Summer rolls with a cheater's peanut sauce

After almost a week of eating gelato and tacos and pizza and iced coffees with house-made cinnamon syrup and condensed milk, my friends and I decided we needed something a little lighter. I also wanted to make something simple that would allow us all to participate. I mean, it involves a heck of a lot of chopping, but after the initial prep work, everybody can prepare their own rolls and it's like a healthier, more fun taco bar. At least, that's what we all thought. I think it's because the "cheater's peanut sauce" was really good and you could pour it over anything and people would eat it.

A delicious summer roll. Most of them ended up looking oddly overstuffed
because we were so hungry and wanted to put everything in them.

I went to the grocery store with Meghan and we came back with armloads of vegetables and two pounds of shrimp.

Adorable, right?

The fruits of her grueling labor.

 I'd purchased the rice paper wrappers and rice vermicelli at World Market earlier in the week when we went for our beer/wine run. While she peeled the shrimp, I chopped the vegetables. My aunt made these for my cousins and me once, and I have to say, I completely underestimated the amount of time she had to spend chopping vegetables. She was a trooper!

Summer rolls are fun because you have so many options, produce-wise. So, go nuts! I chose to use carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, scallions, green apples, avocados, cilantro, and two bags of spring mix lettuces.

Meghan boiled the shrimp and threw the rice vermicelli in a pot of boiling water and watched the noodles like a hawk . . . Mostly because I asked her to. Rice vermicelli cooks quickly and when the noodles are done, I rinse them in cold water (taboo for Italian pasta, but not so terrible for Asian noodles).

The only other thing left is the peanut sauce, which was so easy and really delicious. I call it a cheat because I'm not making it from scratch. That seemed like a silly thing to do, given that Meghan and her husband would have no use for the million ingredients that you need when making peanut sauce from scratch. To save them from this gaggle of condiments, I made peanut sauce using peanut butter, hoisin sauce, a couple tablespoons of water, and a little crushed red pepper.

Mix it all up and nuke it in the microwave until the peanut butter's melted. Chop up some peanuts while the microwave heats up the peanut sauce.

Really delicious peanut sauce. Don't pre-judge!

With all the components ready, now I had to show everyone how to construct their rolls. The rice paper wrappers are the weirdest, because they're hard and plastic looking one minute and then slightly sticky and chewy the next.

One package of these was enough to feed seven people.

Place a wrapper in warm water (not too hot or the wrapper will disintegrate!).

Swish it around for a minute or two until the wrapper is no longer plasticky and place it on a dinner plate.

Protein first.

Then add your veg.

Roll it all up and there you are!

I think we each ate about three of these? It was perfect and made us feel no guilt
at all about the dessert we consumed later.

Add noodles, don't add noodles. A couple people made noodle salad instead of dealing with rice paper wrappers and this was also delicious.



Shrimp summer rolls with peanut sauce
(serves 7)

Ingredients
2 lbs shrimp, peeled and boiled
2 bags of spring mix, chopped
3 carrots, shredded
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 lb sugar snap peas, chopped
3-4 scallions, chopped
2 cucumbers, julienned
2-3 avocados, sliced
1-2 granny smith apples, julienned
1 package rice vermicelli, cooked and rinsed in cold water
1 package rice paper wrappers
handful of peanuts, chopped

For the peanut sauce:
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup peanut putter
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup water

To make peanut sauce: Mix all ingredients together and microwave for about 30 seconds. Take out of microwave and stir.

Assemble rolls using method described in post above.

Other potential summer roll components to consider: radishes, snow peas, arugula, Asian pears, grilled chicken, red cabbage, bell peppers