Fresh Grilled Shrimp Spring Rolls...for Sixty! #KitchenMatrixCookingProject

Here we are at the first #KitchenMatrixCookingProject post for June. This month, Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories selected our recipes. Woohoo. You can read more about our project: here. We'd love to have you join us. And, if you don't have a copy of his cookbook, you can read his Spring roll recipe online.

You might remember that I recently spent 30 hours running the camping kitchen for the 8th grade graduation trip; you can read about that adventure here. So, my lunch crew selected a menu from Vietnam and had 'fresh Spring rolls' on their list. Fantastic! And, as luck would have it, several of that team had made these before. So, I didn't do much except provide the ingredients.

They did the rest...from peeling shrimp to slicing cucumbers and rolling. The rolling was the biggest task since they were feeding sixty people!

The Spring Rolls

An InLinkz Link-up

Ingredients makes 8 rolls (I multiplied this by 4 to make just over 30 rolls and made another batch with just tofu since we had some shellfish allergies)

• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 t + 1/2 C organic granulated sugar
• 1/2 t ground pepper
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1 t minced cilantro
• 1/2 C distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 C fish sauce
• 10 T water, divided
• 1 C julienned carrots
• 1 bunch Thai basil
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• 1 organic cucumber, julienned
• 1 C chopped organic romaine lettuce
• 2 C cooked rice vermicelli
• 1 C fresh bean sprouts
• 8 round rice paper or spring roll wrappers
• fresh lime wedges for serving

Procedure
In a medium mixing bowl, toss the peeled shrimp with the garlic, 1 t sugar, pepper, soy sauce, and minced cilantro. Let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature. Preheat a grill or griddle over high heat.

In a small sauce pan, whisk together the remaining sugar, vinegar, fish sauce, and 5 T water. Heat until the sugar dissolves and remove from heat to cool. Place the julienned carrots in a small bow and cover them with 1/2 C of the fish sauce mixture and another 5 T water. Let the carrots stand for 15 minutes. The remainder of the sauce can be served as a dipping sauce for the rolls.

Remove the shrimp from the marinade and grill over high heat until just opaque, approximately 30 seconds per side.

Prep your rice vermicelli according to the package directions. Cut them into about 3" lengths with kitchen scissors.

To assemble your rolls, fill a shallow dish or wide bowl with hot tap water and arrange your ingredients easily within reach of your work space.

Submerge the rice paper wrapper in water until it's pliable and soft, approximately 10 seconds. Shake off the excess water and place the wrapper flat on your work surface or cutting board.

Place 3 Thai basil leaves on the bottom third of the wrapper. Top them with grilled shrimp. You should have a border of an inch or so from each edge of the wrapper. Quickly layer the rolls with cilantro, cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, noodles, and romaine lettuce.

Fold the bottom part of the wrapper up over the filling, pulling as firmly as you can without tearing the wrapper. Fold in the sides, as you would fold a burrito. Then roll it tightly into a cylinder.

Repeat until you have used all of your wrappers. Place them on a platter and cover them with plastic if you are not serving them immediately so that they do not dry out.

Make a dipping sauce (I have no idea what they made, but I'm guessing they used soy sauce and hot sauce of some kind) and serve. Enjoy!

They served these with their version of Bánh Mì. It was delicious. Hats off to Team Vietnam for tackling such a great menu.