Quarantine Cooking: Spring Shrimp Rolls

I don't know if I ever posted about my new summer staple discovered only a couple weeks ago: spring shrimp rolls. I suppose spring is in the name because the rolls are comprised mostly of fresh, raw ingredients. And in the eyes of Billy Eisner, "And away we go." So my assembly station or mise en place: defrosted cooked or freshly boiled shrimp, chopped cilantro, chopped mint, basil leaves, a package of rice paper from the Asian grocery store, a pan or bowl of very warm, almost hot water.

Soaking the rice paper in the hot water is tricky. You can't soak it too long that it melts away into water nor too briefly that you end up with rice paper that's too al dente (we're talking like hard plastic to the teeth). I happened to be making these rolls before going to work, so coffee to sip instead of Chardonnay at my meal station. I like to wet my cutting board on which I roll as well as my hands to keep the rice paper from drying out. Wet hands also help to smooth out folded edges too.

After my rolls are constructed, next I make the peanut dipping sauce. The ingredients below include a lime, peanut butter (crunchy or creamy, doesn't matter), Thai chili sauce, coconut milk, fish sauce, and a spicy Filipino vinegar called Suka (which means vinegar I think) Pinakurat--which is not in everyone's pantry, so feel free to substitute out with rice wine vinegar

Oh! And I forgot for extra salty yum umami, soy sauce. 

Okay at this point, I don't see the rest of the pics of my early morning of constructing spring rolls. And heck I might not even have taken any more pics for this blog post as I probably got too lost in the making to further outline the process and was also trying not to get too school to late to begin my work day of scoring essays. And so this post is to be continued in another post. I had been waxing poetic how much I love these spring rolls to a colleague that I promised to re-create them for her, but to make for her a vegetarian version with tofu. I think tofu is tasteless, and so I want to find a technique for making it flavorful with some kind of marinade. Stay tuned.