Bún or DIY Springroll-rollfeast IV, the leftovers

Maybe you have read my posts about DIY Springroll-rollfeast or Banh Trang. About making your own springroll feast. But maybe you haven't. So this post can be read as a post about the leftovers or as a new recipe.

So to get you into it, imagine you made a Banh Trang feast. Your friends left, the table is cleared and you're cleaning up. In the many plates or bowls filled with fillings you still find some leftovers. What to do with these leftovers, trowing them away seems like an option, but somehow you end up keeping them in the fridge.

 'Bo Bún', beef ricenoodles

Cooled rice noodles with a beef mince pancake
Mom's pickled veggies, fresh mints, cilantro and green onions

with Nouc Mam Cham

The next day you open the fridge and see the few small containers with the leftovers. What to do with these? Throw it away? You saved them already, but it isn't enough to make a big meal out of it, or is it? 

My mom taught me never to trow away food. So as long as I can remember, we would save every leftover, how big or small it was. We would spruce them up and have them for lunch or even breakfast. So we would do the same with the leftovers from the Banh Trang.

 Vegetable Bún

Cooled rice noodles with vegetables

Mai Pickled veggies, fried onions

with Nouc Mam Cham

There are two ways to deal with Banh Trang leftovers, you can roll again. Or you can use them for another Vietnamese meal, Bún. Bún is one of the Vietnamese names for thin rice noodles. So the main component is rice noodles, this can be a leftover or you can just make some new. Bún is a great dish, combining warm and cold, soft and crispy and full of flavors.

Shrimp Bún

Cooled rice noodles with garlic shrimp

Fresh bean sprouts and lettuce, a fried egg

with Nouc Mam Cham

The golden rules for the Bún
Combine warm and soft vegetables or meats
with crispy nuts, herbs and vegetables
on a bed of rice noodles,
drizzled with sauce.

Assembly is very easy. Put the rice noodles in a big bowl, add some warm vegetables, tofu, egg or meats, some crispy vegetables, pickled vegetables or herbs. Or other crispness like peanuts or fried onions. Now drizzle with a sauce, like Nouc Mam Cham (Vietnamese fishsauce) or Nouc Tuong Ngot (Hoisin-peanut sauce), chillisauce or hoisin sauce.

A great way of sprucing up your leftovers. This great almost noodle salad can be one of the best lunches or dinners you ever had. Light but full of taste and texture. So get your chopsticks into it and enjoy!

 'Bo Bún', beef ricenoodles

Cooled rice noodles with a beef mince pancake
Mom's pickled veggies, fresh mints, cilantro and green onions

with whole peanuts and Hoisin or Nouc Tuong Ngot

DIY springroll-rollfeast III, vegetarian/vegan fillings

I talked about the basics and rolling your own Banh Trang. I talked about some sauces to dip your Banh Trang in. Now it is time to look at the many other fillings.

You can fill the wrapper with meats, vegetables and other protein. There are a lot of ways of filling and mixing and matching all these lovely fillings. For now I will talk about the vegetarian or even vegan fillings. Think about great vegetables, seasonings, eggs and tofu. 

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Veggie fillings
Bell pepper and zucchini styrfry
1 red bell pepper
1 zucchini
Salt and pepper
1-2 tablespoons of soysauce
Optional: 1-2 spring onions, thickly sliced

Clean and cut the bell pepper and zucchini into diced strips. Oil up a skillet or wok on high heat. Stir fry the bell pepper and zucchini for 2-3 minutes and season well. Add the spring onions, soysauce and a splash of water, cover and let the steam of the evaporating water cook the vegetables. This will take 2-5 minutes. Try and taste, it should be just cooked, so it is still crunchy.

Green beans with sesame seeds
250 grams of green beans
Optional: 200 grams of green asparagus
2-4 tablespoons of black and white sesame seeds
1-2 tablespoons of soysauce
1-3 tablespoon of sesame oil
Pepper and salt
Zest and juice of half a lemon

Clean the green beans. When using the asparagus, clean and cut into the same size as the beans. Blanch the beans and asparagus in salted water for around 2-5 minutes or until they are al dente. Now heat the sesame oil in a wok or big skillet. Stirfry the beans and asparagus for a few minutes. Season well and add the soysauce, cover, let it steam for 1-3 minutes. Take off the heat and place in a mixing bowl. Add some teaspoons of lemonjuice, the zest and the sesame seeds. Toss around, mix and serve.

Steamed cabbage
200 grams of Chinese cabbage
200 grams of another kind of cabbage
1-2 tablespoons of soybean paste
1/2 a chilli
2-3 cm of fresh ginger

Cut the cabbage into strips, somewhere between 0,2-1 cm. Wash thoroughly. Cut the ginger jullienne and chop the chilli. Heat a wok or high frying pan, heat some oil. When hot add the chilli and ginger, sautee and add the cabbage. Stirfry for some minutes, until the cabbage has wilted a bit. Add the soybean paste and if necessary a splash of water, mix and cover. Let it steam for a few minutes.

Pickles veggies
If you didn't read it before or didn't get to look at it, check out the post about these lovely sweet and sour raw veggies. So check out the post; "Pickled veggies according to Mom and Mai".

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 Protein fillings
Rocking Tofu
Check out the post "Dad and Mai secrets for making rocking tofu". Where I tell you all the secrets about tofu and seasoning. Three great seasonings for tofu, all suitable as a filling.

Omelet
For all the vegans out there, this is the end of you. But for those who aren't, the fun keeps on coming. This is about making the perfect omlette, that is still lovely and fluffy on the inside. Depending on how many people you are making this, 1 per person should do the trick.

Amount of eggs similar to amount of people
A splash of water
Salt and pepper

Oil a skillet and set on high heat. In the meantime, whisk the eggs with a little bit of water and season well. When the pan is sizzling hot, pour in the eggs, you should hear it sizzle away! Cover the whole base of the pan. Immediately reduce the heat to low, as low as you can go and cover. Now your egg will steam and cook at the same time. It will take around 3 minutes to be ready. Take out and let it rest for a while. When cooled down a bit, cut into strips.

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This recipes are just to give you some ideas. The best thong about this feast is, you can make whatever you like and add it to the table. So now you are really ready to make a great feast. Use my posts about the basics, the sauces and add these fillings. Time to invite your friends and get cooking, enjoy!

DIY springroll-rollfeast II, the dipping sauces

If you thought the banh trang on its own was delicious, wait till you try dipping them. You can buy all different kinds of sauces in the store. I'm a big sucker for a good spicy sweet chili sauce and let's be honest, who isn't? But you can also play with the sauces and make them even more yummy.

Nouc mam cham vietnamese fishsauce
Nouc mam cham is the traditional sauce for banh trang, the sauce has to be a perfect balance between sweet, sour, salty and spicy.

Unfortunately for all you vegetarians out there who also don't eat fish, this is a no go for you. But don't be to sad, my chinese grandmother is also a vegetarian and I know that she and my aunt always make a vegetarian version of this sauce. Until now I didn't got my hands on it, but I will be visiting them for the holidays and will ask for the recipe. So you have to stayed tuned, have a little bit of patients, the moment I get my hands on it, it will be here!

1/2-1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1 cup of vinegar
1 cup of fish sauce
1 big chilli
2 cloves of garlic

Mix the sugar with the water, until the sugar is dissolved. Then add the vinegar, stir, add the fish sauce and stir again. Chop up the chilli and garlic as small as possible. Pop these in the mixture and whisk away. Taste and see if the flavors are balanced.

Nouc Tuong Ngot Hoisin-Peanut sauce
When I was in San Fransico, visiting my cousin and her family, she would get me ready and rolled banh trang, also known as 'Nems'. My favorite nem was filled with lettuce, rice noodles, pork, prawns and beautiful herbs. On the side there was always a small cup filled with this thick dark luscious sauce.

Once I got back to Los Angeles my other cousin explained the compontents of the sauce. Then I suddenly remembered that I had it before. When I was in my late teens I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Paris, I helped my aunt make this sort of nems. When we were setting the table everybody got a runny thin dark sauce and a hand of salted peanuts. She explained to me that normally you would chop them up and put them in the sauce, but for now we would just add then to our bites.

So when I got back home I was confused. I liked both the thick sauce I had in SF, but also liked the thin sauce I had in Paris. So after trying for many many times I found out the secret; peanut butter.

4 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons of peanut butter, for more crunch use a peanut butter with chunks
1/2 cup of water
Optinal: whole of chopped peanuts

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Put on low heat and stir until well combined.
Taste, add more peanut butter if you like it more nuttier. Add more hoisin if you think the peanut is to strong. Sounds easy, right? Well it is, but from now on you can go thick or thin. Add more water if you want a thinner sauce or let the sauce thicken for a thicker sauce. If you would prefer some crunch, you can always add some whole or chopped peanuts or use a chunky peanut butter.

Chilli sauce
On this I have to say I'm lazy, for years and years I have the same brand of chillisauce and don't care to make it myself. So I would say, get that old bottle of chilli sauce you still have somewhere in the back of your pantry or buy one in the store and just enjoy! 

DIY springroll-rollfeast I, Bánh tráng basics

up: Rice paper shelf in Californian Asian market. Drawing of how to wrap a banh trang, from my artist book, 2012

down: A set table for a banh trang feast at my grandparents house. My dad explaining how to roll.
Both in 1990, before my birth.

Every big birthday or holiday at home was always celebrated with Banh Trang. A table filled with stir-fried veggies, different cuts of seasoned meats, rice noodles, herbs and lettuce, dipping sauces and rice paper wrapper. In a modern way you could say 'DIY springroll-rollfeast'.

The great thing about making this feast is that you can vary every time, when you roll a banh trang, but also when you are preparing the different components. I made it the traditional way that my parents always did, but also a fast and easy version for during the week, vegetarian versions, fish versions, vegan versions, raw versions, fruity versions, unprepared versions. The key is in a few elements. Having the rice wrapping papers, the banh trang, having rice noodles, having some raw veggies like lettuce or cucumber and having a dipping sauce. Just with these elements alone you can start off your wrapping and rolling.

Because of all the possibilities this post can be endless. So now for part 1 of the DIY springroll-rollfeast, just some basics to start you off. 

DIY Springroll-rollfeast, the basics

1 package of rice wrapping paper, you can find it in any asian market. There are different shapes and sizes, I would recommend the 22 cm round ones. The more advanced you get, the more you can experiment. 

50-75 grams of thin rice noodles, per person. 

1 lettuce or a package of baby leave lettuce or rocket, to your taste

1 cucumber 

Fresh herbs, like different mints, cilantro/coriander, thai basil

Prepare the rice noodles according to the package. Wash the lettuce and herbs, leaving the leaves whole. If the lettuce grain is to tough you can remove this. Cut the cucumber julienne, 6-8 cm long.

Now for the assembly. Fill a deep dish or bowl with hot water. Now put in the rice paper, turning it around in the water until everything got in touch with the water. Put on a plate and within a minute or so the paper becomes soft and roll-able. Now it will show if you are greedy or not, because you can start filling. Start with the lettuce, placing it just under the middle of the round paper. Now put on some rice noodles, some cucumber and if you like some herbs.

Note: Normally I will prepare more vegetables or dishes to give the springroll lots of flavor.  So normally I would say, fill up your lettuce leave with all the yummy goodness you can find on the table. Find inspiration and recipes in the still to come parts of DIY springroll-rollfeast. Like part III about vegetarian/vegan components to fill you banh trang.

We're at the point you need to wrap and roll your banh trang. Get the side that's at the bottom, closest to you, and bring it all the way over your filling. The paper will stick to itself very easily. When you covered your fillings, fold in the sides, make it tight. Don't worry, the paper is pretty strong. Now roll your package till the top of your plate. If you did it wright, the you will now have a rolled banh trang. 

Dip away in one of the sauces of part II of DIY springroll-rollfeast. And when you finished it, you can do it all over again! Mix up the flavors, mix up the sauce, the crunch, mix up the company you eat it with, but mostly, enjoy!