Salmon Sashimi Style Spring Rolls + Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce Recipe

For my salmon sushi lovers!

Spring Rolls, aka Vietnamese Gỏi Cuốn, are filled with fresh vegetables and herbs alongside a protein (often shrimp & pork, buttered beef or baked salmon).

Instead of baked salmon, I'm using sushi grade Copper River Salmon and flame torching it. For the filling I'm doing all the traditional stuffings including lettuce, thin rice vermicelli noodles, cilantro, carrots, and some scallions.

Then we're dipping this awesomeness into a Vietnamese crack sauce aka Nuoc Cham, a popular fish dipping sauce used in a LOT of Vietnamese dishes.

Nuoc Cham Ingredients
1 part lime juice (1/4 cup)
1 part warm/hot water (1/4 cup to 1/2 cup)
1/2 part fish sauce (1/8 cup)
1 part granulated white sugar (1/4 cup)
1-2 tbs garlic freshly minced & muddled
1-2 Thai red chili peppers minced and muddled

Spring rolls Ingredients

1 piece sushi grade salmon (Copper River Sushi Grade salmon, -here-)
1/2 cucumber (rinsed, sliced into thin match sticks)
1 small carrot (rinsed, peeled, sliced into thin match sticks)
1 small bunch of washed cilantro
1 small head of lettuce
1 package of spring roll wrappers
1/4 bag of vermicelli noodles (look for Vietnamese “Bun”, thin round rice noodles)

PREPARATION

1. Defrost salmon (soak salmon in it’s vacum seeled bag into a bowl of cold water in the fridge and it should defrost within 30-60 min).

2. While salmon is defrosting, cut up all vegetables and set aside in a plate.

3. Cook vermicelli noodles as per package instructions, rinse with cold water and drain completely in collander.

4. Slice salmon at an angle and place on a plate. Lightly flame torch one side of the salmon if desired.

5. To make spring roll. Fill large bowl with cool water. Take 1 spring roll wrapper and dip into the water all the way around. Set on plate (it should be hard at this point), immediately add lettuce, noodles, cilantro, carrots and cucumber and fold in the sides. Begin to roll the roll, then add a few sliced of salmon, slightly roll again, add scallions and complete rolling roll. Set rolls on a plate and separate with syran wrap or wax paper so they don’t stick to eachother. Leave covered as well so they don’t dry out.

For Cham Dipping sauce: Mix warm 1/4 cup of warm water with sugar and mix until sugar is dissolved, add fish sauce and lime juice. Then muddle minced garlic and thai chili peppers. Taste, if sauce is too strong for your liking add a little more water and/or lime juice as needed.