The Slanted Door spring roll with peanut sauce

The Slanted Door peanut sauce

makes: about 2 cups

1 cup cooked sweet rice (see below)
3 tablespoons Miso paste
½ cup roasted peanuts
2 small Thai chilies
2 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
½ tablespoon lemon juice
½ tablespoon white vinegar
½ teaspoon sesame oil
water as needed

Add all ingredients in a food processor, ground to a fine paste, add water occasionally until the texture has a smooth and creamy consistency.

Sweet rice (also know as glutinous rice)

1 cup uncooked sweet rice
1 cup water

1. Wash rice 3 times, drain.

2. Add water. Bring to a boil and turn the heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes or until rice is cooked through.

The Slanted Door spring roll

makes: 10 rolls

Mayonnaise:
1 egg yolk
½ cup canola oil

Beat egg yolk. Slowly drizzle and whisk in oil, a little at a time.

½ pound of lean pork
15 medium size shrimp
15 sprigs mint (leaves picked, no stems)
1 head of red leaf lettuce
½ pack of thin rice noodles (vermicelli)
10 12 inch sheets of round rice paper

1. Prepare peanut sauce and mayonnaise.

2. Cook rice noodles. Boil enough water to cover noodles. Add noodles to boiling water, cook about 3 minutes or until noodles are soft. Strain noodles, wash with cold water, then rinse with very warm water. Put noodles aside.

3. Put shrimp in boiling water for 3 minutes, then rinse with cold water. Shell, devein and cut lengthwise in half. Rinse again and drain.

4. Put lean pork in boiling water, simmer for 15 minutes. Thinly slice into thin pieces.

5. In a large bowl of warm to very hot water, dip one sheet of rice paper to make it pliable. Remove and spread out on a flat tabletop. The rice paper will absorb the moisture and become soft, thus ready for use. Do not prepare more than two sheets of wet rice paper at a time because the paper will become hard, which will make it difficult to roll.

6. Lay one piece of lettuce over the bottom third of the rice paper (lettuce size should be about 2 inches by 4 inches). Put mayonnaise on top of lettuce. Lay a small amount of rice noodles on top of lettuce, then 3 pieces of pork, and 3 mint leaves.

7. Fold left and right side over filling. Roll up paper halfway into cylinder. Lay 3 shrimp halves, cut side up, along the crease, then keep rolling paper into a cylinder until sealed. Place rolls on a platter covered with a lightly dampened towel so they will stay moist.