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.