Contagious

Hello, my name is Squid and I have the travelling bug. I caught it earlier this year, after I came back from the West Coast, a vacation that was, as all vacations, too short. It worsened steadily, with friends travelling to exotic places, and was particularly acute when I was preparing for my thesis advisory committee meeting. Now, in the swing of things post-meeting, my condition has improved but the symptoms nonetheless linger. 

So what is the best way to beat the vacay blues? Distract yourself with cooking! Ever since resurrecting this half-dead monster of a blog, I have thrown myself into cooking again, with great satisfaction. I am, after all, a hungry squid. After a (very, very) late night on Friday and a Saturday that consisted of rushing around like a wild person during my new apartment redecoration quest, I came home with 2 hours to spare before a potluck dinner in honor of a departing lab member. I wanted to make something light for the dinner, something easy to eat but still interesting, and settled on Vietnamese rice paper rolls. I learned to make these rolls a couple of years ago with my mother, and they've been a staple of our Asian-inspired dinners ever since. In contrast to what you would believe upon seeing them, these spring rolls are incredibly easy, but they are not fast - you have to give yourself at least 1-1.5 hours from  start to clean-up, and a large workspace. At first, I thought that this would be impossible, with a kitchen the size of a matchbox and basically 0 counter space, but I was able to make it work by assembling everything on the dining table.

Some tools that you will need to begin:

- kettle (electric or stovetop)

- wide, shallow dish

- 2-4 clean dry dish towels

- baking or serving tray, set up near your assembly station.

Vietnamese Rice Paper rolls with Ginger Peanut Dipping Sauce

Rice paper rolls:

1 package circular rice paper sheets (I used sheets that were 22 cm in diameter)

1 small head of cabbage

1 small-medium sized carrot

4 green onions

1 inch of ginger (about 2 tsp grated)

1 cup bean sprouts

1 1/2 cups of vermicelli

1-2 tbsp rice vinegar 

Salt to taste

Handful of fresh mint and basil leaves

1. Add hot water to a pot and soak vermicelli for about 15 min, or until softened.

2. Grate cabbage, carrot and ginger

3. Slice green onion

4. In a large bowl, combine cabbage, carrot, ginger, green onion, bean sprout and vermicelli. Mix well.

5. Add rice vinegar and salt to taste and mix well. The filling should be slightly tangy and very lightly salted, but not overpoweringly - the dipping sauce contains soya sauce and the combination will yield an unpleasantly salty result.

6. Set up your assembly station

     - Set about 500 ml of water to boil

     - On a clean, dry surface spread out dishcloths: one directly in front of where you will be sitting, one off to the side to place the filling and soaking bowls on, and a couple of extra for replacements as the cloths become wet.

7. Pour hot water into shallow soaking dish and add a sheet of rice paper to soak. Be careful - you will have to put your hands into the water, so make sure to add enough lukewarm water for you to be able to handle the rice paper comfortably.

8. Let rice paper soak for 20-30 seconds, then carefully remove and place in on the dishcloth in front of you. Add another sheet of rice paper to the soaking dish.

The rice paper should look like this:

9. Take a small amount of filling and place in the lower quarter of the rice paper and place 2 or 3 leaves of mint and basil an top of the filling. 

The roll should now look like this: 

10. Fold the edges of the roll inward and begin to rolls from the side closest to you outward. When you have finished rolling, place on a baking tray and set aside. Repeat about 25-30 times. 

NOTE: Rice paper dries relatively quickly and becomes gummy and difficult to use, so try to work quickly. If you find it drying out, sprinkle hot water over the rice paper surface. 

Ginger Peanut Sauce

- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

- 1/4 cup hot water

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 4 tbsp rice vinegar

- 1 heaping tbsp fresh diced ginger

- pinch of hot peper flakes (or more)

- a pinch of sugar (or to taste)

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.

The rolls will keep for 1-2 days in an airtight container in the fridge, as will the sauce. 

South East Asia - September 2011