Summer Rolls et al.

Summer rolls are not to be confused with their ubiquitous counterpart, the spring roll.  I think most Americans (I can't really speak for other nations) are more familiar with the spring roll, and many people confuse them or use them interchangeably.  It's kind of like the macaroon/macaron thing (THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!-- I hope to blog about them sometime in the future).  I suppose it's a little less egregious; some people consider summer rolls to be a type of spring roll, fairly unique to Vietnam.  In Hawaii, the difference is cooking.  Spring rolls are fried; summer rolls are not, and feature fresh/minimally cooked ingredients.  I'm all about mnemonics, so I keep them straight this way: once the summer gets really hot, you don't want to fry anything.

I hadn't encountered summer rolls until I moved out to Hawaii.  I loved them instantly.  I like the thin, melt-in-your-mouth rice wrapper and fresh ingredients.  They're crisp and refreshing, and my favorites come with spicy peanut dipping sauce. Yum!  They can be made with a variety of ingredients; I adapted a recipe published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser to make mine.

To go with the summer rolls, my fiancé and I made up a whole bunch of small bits to eat for dinner: deviled eggs (see previous blog), stuffed peppers (I've blogged a recipe before, but I'll include what we did this time), and bacon-chickenskin skewers.

Summer Rolls
1 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 C julienned, matchsticked, or grated carrots
1 1/2 C chopped red cabbage (napa cabbage was called for, but red was easier to find/use leftovers of)
1/4 C matchsticked bell peppers
1/4 C matchsticked radishes
2 Tbsp scallions
8ish cooked shrimp, halved the long way
Summer Roll Rice Wrappers

Combine the vinegar and sugar with a pinch of salt, and stir until everything is dissolved.  I recommend heating it slightly, to help everything dissolve.  It'll also help wilt the cabbage a bit, because red cabbage is quite sturdy (more so than napa-- they're not really interchangeable; adapt!).  Because the next thing is to toss the vinegar mixture with the cabbage and carrots.  Once you've done that, get a large dish of hot water (I used a pie pan) and soften a wrapper by dipping it in there. Working on a damp paper towel, lay out the wrapper, and put a mound of cabbage on it. Layer on the bell peppers, radishes and scallions, too, along with 2 pieces of shrimp.  Roll by folding up the bottom, then the sides, and rolling toward the top, keeping the roll tight.  Keep damp (but not wet) until serving.  Repeat until you're out of ingredients.  Serve with dipping sauce: I had some Thai chili sauce left over from the root beer pulled pork (see previous blog), so I just used that.

Stuffed Peppers II
10ish mini bell peppers
3/4 C crumbled Queso Fresco
1/8 C bread crumbs
1/8 C chopped onions

Combine the queso fresco, bread crumbs, and onions.  Halve and clean the peppers, and fill with the cheese mixture.  Broil about 5-10 minutes until the tops are lightly browned.  If desired (or if you have extra bacon leftover from the skewers), wrap in bacon prior to broiling.

Bacon-Chickenskin Skewers
Bacon
Chickenskin, cut into strips
Ground sage

Season the chickenskin with sage, salt, and pepper.  Place a strip of bacon on top and thread/weave onto a skewer.  Pan-crisp over medium-high heat for ~5 minutes, then finish in the broiler.

Going back to the summer rolls: they're pretty versatile, in that you can put in what you want/ what you have on hand (obviously, I used red cabbage instead of napa, which is a rather significant difference).  I feel like these might be a good way to use up some leftovers, if you could appropriately season them.  (Chop up some teriyaki chicken, toss it with cold rice, cabbage, carrots…)  There's a perfect moisture level for keeping these until serving that I am still not quite sure about; too wet will make the wrapper stick to everything; too dry and it'll crack apart.  Don't stress too much about it, and be prepared to tweak your set-up. 

The peppers are super-simple, but delicious.  My fiancé loves them.  He mastered the making of them pretty quickly, which makes life easy for me!  We eat them as sides, snacks, appetizers, and occasionally even have leftovers.  They reheat nicely.

The skewers were a bit tricky for me; the broiler finish was sort of a last-ditch effort on my part to get that chicken skin crisped through, but it worked quite well. I'd still like it crispier, so I'm going to need to work with it some more, but it's a decent consistency as presented here.  It makes the skewers that much more indulgent to me; I've always loved the richness of the skin on poultry.

Sweet Potato Fries and Stuffed Burgers

Alrighty, this won't be too original or anything,  but it was yummy nonetheless.  And really, burgers are always a great food to make, especially if you have friends coming over.  I found the recipe for the fries  on Pinterest, and couldn't wait to try them.  I also created a couple sauces to go with the fries (and/or on the burgers).

Sweet Potato Oven-Fries
1 or 2 medium sweet potatoes
Bacon, cooked
~ 4 Tbsp Garlic Confit Oil (or olive oil)
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Paprika
Salt and Pepper

Peel the potatoes and slice them into french fries. Cut or break the bacon (depending on how crisp you've got it) into pieces.  Place the fries and bacon in a bowl, drizzle over the oil, and toss to coat; sprinkle over and mix in the spices.  Dump onto a large baking sheet and spread out into a single layer. Bake in a 425˚F oven for about 20 minutes until crisp/toasty.

Cheese-stuffed Hamburgers
1.5 lbs ground sirloin
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
Cheese of your choice (we used babble and colby jack)

Slice the cheese to about 1.5 inches by 1 inch by a quarter inch.  Combine all ingredients except the cheese in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.  I recommend using your hands and just squishing it all together; you're going to need your hands to form the burgers, right?  Scoop out a burger-sized portion, then divide in half.  Place a piece of cheese in the center of one half; cover with the other half and flatten into a burger.  (Tip:  Make your burger wider and flatter than you want it to be; it'll contract and thicken as it cooks, and you don't want to have to squish out the juice to make it flatter while cooking.)  Grill or cook in a pan (or on a griddle, I suppose) over medium-high heat.

Spicy ketchup
1/4 C ketchup
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper
dash crushed red pepper flakes

Combine all ingredients and allow to sit for an hour or so for flavor development.

Creamy Chive Dressing
1 Tbsp mayonaisse
1 1/2 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp snipped fresh chives
1 clove crushed garlic confit
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp pepper
dash oregano

Combine all ingredients, cover, shake, and allow to sit in the refrigerator for an hour or so for flavor development.

I think my favorite part of this was the spicy ketchup, honestly.  It was so good, and the longer I let it sit, the better the flavor.  It was reminiscent of barbecue sauce in the end.  Tasty!   The chive sauce was a little bit like ranch.  It made a nice cooling contrast with the fries.  The burgers were yummy, too.  My fiancé cooked them, and he's great at that, so they were moist and had a nice crispness/char.  I had issues with the fries-- I did it in two batches and slightly burnt the first (larger) batch.  They were still good, but it struck me as a bit of a bummer.  I was concerned about repeating the mistake, so I erred the other way on the second batch, and they weren't so crisp.  The recipe was great.  I was just distracted and chatting with my friend, and wanted to give the fries a couple minutes more, and then someone asked, "hey what about the fries?" seven minutes later.  But it made for a great dinner, very casual, very fun.