Here’s the best quote heard recently: “There is no recipe.”
This was Prasanthi’s apologetic response when I asked her how she made her summer rolls for our gym breakfast party recently.
I laughed when she said this because I completely identified with what she was saying. Neither of us are from Vietnam, where summer rolls are from, but we’re Asian; Prasanthi is from India and I’m from Singapore. Once you’ve eaten summer rolls, and you understand some basics, you can totally make them. No need for recipe, just some simple instructions will suffice. Prasanthi’s rolls are in the black platter and mine is on the green.
Learning to cook growing up, we never used measuring spoons or cups. In a Chinese kitchen we just gauged portions using a rice bowl or a Chinese soup spoon. Remember we measured rice with an old tin can and the amount of water to cook rice with our thumbs? Everything is stirred with chopsticks. I never saw a wooden ladle till I was 16!
When I started recording recipes I had to work backwards and measure all the things I put in my pan. From weighing that little bit of pork for stir fry (4 ounces) to how much oil to put to start frying (1½ tablespoon) or proportions to thicken sauce (1 tablespoon cornstarch to 2 tablespoons water.)
In this kind of home cooking amounts are variable. We’re not baking chiffon cakes where exact measurement counts. Also, if you are cooking for a large crowd you have to be more exact. When we first made sandwiches for 800 people, putting a little more than four ounces of ham per sandwich added several pounds of ham needed at the end!
For summer rolls, you can be flexible about what you put in the roll. Traditionally summer rolls (and those sold in restaurants) have cooked shrimp and sliced cooked pork with rice vermicelli, carrot and cucumber strips, raw bean sprouts, lettuce and mint. My friend Monique Nguyen told me salmon and shrimp taste great in summer rolls. I had Alaskan smoked salmon so I used that instead of having to cook pork or peel shrimp. I’ll use Nova lox salmon next time. Monique also recommended putting the shrimp on first so it shows attractively through the rice paper.
So here’s my “not a recipe” with rough portions. The trick is organizing your ingredients to make it easy for you to wrap the summer roll. The one skill to master is learning how to prepare the rice paper for wrapping. It’s an easy skill to master. Rice paper is fascinating; it ‘s a stiff thin sheet made of rice which instantly gets soft when dipped in warm water. More below. Then there’s the simple dipping sauce. It’s not complicated. Really.
Banquet ideas: I made this as finger food for a potluck. Many Vietnamese families have Summer Roll Parties where diners wrap their own roll, putting whatever they like into the roll. For more ideas see Variations below.
Summer Rolls
Makes 15 summer rolls
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Rolling time: 30-45 minutes
The ingredients
15 sheets rice paper
1 4-ounce pack Nova lox salmon, divided into 15 portions
2 cups spinach or lettuce
2 cups cooked rice vermicelli
1 small cucumber, finely julienned
I small cup finely julienned carrot
½ cup finely sliced red onion
45 mint leaves
Dish of warm water
Preparing the ingredients
Rice vermicelli: To cook rice vermicelli, soak vermicelli in hot water for 5-6 minutes until vermicelli is softened and can be pressed flat. Drain thoroughly.
Cut cucumber lengthwise, scrape away seeds and slice into fine, thin strips. Cut carrots in about same width and length.
Place ingredients in the order you are going to put them on the rice paper. I put the warm water for dipping rice paper in the center, closest to my cutting board work area. Starting from left, I placed the salmon, spinach leaves, rice vermicelli, warm water to dip rice paper, carrot, cucumber and onion, and mint leaves.
Wetting the rice paper
The rice paper has to be wet so it is soft enough to wrap. The water doesn’t need to be boiling hot; warm water works perfectly. When working with this, dip one sheet in and lift it out quickly while paper is still stiff. If it gets too soft, it will stick together and be hard to separate and work with. In the photo above, you can see the sheet is still a bit wet, the moisture will continue to soften the rice paper.
Wrapping it up!
Dip rice paper into water quickly and set round sheet on cutting board. Staring slightly below center of circle, place one portion of salmon in a row. Then place spinach leaves in a row, followed by vermicelli, carrots, cucumber, onion and three mint leaves.
Fold bottom of rice sheet over the ingredients, tucking under sheet under. Fold left and right side of rice paper and then roll the summer roll to complete folding it neatly.
Plating summer rolls
Place summer rolls on a tray and keep separate as they will stick to each other. When ready to plate, cut summer roll in half and place neatly on a serving plate. If using several hours later, lightly dampen paper kitchen towel and place over rolls. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Do not refrigerate. It will keep on the counter for up to six hours.
Hoisin Peanut Butter Sauce
¼ cup hoisin sauce
¼ cup warm, cooked water
3-4 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
1 tablespoon chopped peanuts
In a small bowl, blend hoisin sauce with warm water. Add peanut butter, stir to blend well. Top decoratively with chopped peanuts.
VARIATIONS
Rice paper is not only used in summer rolls. It is used to wrap grilled meat, chicken and sea food and vegan foods. One of my favorite restaurants, Rice Paper, in Eden Center, Seven Corners, Va has wonderful entrees using rice paper. My favorite is their shrimp in sugar cane.
–Instead of salmon, try leftover steak and grilled pork with rice paper.
–For vegetarians, use tempe or fried tofu.
–Julienned carrot, cucumber and radish are popular fillings.
Also bean sprout, string beans, zucchini.
–Instead of mint, also use Thai basil.
–Instead of rice vermicelli, use bean thread noodles
–Instead of spinach, any kind of lettuce.
For more on these ingredients, click here:
Bean Thread Noodles
Hoisin Sauce
Rice Paper
Rice Vermicelli
This post was inspired by Prasanthi Athota.
Prasanthi is the gym buddy who also inspired me to make yogurt without fussing about exact temperatures and incubation. See recipe on Home Made Yogurt.
