Nahji Chu is the founder of the wildly successful Miss Chu chain of Vietnamese canteens in Sydney and Melbourne. The franchise was recently included in our list of Sydney's budget-friendly vegetarian favourites. Here is her recipe for meat-free rice paper rolls.
Serves 2 (makes 4 large rolls)
Ingredients
4 eggs
1/2 tso Maldon sea salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
olive oil
vermicelli noodles
1 large brown onion, sliced longways very thin
olive oil or butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
One packet large rice papers
Fried onion/rice powder (optional)
For Vietnamese salad
Chopped lettuce, coriander, Vietnamese mint, bean shoots.
One avocado, sliced longways.
For dipping sauce
1/2 cup of hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon of palm sugar
2 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp sriracha chilli sauce
lemon or lime juice (optional)
Method
For omelets
Beat the eggs in a bowl the salt, pepper and dill.
Heat some olive oil in a fry pan and pur in one-quarter of the mixture to make a thin egg crepe. Cook on both sides until golden-brown, but be careful not to over-cook as the omelet will be too dry. Repeat three more times.
Leave omelets aside to cool and then cut into long strips.
For vermicelli noodles
Boil for 10 minutes, strain under cold water and let dry so that noodles become fluffy (not wet and gluggy).
For caramelised onion
Cook the onions in a saucepan with the oil or butter, sugar and balsamic vinegar on a low heat for 20 minutes (stirring regularly) or until onions have softened and caramelised.
For Vietnamese salad
Mix salad ingredients together.
Mix dipping sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
To make the rolls:
Take four rice paper roll discs and soften for a few seconds in a large bowl of luke warm water.
Place the rice paper discs on dinner plates.
Layer ingredients in the centre of each disc in the following order:
Don't overfill the rice paper roll. You will know you have over-filled it if it starts falling apart as you are rolling it. Only use enough ingredients for three or four bites, maximum.
Roll each rice paper roll up and close.
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