Hae Kun with Nam Jim Priao Wan (Thai) Shrimp Rolls and Sweet and Sour Sauce

Last week, my boyfriend and I went shopping and I got two cooking books.  The only place I can find a decent amount of Asian cookbooks to choose from is downtown, and I have this habit to go through the books on the metro (Montreal's subway) on my way back home.  So I was doing that with a book that has almost zero pictures, and then, a picture!  It caught my boyfriend's eye and he already knew he wanted me to make it for him!  And to my surprise, even I really enjoyed it.  The recipe doesn't suggest any dip, but on the picture there is one.  I found someone who posted this recipe word for word except that at the end, they added "serve with sweet and sour sauce" (never copy word for word!). I then searched for "thai sweet and sour sauce" on google and found a pretty good one.  So here's Hae Kun from The Complete Asian Cookbook: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma, by Charmaine Solomon, simplified and slightly adapted, followed by a link to a delicious sweet and sour sauce!

(serves 4 as a side)

-2 large squares of dried tofu skin, briefly soaked in hot water to rehydrate, then water squeezed out dry

-oil for deep-frying

Mixture:

-250g cleaned, shelled shrimps, chopped into a chunky paste

-1tbsp cornstarch or potato starch

-2tbsp pork fat, finely diced (easy to find, ask any butcher, it's ridiculously cheap)

-1 garlic clove, finely grated

-1tsp ginger, finely grated

-1/2tsp salt

-1/4tsp black pepper

Mix everything for the mixture.  Add the end of a tofu skin, shape half of the mixture into a log, then roll several times until the end of the tofu sheet.  Repeat for the other roll.  Steam the rolls with the seam down for ten minute on medium.  Let cool down a little, then cut diagonally. (I prepared everything ahead and stopped at that step, putting the roll pieces in the fridge.)

Deep-fry the rolls until golden brown, then drain briefly on paper towels and serve with thai style sweet and sour sauce (recipe follows).

For the sweet and sour sauce, I used this recipe and it was crazy awesome delicious!

http://thaifood.about.com/od/thaicurrypasterecipes/r/Easy-Sweet-And-Sour-Sauce-Recipe.htm