cook: summer rolls

I’ve blogged about these before, but they’re so delicious that they bear repeating. I was emptying my freezer and took out the Argentinian prawns. Some of them became camarones pipián, but on another summer day, the prawns were the protein in Asian spring rolls even though I had no cucumber, nor rice vermicelli. However, I did just buy three small pots of Thai basil, which are so aromatic and add the most delightful anise-like flavor to a dish. I plan on sprinkling the Thai basil with cilantro to the leftover green curry chicken I still have in my fridge. But yesterday, I included them into rice paper rolls, which I picked up on impulse at World Market. My first couple rolls looked sloppy.

But I learned from a Tik Tok on IG a different technique for folding. Rather than folding them like a lumpia, I fold the left and right sides inward to create thickness at opposite ends of the wrapper. I put the lettuce leaf down first. The lettuce then is supposed to extend over opposite ends of the roll. Also I would have preferred green leaf rather than the butter lettuce in the fridge. 

And like I'd mentioned before, no cucumber, nor skinny rice noodles. However, I did have Đồ chua or Vietnamese pickled daikon and carrots, and so that went on top of the lettuce leaf next.

On top of the pickled salad, I put a layer of cilantro...

And then a layer of mint, which I chopped a little because they were tough and not tender, but are a nice flavor.

And then the Italian basil...

...and then Thai basil and two shrimp or prawns next to the produce, so that they show first through the rice paper.

Sometimes wrapping was clumsy because I did not flatten down the lettuce.

But I loved that these rolls were heavy on the herbs and that the shrimp were surrounded by a sea of green.

Here are my completed rolls to be stored in the fridge until consumed as a lunch or a snack. When feeding a crowd, I'll use rice vermicelli noodles as well as pork belly to make a more substantial roll.

And I had two rolls to eat for lunch--the first one I had made and the last one which only had a single prawn.

But I needed dipping sauce for my lunch rolls. Instead of nước chấm or a dipping sauce of water, sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, garlic and Thai chile, I made a peanut sauce of my own recipe: peanut butter, peanuts, fish sauce, Sriracha, lime juice, lemon juice, and Asian raw cane sugar. And I don't measure but just spoon what proportions I like into my mixing bowl. I used water to thin my sauce.

And I remembered the jalapeno pepper in my fridge. Lastly I chopped peanuts to sprinkle on the sauce for looks.

 

I could have added garlic, Sambal chili paste and hoisin too. Next time. This sauce has me wanting to make an Indonesian satay. Again next time. In the meantime, I'm dipping my Asian rolls into it. I love my leisurely lunch making and eating in the summer. They made me pause to enjoy the succulents I'm propagating...

...and the blooms Patrick has picked from our garden. My orchid denuded of blooms has also reminded me that I need to tend to my own gardening.  

And so I spent the rest of the afternoon after eating my summer rolls, trimming and deadheading and then re-potting succulents and flowers.