Now this might seem like a strange combination of cuisines, but Koreans have taken Vietnamese rice-paper wraps and made it their own. Traditional Korean wrap cuisine, known as Bo Ssam, uses vegetable leaves like cabbage, lettuce, seaweed and perilla leaf for wrapping, with fillings chosen at the table by the diner and almost always including boiled pork belly. Koreans have gladly adapted Vietnamese rice-paper as the wrapping agent and filled the delicious parcels with the freshest seasonal produce. Here's how to make them.
Korean-style Vietnamese Wraps (Wollam Sam)
Julienne your favourite raw vegetables (e.g. 1/4 lettuce, 1/4 cabbage, carrot, cucumber, capsicum, tomato, pineapple, apple, melon, avocado, onion, mushroom, sprouts, or whatever else you have available) and arrange nicely on a platter with each vegie in its own pile. Add piles of freshly plucked mint and/or coriander to the platter. Move platter to centre of dining table.
Optional 1: freshly cooked and shelled prawns or thinly sliced and cooked protein of your choice (e.g. pork, beef, chicken) to fill. Vegetarians may also add firm tofu cut into sticks which is very nice.
Optional 2: boil some thin rice noodle in water, rinse and cool. Can be used as a filling as seen in the video below.
1 packet of Vietnamese rice-paper wraps (serves 2-3), use more packets if you need to feed more people!
Korean-Viet Chilli Sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tbsp honey / sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vinegar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic
chopped fresh red chilli (spicyness to taste - can be ommitted)
Mix all sauce ingredients well in a dish and adjust to taste. Distribute into individual dipping bowls for each person to use as they like, or leave the spoon in the bowl for serving purposes.
To Serve
Put a deep bowl of hot water on the table. To serve, dip your flat and dry rice paper into the water and ensure the entire paper gets wet (it does not need to be soaked - 8-10 seconds in the water is more than enough). You can keep a pastry brush in the water if people need it to brush water over the centre of the paper, depending on the type of bowl you're using. Lay the wet rice paper flat on a flat plate (slates or serving boards will also work well). Fill wrap with your favourite fillings and drizzle with the chilli sauce. By the time you have filled it, the wrap will be soft and pliable, ready for rolling and consumption! Fold two sides in carefully, then roll firmly but take care not to burst the morsel. You'll get better at it after you practice some more. Enjoy!
These rolls are very delicious served with a peanut sauce, but unfortunately my wife forgot her recipe. Fortunately, there are plenty of excellent recipes for Vietnamese-style peanut sauce online nowadays.
Video demonstration
