Winter rice-paper rolls with hot and sour dipping sauce recipe

These look absolutely beautiful. Dealing with the rice paper is a little tricky at first, but you quickly get the hang of it. If you don’t need this to be vegetarian or vegan, use normal fish sauce.

Prep time: 30 minutes

SERVES

eight, with 2 rolls per person

INGREDIENTS

For the rolls

• 1 ridge cucumber

• 125g cooked rice vermicelli

• 1 tbsp ‘fish’ sauce

• 2 tsp caster sugar

• 60g red cabbage, shredded

• 60g white cabbage, shredded

• 125g carrots, cut into matchsticks

• 2 ‘cheeks’ of a large green mango, peeled and cut into batons

• 60g beansprouts

• Leaves from 10g each of mint, Thai basil and coriander

• 16 rice-paper wrappers

For the dipping sauce

• 4 garlic cloves, chopped

• 1 red bird’s-eye chilli, deseeded if you like, chopped

• 2 tbsp caster sugar

• Juice of 2 limes

• 6 tbsp ‘fish’ sauce

METHOD

1. Peel the cucumber. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and discard them. Cut the flesh into batons.

2. Put the noodles in a bowl. Mix the fish sauce with the sugar, stirring until dissolved, then pour this over the noodles and toss together. Gather all the other components to fill the rolls.

3. Dip the rice papers briefly into a bowl of water, one at a time, and let them soften for a few moments. Don’t leave them to soak or they’ll become too soft and sticky. Lay on a board and fill each one with a little of all the ingredients, laying the filling down the middle of each piece of rice paper. Roll each one tightly, tucking in the ends as you go, then transfer to a plate. Cover with damp kitchen paper.

4. To make the dipping sauce, put the garlic and chilli into a mortar and grind with a pestle. Gradually add the sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and 2 tbsp water, pounding as you do so. Taste. You might want to make it a little less strong – just add more water.

5. Cut the rolls in half to serve with the dipping sauce.