You may well ask, what does George Clooney have to do with Vietnamese rainbow rice-paper rolls? Does he make them? Or eat them, regularly? Or endorse them?
I have no clue….as we haven’t communicated of late :)……but then I haven’t communicated with anyone in almost a month. I’ve been busy, busy, busy.
Busy making cakes, busy making chocolate, busy with Diwali and my Study Groups. Yes, they’ve been in full swing and I haven’t shared any of the many, really engrossing and enthralling presentations with any of you. Shame on me!
But here is a recipe for delicious sweet chilli sauce that I made for our Study Group this week. My presentation was on chillies- ‘The Spice that Conquered the World’.
Before I did my research, I had no clue that 500 years ago, the cuisines of the world were bereft of chillies!
Can you imagine a Thai curry without the kick of the tiny padi chilli?
Or a sinus clearing Sri Lankan pol sambol without any heat? It seems almost blasphemous to imagine the Andhra Avakkai pickle in a tame avatar, without its accompanying Shaktis of chilli powder and turmeric.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had a fascinating time delving into the history of the humble chilli, and here I present before you my inspired concoction- Rainbow rice-paper rolls, accompanying the star of the show……..no, not Clooney- but the hot-sweet chilli sauce.
Hot-Sweet Chilli Sauce:
Ingredients:
3-4 large garlic cloves, peeled
6 red Jalapeño or Serrano peppers, deseeded if required
4-6 padi chillies (optional, if you like the sauce really spicy)
1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
3/4-1 cup sugar (I use less)
1 cup water
½ tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch or potato starch
2 tablespoons water
Instructions:
In the blender, purée together all the ingredients, except for the last two.
Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to medium and simmer until the mixture thickens up a bit and the garlic-pepper bits begin to soften, about 3 minutes.
Combine the cornstarch and water to make a paste. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and continue to simmer one more minute. The cornstarch will help the sauce to thicken slightly thereby causing nice suspension of the garlic-pepper bits; otherwise, you get a thin sauce with all the little pieces floating on the surface.
Let cool completely before storing in a glass jar and refrigerate.
Vietnamese Rice-paper rolls:
Ingredients:
1 packet rice paper
1/2 a carrot, julienned
1/2 a red pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 a pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 a cucumber, deseeded then cut into thin sticks
1/4 cup iceberg lettuce, shredded
1/4 cup purple cabbage, shredded
Instructions:
Dip a rice-paper circle in a shallow dish of water, then quickly proceed to layer the mixed shredded vegetables on the rice-paper.
Roll to form neat –well, rolls. Cut each one into 3 pieces.
Serve with the sweet and spicy dipping sauce. Watch them disappear- like George Clooney in Gravity.
Bon appétit!
R
Looks heavenly!
Tastes even better. Don’t know if you get padi chillies in Mumbai, but try it out with any fresh red chillies you can get. I’ll bring you some when I come to Mumbai next.
R
Will try for them at one of the gourmet shops. 🙂
Yum! This sounds super tasty!
It sure was!
I love these Vietnamese rolls… and of course hot-sweet chilli sauce will go great with it. Thanks for the recipe and the humor! 😀 )))
Xoxoxo.
Beautiful and delicious, the rolls and Mr. Clooney!!
Suzanne! You too? Do I have to fight you for him? R
OMG, love him. Drool worthy.
Love the dish…and Clooney!
Me too 🙂
Droolsome duo, heh heh! You had me at Clooney.
What Nat!!! You weren’t smitten by my chilli sauce?
;P
Hahaha! I see that I have competition 😀
I had some not too long ago at my Vietnamese friend’s dinner party and they were good. Yours look wicked delicious too. I suspect if George gets a wind of this post and your chocolate magic skills, he may just sweep you off your feet.
That’s what I threaten my husband every time we have a fight! That George Clooney is just waiting for me to say the word 😀