Summer Rolls

I’ve been inspired by Thai and Vietnamese cooking. I love their crispy tofu dishes, but one thing I usually always end up wanting for an appetizer is the fresh summer rolls, which are wrapped in rice paper unlike their evil twin, also known as the spring roll, which is typically fried. The rolls are usually served with a peanut dipping sauce. So tonight Ellen and I tried our hand at preparing our own summer rolls at home. It was a success. It’s quite fun to play with your food and create different rolls. You can find the rice papers in the Asian section of your regular grocery store and the method is pretty simplistic. You just need a large bowl of hot  water to dip the rice paper in, which will turn what seems like a sheet of plastic into a moldable wrap. Let the rice paper sit for about 20 seconds then pick it up out of the water and lay flat on a plate. Put your ingredients in the wrap and roll it up as if it were a burrito. I made a short video… this was my first attempt at filming a food how to and it turned out badly because I am not great on camera so I refuse to post it.

Our fillings included broiled shrimp, cucumbers, carrots, avacado,basil, and romaine. We also had some brown rice and Sriracha Sauce to spice it up. You could add any and everything your little heart desires to make your rolls. We used pretty traditional ingredients. And here is the final product all wrapped up. 

And last but not least, the dipping sauce is the key factor- here is the Peanut Dipping Sauce Recipe I used:

3 tbsp hoisin sauce

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 cup water

3 tbsp creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

**Much thanks and a shout out to Ellen who provided the ingredients!!

Tagged as: summer rolls