Spring Rolls with Tamarind Sauce

Satisfying appetizer rolled in rice paper with shrimp, rice vermicelli, with assorted vegetables, sprouts and herbs. Served with authentic Cambodian tamarind sauce.

Nhaim Chaow – Cambodian Spring Rolls with shrimp and fresh crispy veggies
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: Cambodian
Keyword: finger food, tamarind
Servings: 6
Calories: 647kcal
Author: Channy Laux

Ingredients

  • 12 squares fine rice vermicelli
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 pound large shrimp shell-on or your favorite protein
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 1 package 4 oz neem flower buds or any bitter vegetable like arugula
  • ½ head red leaf lettuce
  • 1.5 pounds crunchy vegetables (cucumber, red bell pepper, purple cabbage, carrot)
  • ½ pound sprouts (bean sprouts, kale sprouts, or daikon sprouts)
  • 2 cups assorted herbs and mints (Thai basil, mints, Vietnamese coriander)
  • 12 sheets square rice paper 22cm square
  • 9.5 ounce Angkor Tamarind Sauce

Instructions

  • Cook vermicelli in 7 cups of boiling water for 50 seconds, drain, place in cold water bath, then squeeze the water from the vermicelli. Lay them flat on a plate, set aside.
  • Sauté shrimp over medium high heat with oil and fish sauce until cooked (shell turns salmon color and flesh is firm). When shrimp have cooled, remove shells and slice lengthwise into half, then deveined with moist paper towel. Set aside.
  • Prepare the remaining vegetables and herbs. Slice or strip crunchy vegetables lengthwise, so they are easy to wrap. Set aside.

Assemble Rolls

  • Submerge each sheet of rice paper in a bowl of lukewarm water (105ºF) for 5 second; lift and gently shake off the water. Place the wet rice paper on a cutting board, with a corner pointing away from you, when looking straight down you should see a diamond shape.
  • Just off the center of the rice paper (closer to you), place the ingredients in the following order: 3 pieces of shrimp, lettuce, the rest of the vegetables and herbs, then vermicelli. Fold the side corners of rice paper over the vermicelli, roll the corner that is closest to you away from you just as you would roll a burrito. Firmly press the filling, while you are rolling.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 647kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 104g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1143mg | Sodium: 4440mg | Potassium: 891mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 11927IU | Vitamin C: 43mg | Calcium: 791mg | Iron: 14mg

Notes

This recipe yields 12 spring rolls.  Enjoy this light meal Cambodian way, by serving them with Angkor Tamarind dipping sauce and Angkor Chrouk Metae, or freshly slice chili. If not served right away, wrap each roll in saran wrap keep up to 2 hours.
In Cambodia, this is a main dish, with all ingredients placed on a large platter and everybody sitting around the platter in circle makes their own wrap using just lettuce no rice paper needed. It is normally a harvest meal when the hot weather ripens the tamarind, neem flowers are budding, fish were easily caught by hands from drying up fields and baked in clay over open fire.      
Making it with salmon: substitute shrimp with salmon fillet. heat oven to 475°F. Cut salmon 1/4″ thick and 1/2″ wide.  Marinate salmon with oil and fish sauce. Broil salmon on middle rack for 10 minutes until the salmon is golden brown. 
Angkor Tamarind Sauce
Angkor Tamarind Sauce, sweet and sour traditional Cambodian tamarind sauce traditionally used as dipping sauce for wraps and string rolls. Made in USA
Tried this recipe?Mention @AngkorFood or tag #angkorfood, thank you!

Published by Channy Laux

Channy Laux is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. She was thirteen-years-old when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. From 1975 to 1979, Channy endured starvation, horrendous working conditions, sickness and repeated separations from her family. In June of 1979, Channy arrived in Lincoln Nebraska as a refugee. After four years of no school and not knowing a word of English, she attended Lincoln High School; earned a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from Santa Clara University and undergraduate degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Channy worked in Silicon Valley as an engineer in the Aerospace and Biotech industries for 30 years. In 2017 Channy decided to focus on completing a promise that she made to herself as she and her family struggled to survive the Cambodian genocide. “If I ever make it out alive, I will make sure the world knows what happened to us.” Channy published her memoir “Short Hair Detention”, which receives multiple awards, including Nebraska’s 2018 Book Award. Channy is also founder of Angkor Cambodian Food. Her goal is to bring Cambodian cuisine into American kitchens, by providing authentic and hard to find ingredients along with easy to follow recipes. One of her creations Kroeurng (Lemongrass cooking paste) receives sofiTM Award from Specialty Foods and Innovation Foodservice Award from IFMA. Channy now balances her time between her business and educating communities on the Cambodian Genocide. She works with schools and other organizations to promote awareness of Cambodian Genocide. She is a member of Speakers Bureau for JFCS Holocaust Center.

One thought on “Spring Rolls with Tamarind Sauce

  1. Spring rolls are really simple to make, but they’re not something I want to prepare on a weeknight. Instead, I skip the rice paper wrapper, toss all ingredients into a bowl and use a simple dipping sauce as the dressing. Deconstructed spring rolls! It s so much simpler and just as delicious. Spring rolls are traditionally served with a tangy dipping sauce. I’m suggesting Angkor’s Tamarind Dipping Sauce as the dressing to top these bowls. If you’re not familiar with it, tamarind is a tart, sticky fruit commonly used in both sweet and savory dishes throughout South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. It’s often used in stir-fries, noodle dishes (like Pad Thai) and curries. Angkor’s is made with both fish sauce and tamarind and is the perfect blend of savory-sweet. Look for it at Heinen’s in the International Foods Aisle.

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