Fresh Vietnamese spring rolls are one of my favorite snacks / appetizers, although there have been many times when I’ve made an entire light meal out of them. It’s the Thai basil that makes them so addicting, I think.

There are many different recipes out there for these rolls. This can be a kind of "everything but the kitchen sink" dish, with a variety of additional ingredients such as mint, glass noodles and bean sprouts, as well as pork or shrimp. But I prefer them simple, and vegetarian.

Ingredients

Thai Basil

Pick all the leaves off the stalks. The stems and deep purple flower tops are generally not used. A bunch of around 10 grams will have enough leaves for three to four rolls.

Lettuce

Any kind of leafy lettuce will do, such as the oaks or corals.

Carrot

Carrots seem to be a very common ingredient for the rolls, as well as the sauce that accompanies them. Finely grate or shred the carrot.

Spring Roll Sheets

Look in your Asian grocery’s freezer case for these. I will admit that I once tried flour tortillas instead, and the results weren’t bad at all, although the shape is a problem.

Preparation Method

• Lay out a spring roll wrapper on a cutting board.
• Place a single layer of lettuce leaves on top of one end of the wrapper.
• Add a handful of Thai basil on top of the lettuce. Don’t be stingy! Use a generous handful of leaves or they won’t taste right.
• Top the leaves with a few strips of grated carrot.
• Pull the end of the wrapper up and over to roll up the filling. Tuck the ends in as you roll. A little bit of water on your fingertips will help ‘seal’ the roll up so it doesn’t come undone too easily.
• Slice the roll into bite-sized pieces.

Spring Roll Sauce

The sauce is an essential part of this dish. On their own, the rolls can be a little bland, but with the sauce they turn into a veritable party in your mouth. The typical sauce is spicy-sweet, but I have a simple "cheat" that works well:

Start with Thai chicken dipping sauce, which is available at most Asian grocery stores. The sauce is a little too thick for this use, so for three or four spring rolls, start with about ½ cup (100 ml) of dipping sauce and add two to three tablespoons of hot water to thin it down. Stir in a tablespoon of finely shredded carrot and top with a teaspoon of crushed peanuts, and voilà! The perfect spring roll sauce.

Panang Curry

Panang Curry Paste

First, you have to make the curry paste.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Grind all the ingredients together to form a fine paste. You can use a mortar and pestle or take the modern approach and use a food processor.

Panang Curry Recipe

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Simmer the pork in 1 ½ cups of the coconut milk until the meat is cooked through.
• In a hot wok, heat the vegetable oil and stir-fry the curry paste together with the chopped peanuts until fragrant.
• Lower the heat and add the remaining ½ cup of coconut milk. Stir until mixed, then add the pork along with the coconut milk it was cooked in.
• Season with the fish sauce and sugar. Stir in the spur chillies. Sprinkle the kaffir lime leaves and basil over the curry and transfer to a serving dish.

Thai Basil on sale in a fresh market.

Thai basil (horopa) has an aroma that is very heavy with the scent of anise, much like its Italian cousin. In appearance it has dark purple stems and green leaves with purple veins. Fresh uncooked Thai basil tastes quite a bit like liquorice. Raw sprigs of basil are often served with spicy foods. They cool the mouth quite effectively when you’ve eaten some really hot chillies, and freshen the breath as well.

Thai basil is a critical ingredient in green curries, and its lighter character goes quite well with seafood stir-fries. If you can’t find Thai basil, Italian sweet basil may be used as a last resort, in some cases. Thai basil is a variety specific to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In English, it is sometimes referred to using its Thai name horopa.