooked. Remove shrimp from heat, allow to cool and slice each shrimp lengthwise in half.
5. Gather all your filling ingredients on plates: noodles, shrimp, pork, lettuce, cucumber, herbs and rice paper wrappers.
6. Please check out our photo tutorial on how to roll spring rolls and the photographs in the blog post to see how to roll with the sliced shrimp showing on the outside.
7. Add warm water to a large bowl. Quickly dip each rice paper wrapper in warm water for a few seconds and lay on rolling surface such as a cutting board or plate (they will still be slightly stiff).
8. Lay your lettuce first on the soft spring roll wrapper, then add the strips lettuce, herbs, cucumber, noodles and pork.
9. Roll spring roll till you have about 1/3 of rice paper left, then lay about 2-3 pieces of shrimp, cut side up in a row and finish rolling. The shrimp will lay on the outside of the spring roll when you are finished rolling.
10. Serve with the hoisin peanut dip.