Vietnamese Baked Fish Salad Rolls – Gỏi Cuốn Cá Nướng

With the new Asian/Korean market, Lotte Plaza Market, opened up in Orlando, I am motivated to document a pictorial recipe for my Vietnamese homestyle baked fish gỏi cuốn. Gỏi cuốn is like “salad rolled up in thin rice paper” regardless whatever season rolls you call it in English.

Vietnamese baked fish gỏi cuốn commonly uses red snapper, large striped bass, or swai. Snout and trout are excellent choices too. I was hoping to find a big red snapper but couldn’t find one. This striped bass will do just fine.

Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 striped bass (3.7 lb)
1 Tbsp ginger powder or sliced ginger
1/2 Tbsp five spice
1 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 bunch scallion
2+ shallots
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup scallion oil (1 cup chopped scallion + 1/3 cup olive oil)
vermicelli rice noodles
rice paper wrappers (3 Bamboo Tree)
seedless cucumbers cut into strips
sweet pineapple cut into strips
red or green leaf lettuce
mint leaves (rau thơm)
fish mint leaves (rau diếp cá)
Vietnamese coriander leaves (rau râm)
dipping sauces: Vietnamese sweet and sour fish sauce (nước mắm chua ngọt ) or fermented anchovy fish sauce (mắm nêm pha sẳng)

Directions:

1. Have the fishmonger scale and clean the fish at the market. Line a baking tray or drip pan big enough to fit the fish with aluminum foil. Rinse and strain the fish (striped bass). Rub the fish with five spice, salt, black pepper, and onion powder. Stuff the fish belly with scallion, sliced ginger, minced garlic, and sliced shallots. Marinate for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cover the tray with aluminum foil. Bake the fish for 30 minutes.

3. While baking the fish, make the scallion oil, cook the rice noodle, and prep the lettuce and herbs. I used sweet and sour fish sauce as the dipping sauce in this pictorial. Normally baked fish salad rolls are served with fermented anchovy fish sauce mixture but it’s not recommended for breast feeding mommies. I’ll document a recipe for the fermented anchovy (mam nem) sauce when I can eat it again.

4. Take out the cover and bake for another 10 minutes.

5. Then broil on high for about 5 to 7 minutes until the skin is crispy. Then brush the scallion oil on top. Set the table with all the ingredients. Happy rolling!