Mermaid Summer Rolls with Magical Nuoc Cham

End of the Road Recipes:

This week’s recipe was a bit of a science experiment. With the recent Easter holiday, I saw a social media post demonstrating natural egg coloring tricks. One popular trick is to use red cabbage and baking soda to make a blue dye. It reminded me of a recipe I once made that utilized that technique.

Several years ago, there was a contest sponsored by a beverage company and the requirement was to use seafood to make a unique main dish recipe. Sometimes I take the word “unique” a little too far, and in this case, I did not end up winning. However, I really enjoyed the dish I came up with and the vibrant blue noodles were my favorite part. If preferred, you can skip the baking soda and make pink noodles, or do a combination of the two.

The rolls could easily be customized with different fillings. You could use seared marinated tofu in place of the shrimp and bell peppers, lettuce, or avocado in place of the radishes and cucumbers. I would even be tempted to try using Dorothy Molter’s Root Beer in place of the lemon-lime soda. The flavors in the root beer would pair nicely with the ginger and star anise in the shrimp cooking liquid.

Mermaid Summer Rolls with Magical Nuoc Cham

Ingredients:

Noodles:

4 cups water

1/2 of a small head of red cabbage, roughly chopped

3-4 pinches baking soda

4 ounces thin rice noodles

Vegetable oil for brushing

Shrimp:

2 cups water  

2 cups lemon lime pop    

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

2 cloves minced garlic

5 star anise 

4 pieces of lemongrass, about 3 inches each and lightly smashed

24 small peeled, deveined, and tail off shrimp (thawed from frozen)

Rolls:

8 rice paper wrappers 

Warm water for hydrating wrappers

16 thin radish slices

16 thin small cucumber slices

1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro (not packed)

1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh mint (not packed)

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion (not packed)

1/4 cup finely chopped chili lime peanuts

Shredded red cabbage for garnishing (optional)

Nuoc Cham:

1/4 cup lemon lime pop

1/2 cup reserved blue liquid

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 green bird’s eye chili, minced 

1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions:

Noodles:

Add the water and cabbage to a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the water is deep purple.  Remove from heat. Using a colander, drain the liquid into a heat proof bowl or another pan (reserve cabbage for another use such as adding to soups or stir-fries). Stir 3-4 pinches of baking soda into the water until it turns deep blue. Remove 1/2 cup of the blue liquid and set aside. Add the noodles and let soak for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are tender and vibrant blue. Drain the noodles. Brush a baking pan with oil then spread out the noodles over top. Divide into 8 portions. Cover with a damp towel and let cool. 

Shrimp:

Add all ingredients except shrimp to a medium pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Add shrimp and cook just until they are opaque throughout. Remove the shrimp from the cooking liquid and set aside to cool.

Rolls:

Working with one paper at a time, quickly dip them into a bowl of warm water and place on a smooth work surface. Gently brush on a little more water with your fingertips (you still want the wrappers to be a little stiff when topping, as they will continue to soften). In the center of each roll, arrange 3 shrimp, 2 radish slices, and 2 cucumber slices in an alternating pattern. Top with a generous pinch each of cilantro, mint, green onion, and peanuts. Top with noodles and tightly roll up burrito style. If desired, place on a platter lined with shredded red cabbage.

Nuoc Cham:

In a small saucepan, add the lemon lime pop. Bring to a boil and cook until reduced to one tablespoon. In a small bowl, whisk together the reserved blue liquid and sugar until combined. In another bowl, stir together the pop reduction, fish sauce, lime juice, chili, and garlic. Stir the pop mixture into the blue liquid at the table and watch as the mixture turns pink from the acidity of the pop and lime juice. Serve the sauce with the rolls for dipping. 

Yield: 4 servings.