Last week, Seasonal Pantry explored bean thread noodles, sometimes called cellophane or glass noodles. This week, it’s rice noodles, which come in an enormous variety without standard names. The best way to navigate the huge selection at Asian markets is by looking at the noodles themselves rather than relying on their names.
The easiest rice noodles to work with are probably the dried ones, which include thin noodles generally called rice vermicelli, and rice sticks, which can vary in width from that of linguine to that of fettuccine.
Dry rice paper wrappers are similar in that they all need to be rehydrated before using.
Fresh rice noodles are also popular and readily available. Some come in thick sheets and must be cut once you get them home. Others, like fresh round rice noodles, quite common in Malaysia, come in various widths and are found in the refrigerated sections of Asian markets. If you’ve ever had that Malaysian specialty, laksa, you have likely had fresh rice noodles. If you haven’t, you’ll find my recipes for it at “Eat This Now” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.
Today’s recipes are easy to make at home even if you do not have an extensive Asian pantry. To explore Asian noodles in depth, you might want to take a look at “Asian Noodles” by Nina Simonds (Hearst Books, 1997, $21) and “Noodle” by Terry Durack (SOMA, $27). Once you have a good supply of herbs, spices and other staples, no Asian noodle dish is too complicated for the home cook.
Rice paper wrappers are kissing cousins to rice noodles, made similarly but shaped differently. Here they are combined with rice vermicelli to make a familiar Asian appetizers that most of us rarely prepare at home. But if you have the ingredients in your pantry, they are easy to make and quite delicious.
Fresh Shrimp Rolls
Makes 12 rolls
— Spicy Sweet Dipping Sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
— Juice of 1 lime, plus more to taste
1 serrano or jalapeño, seeded and minced
4 teaspoons sugar, plus more to taste
For shrimp rolls:
3 ounces rice vermicelli
— Boiling water
12 medium shrimp
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1/2 cup Thai basil, shredded (omit when not in season)
1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
— Inner leaves of 1 medium or 2 small heads of butter lettuce, rinsed and dried
12 8-inch rice paper wrappers
First, make the dipping sauce and set it aside.
Make the lime dressing by putting the fish sauce, lime juice, serrano or jalapeño, and sugar in a small bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves, taste, and correct for acid and sugar. Set it aside.
Use your hands to break the vermicelli into 3-inch pieces, put the broken noodles into a medium bowl, cover with boil water by at least 1 inch, and set aside to soften.
Bring a small saucepan half full of water to a boil, add the shrimp, and drain the moment they turn pink. Let cook, peel, remove the central vein and cut in half lengthwise. Set aside.
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