Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Spring Rolls

If you've ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant, you would have tried their delicious noodle salad. I love them, particularly with the spring rolls in it. And, Duncan, you're here to show us how to make it from scratch at home. Fantastic. We definitely are. We're going to do some pork and prawn spring rolls today in a beautiful noodle salad. So we'll start with the mince. It's quite important to get the mince right. So I'm going to just go straight into seasoning it. So just a little bit of salt, OK? Salt and pepper. Yes. Nothing too fancy there. Mm-hm. A bit of sugar just to bring a bit of sweetness. We'll be adding vegetables in there too, so a bit of sugar will just overemphasise that sweetness. Yep. Some oyster sauce. OK. Just a bit of umami. But with spring rolls, Justine, we've got to be careful not to add too much moisture because at the end of the day, we will be deep-frying. Of course. And we don't want to, um... You know, we don't want mini explosions in our frying. We don't want that. Sesame oil there. Mm-hm. A bit more umami here. Can I please have the anchovy salt there, Justine? Yes. Now, tell me about this. You sell this online. Yeah, that's right. So this is from Fort Walker. This is like the mecca of fish sauce. So this undergoes a 12-month fermentation process. So it actually takes us about 18 months to get it to Australia. Wow. So here we go. Straight in like that. There's lots of umami here. It's an intense smell, but it just gives such a unique flavour to your spring rolls. What else do you use this for? So I love it in vegetables, you know, obviously seafood, but anything, anything that you can stew, braise. My key tip for using the anchovy salt is it needs a little bit of heat. So that unlocks that flavour, gets rid of that fermenty funk. Yep. And then it just releases all that umami that we all love. Now, I'm going to start chopping these gorgeous mushrooms. What are these called? So these are wood ear mushrooms. They usually come dehydrated. Yep. We've hydrated them here for about 15 minutes. It's such a wonderful feeling. Yeah, and that's exactly right, you know. The reason why I love these in spring rolls is it brings a nice texture to the spring roll. It's all about textures with the spring rolls. And how did you want me to chop these? Roughly chopped is just fine. That's it. Beautiful. And so what is the consistency we're after with the meat? Yeah, good question. So with spring rolls mixture, we want it nice and bouncy. In a way, it kind of binds everything together. Nice one. You can see here that pork mince is starting to come together. I'm really vigorously mixing this. We want it quite gluey, OK? So with the prawn, we're going to treat it two ways here. We've got the tail third and then we've got the main body. You can separate those for me. We're going to use that main body and turn it into almost like a paste or a mousse. That will intertwine with our bouncy pork mince to create another texture. Fantastic. And the tail thirds, don't throw that away. Make sure you chop it up into small chunks so when you're biting through the spring rolls, you see these beautiful, you know, delicious chunks of Australian prawns. Fantastic. Alright, I'll just give this a little blend until it's quite sticky. Yeah, perfect. Yep, that's it. Yep, that's it there. Pass that to me. I'll pop it straight in here. Thank you. Look at that. See, straight away, we're going to move that into there. You can see it's already sticky. You see that? Yeah, absolutely. OK, we'll mix that in. And then I just roughly chop the meat? Yeah, just roughly chop the meat. There's two things you can do. You can pop those chunks in and fold it through, but sometimes if you don't want the guesswork, I usually separate them, just put them to the side, and as I'm rolling, I'll add one or two... Oh, that's a good idea. ..so I know for sure no-one's going to get short of some prawns. That's a good idea. So I'll pop them over here? Yeah, go for that. OK, great. Alright, that's looking right where I want it there now. So I'm going to go in with some fresh vegetables now. So this is the onion. While I get the rest of this in, could you please grate some taro for me? Right. So probably half of that will be alright. So taro's a beautiful vegetable in this. Yeah, so what's the taro going to bring to this? So it's going to give an element of creaminess, OK? So as you can see, as you're grating it, it's getting all this milky sap from that natural taro. But also, with spring rolls, we've got to be careful with, again, moisture. So the taro will assist in absorbing any excess moisture and that's what the noodles will do as well. That's a clever idea, to add taro to some spring rolls. Yep. So... How's that? Is that enough? Oh, yeah, we'll go with that. That's perfect. Thank you. Yep, just toss it straight in when you're ready. There we go. I'll just keep mixing away. In with some carrot. And I guess every Vietnamese family does their spring rolls differently, right? That's right. Yeah, every family does it different. Some people don't add prawn, some people do pork and chicken. I love spring rolls, just any spring roll, but when they're freshly made, with love, you can taste the difference, can't you? Yeah, you really can't beat a homemade spring roll. Absolutely. OK, so just some rice noodles. Some rice noodles, again, to absorb the moisture. And then the last thing we're going to finish off here, Justine, is your beautifully chopped woody mushrooms. Toss them in and we're going to fold that through. All that texture. Look at that. And that's exactly where you want it. The mixture is kind of gluey, kind of sticky, but it's not loose. OK, make sure it's not loose. If you think it is loose, just keep mixing. I promise you, it will come together like glue. I think it's really nice that you really emphasise on that tip of making sure that mixture is not too wet. It needs to be quite dry. And adding ingredients to absorb any of that liquid. So the taro and the noodles. Yeah. Alright, let's talk spring roll wrappers. I've just been covering them with a tea towel so they don't dry up. So what you've done there is perfect. So we want to peel them. And always make sure you are covering them with a bit of a tea towel because they do dry up quite quickly. Now, this is something you can do at home with the kids. So if you have young kids at home, please give this a go. They'll love it, especially the peeling of the spring roll wrapper themselves. My son's four. He loves it. Like, you can see him just salivating from focus, just from when he's trying to... Peeling the wrappers. Peeling the wrappers, that's right. That's the job that I don't like to do, so maybe I'll get my little one to do that. You don't tell them that, though, do you? Exactly. Exactly. OK, so I've just cut it in half diagonally there, so we're just going to separate that. So I'm going to pass you one. We're going to wrap this together. Does that sound alright? Yeah, absolutely. OK, so point it to the top. So point away from yourselves. OK, so what I'm going to do here, I'm also going to slice the ends off here, OK? And I'll show you why a bit later on, but I want to slice that end off. You want to slice your corners off. Can do. And now, don't throw these away. These are still quite good. At the end of the day, it's... What is it? It's pastry. So you can actually fry them up just before you fry your spring rolls. You can add it to your noodle salad for a bit of extra texture. OK, I'm not all about wasting. That's for sure. I'm all about saving. OK. So there we go. Now, you want about a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half of this mixture right on the bottom there. With wrapping spring rolls, it's very similar to wrapping rice paper rolls, OK? And the technique or the analogy I like to use is like cradling a bird. Cradling a bird? Yeah, so you want to wrap it... I love that. You want to wrap it with enough pressure that you don't want the bird to fly away. Oh! But not too much pressure, that you're going to hurt the bird. Oh, that's lovely, Daniel. So that's the best way to explain it. So we want to roll it first here. OK. Up like so. Now, what we want to do as we're rolling, we want to distribute the pastry evenly across the entire spring roll. So we're not left with, like, a dense bit of pastry. Yep. OK? So what we're going to do next, we're going to roll one side in. Roll one side in. Yep. Yep. Pressure. Bring that pressure. Roll it around. Roll again. Yeah. OK, yep. And because we've cut those ends off, you can see when I'm rolling across, I'm not getting too much flapping on the sides. Oh, that's a great little tip. OK, so otherwise that will just burn when you fry them. And then just keep rolling up. Put a bit of egg wash in there. Mm-hm. I'll do yours. There we go. And egg wash is quite important here. You won't get away with just using a bit of water. You can use water for dumplings, but for spring rolls, please use an egg wash. For those with an allergy, you can use a cornstarch or a potato starch slurry. Yep. And then you just kind of... Roll it again. Roll it again. Ah. There we go. Ready to fry. Mine needs a little bit more work. That's pretty good. Not too bad. That's pretty good. And I love that they're little because they're going into a salad, so you can have lots of little spring rolls in the salad. Nice one, Duncan. Let's make a few more. Let's do it. So we're going to fry the spring rolls now. I'm going to dunk a few of these guys in just to a bit of neutral cooking oil. Perfect temperature. Yep. 180 is what you're looking for. Now, with the spring rolls, you can freeze them beforehand, and I recommend that. Yes, this is such a great idea. You're saying your family together will make at least 101 batch. Yeah, definitely. Now, when you're heading down to the supermarket, where are your spring rolls? In the freezer aisle. So put them in the freezer before you fry them. It allows us to cook them for a little bit longer, giving off a more crispier result. While that's frying, if you can really help me out and make my nuoc mam dressing... Sure. ..just in a mortar and pestle, just crush some chillies and some garlic for me. Perfect. If you don't like it hot, feel free to just eat it. OK. But I like a bit of spice in it, so just crush it well. And that will give the nuoc mam a nice red glow to it, as opposed to looking a bit bleak, I reckon. I think by using the mortar and pestle, you also get a nice, intense flavour. So once that's pounded, go in with a bit of vinegar, acid. Balance the vinegar with a bit of sugar, OK? Some fish sauce and a splash of cold water. And I like to not use hot water to dissolve the sugar because I find that natural agitation of it creates a more viscous sauce. Oh, very good. Our gorgeous spring rolls, they've finished cooking, they're still lovely and hot. And then we've made this gorgeous nuoc mam sauce. I reckon it's time to put it together. What do you think? Absolutely. OK. So, rice vermicelli noodles. Yes. A bit of gourmet leaves. Some Vietnamese pickled carrot. So the pickled carrot gives it that extra zing, OK? A bit of freshness. And so what do you pickle it in? OK, so it's a very simple solution of sugar, salt and vinegar. And it's a fresh pickle, OK? So you don't want to keep it there for too long. OK, still crunchy. Yeah, still crunchy. Correct. And we've got the recipe for that online when you check out this full recipe. Cucumber, OK? Fresh cucumber. So it's adding so much freshness now. You can see what's happening. All these flavours are building. And it's all going to offset the flavour of those unctuous spring rolls. This is why Vietnamese food is so popular, because it is so fresh, so healthy too. And lots of variation with the herbs and the different vegetables that you add to it. Mint, just throw it in? Mint, just pick it and throw it in. I've got some coriander there as well. And the thing about the Vietnamese herbs is go with what's in season, get what you can. And if you can get basil, get basil. If you can get perilla leaf, get perilla leaf. Oh, yes, perilla leaf. With this, you know, just kind of... I'm just going to grab a pair of scissors and just kind of chop it in. Oh, I like that. That looks pretty good. And smell that. That is the perfume of Vietnam right there. Absolutely. So we're going to really bring the flavour to it now. Bring that beautiful nuoc mam over here. OK. And then if you want to just ladle... And you want to be quite generous with it. I reckon about four ladles of that there. Look at that. Go one more. One more. Beautiful. You can always serve some more on the side too. Oh, absolutely. For people that love a bit more zesty flavour, they can always add more. And what we're going to do, we're just going to simply transfer that to the platter. Mm-hmm. Oh, the smell. Oh, it smells great. Get it all. Don't leave any passengers behind. Look at that. Alright, that looks good. Take that away from you, Duncan. Perfect. Now, we're almost ready to garnish. Do you want to pop on some peanuts? Sure. OK, sprinkle the peanuts on there. Lovely. There we go. And then a bit of a spring onion oil. That just brings added fragrance. And if you want to get fancy with this spring onion oil at home, you can do it actually with pork lard. So render your pork lard off and then bring it to boiling point and then pour it over your spring onions. But neutral cooking oil is just fine as well. Very traditional. Beautiful. OK. Is that enough? Yep, that's perfect. Lovely. I love that. Alright, now I'm just going to grab some spring rolls. At home, what we do is we literally just cut the spring rolls in half. Alright, and look at this. Yum. Look at that. That is the perfectly fried spring rolls. Well wrapped, Justine. Thank you, Duncan. I do love when you go to a Vietnamese restaurant and you order this salad. Sometimes you get the spring rolls and you can also add on top of that some grilled barbecued pork. Yeah, my favourite. What else? Grilled barbecued pork, grilled pork, which is like a marinated pork, really, that they do over charcoal. So good. This is real street food, too. You can find that on the streets in Vietnam. Maybe we can squeeze one more, hey? One more. Go on. There we go. So good. Well, I've got my bowl ready. Make sure I get all of the good stuff, which is all of it. Get those spring rolls in. There's so much texture as you go through this. You can see a bit of crunch, a bit of chew. And then that flavour just... Wow, it's so good. I feel like I can't go and eat at my local Vietnamese restaurant anymore because your spring rolls are better. Thank you. That's a huge compliment. Thank you. They really are that good. And now that I have the recipe, I'm going to do exactly what you do, which is roll a big batch with the family, get them in the freezer. So when you want to make this delicious salad, you can make it with ease. Oh, Vietnamese food, it is simply the best. And Duncan is one of the best Vietnamese cooks I know. Cheers. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Enjoy.