Rice Paper Rolls with Sweet Salty Spicy Marmite Sauce

The weather has been so ridiculously hot recently that I don't feel like doing any intensive cooking in the kitchen as it would make me all sweaty and frustrated! Besides, the humidity also made me lose my appetite and at times like this, I would crave for something refreshing to look at and appetising to eat.

Rice Paper Rolls or Summer Rolls to the rescue! It's like a complete meal altogether; carbo from the chewy rice paper and rice vermicelli, fiber from the lettuce, cucumber, carrots, mint leaves, parsley and of course protein from meat and shrimp.

The rolls are kind of bland on its own and the dipping sauce play an important role in bringing out the flavours of all the ingredients. Usually I eat my rolls with peanut hoisin sauce which is saltish and sweet. This time round, I decided to explore a different dipping sauce using Marmite!

Marmite is like my childhood condiment which my mum added to porridge to boast our appetite as well as Vitamin B intake. It has this potent aroma with salty and rich flavour which is actually a great condiment to use for cooking (besides just adding to porridge), evident in local favourite zi char dishes like Marmite chicken and pork ribs.

Besides saltiness and sweetness, I wanted a tinge of spiciness to my sauce. Therefore, using Marmite as the salty and umami base, Gula Melaka for the sweetness and fragrant and Sriracha chilli sauce for the spicy kick. And to make the sauce more full-bodied, I added a chicken, prawn and marmite stock (that I had used to cook the chicken, prawn and rice vermicelli).

Preparing the rest of the ingredients is straightforward. I cooked the chicken breast, prawn and thick vermicelli noodles in a chicken marmite stock; wash and cut up the vegetables and that's it, ready to roll!

You can even make it a DIY summer roll party, it's a great party food which I have tried before.

Rice Paper Rolls with Sweet Spicy Salty Marmite Sauce

(makes 12 rolls, using 16cm rice paper)

Rice paper rolls

• 250ml chicken stock
• 250ml water
• 1 tsp marmite
• 120g thick vermicelli noodles, pre-cooked type
• 150g chicken breast meat
• 24pcs small prawns, de-vein, with shell
• 12 pcs rice paper
• 12 leaves romaine lettuce
• 50g carrot, julienned
• 1 Japanese cucumber, julienned
• Mint leaves, chinese parsley

1. In a sauce pot, add chicken stock, water and marmite. Bring to boil.
2. Add the chicken breast meat, boil for 10 mins till fully cooked. Remove from stock, let cool and shred into thick pieces, set aside.
3. Add the prawns, boil for 5 mins till fully cooked. Remove from stock, let cool and remove shell. Slice the prawns into half, set aside.
4. Add the noodles, blanch for 30s, remove from stock and set aside.
5. Strain the soup stock and set aside to cool.
6. Take a piece of rice paper, soak in water for 30s and place it onto a cutting board.
7. Place romaine lettuce, vermicelli, carrot, cucumber onto the rice paper. Roll and wrap the rice paper 1/3 towards the centre.
8. Next, place 4 pieces of sliced prawns (colourful side facing down) and some mint leaves and parsley onto the prawns. Roll and wrap the rice paper towards the centre.
9. Lastly, place 2 pieces of chicken breast, wrap the sides of the rice paper inwards and roll the rice paper towards the edge to complete the wrap.
10. Rice roll is ready to eat.

Marmite Sauce

• 2 tsp cooking oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 150ml soup stock from (A)
• 1 tbsp marmite
• 1 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce
• 50g gula melaka
• Corn starch slurry (2 tsp + 2 tbsp water)
• Sesame seeds, pine nuts, parsley

1. Heat the cooking oil in a pan, add garlic and stir-fry till fragrant.
2. Add the soup stock, Marmite, Sriracha hot sauce, Gula Melaka and cook till the Gula Melaka is melted. Add corn starch slurry and cook till sauce thickens. Stir in sesame seeds.
3. Transfer to serving dish, top with pine nuts and parsley.
4. Sauce is ready to be served with the rice paper rolls.

Ooooh, the sauce is sooooo yummy! Whets the appetite and perfect match for the rice paper rolls. I believe that even those who dislike Marmite would fall in love with this sauce.

I think this sauce is also a perfect alternative to the typical peanut hoisin sauce; some folks might be allergic to peanuts or some who don't like the taste of hoisin sauce or couldn't get hoisin sauce in their local stores or area.

In fact, I can see more uses to this sauce such as sweet spicy salty deep fried chicken wings or pork ribs. Gonna explore more recipes :) Give it a try!