|
Hello GWS from the BYOB Travelling Spaceship thread! This is not a very fancy or ambitious entry, but I was going to make my favorite summer meal anyway, so I decided to document the process. I've had it in restaurants, I've eaten it in picnics while listening to summer evening concerts, I've had it in Vietnam, I've had a friend's tiny Vietnamese mom teach me how to assemble it: probably my single favorite dish for hot, humid weather is gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese soft summer rolls/salad rolls)! They are light and refreshing yet still have enough substance to feel like a full meal. I'm serving a peanut and hoisin based dipping sauce alongside, which is possibly less traditional than a simple nuoc cham but it's delicious and adds a bit of heft to the meal. Since one of my cohort does not eat shrimp, I'm also gonna make some marinated baked tofu as an alternative. Starting with the tofu! Ingredients for the marinade (sans thyme):  Added to this, some fresh thyme from the garden, chopped:  I have a garlic crusher specifically for the garlic and only that, and (not pictured) a ceramic ginger grater specifically for ginger.  my unitaskers, they're the best (Alton Brown, get outta town). Standard operating procedure for the tofu: drain and slice, press for a half hour or so, marinate in the fridge for a few hours.    Bake at 400°F for 30-40 minutes to desired level of firmness/browning (and desired level of turning your thyme into crispy thyme-flavored bits). You can baste with the marinating liquid a couple of times if you really want to (I did)--really any amount of extra flavor you can infuse into the tofu is helpful.    Next, for the seafood eaters, the scrimps. I got kinda little ones, slightly larger ones are more common I guess? Anyway, into boiling water for 90 seconds:  Plunge into ice water, drain, peel, halve, and refrigerate while prepping everything else.  Ingredients for the dipping sauce:  Uncharacteristic (for me) restraint with the garlic here. In the tupperware is white sugar, only a small amount because the peanut butter already has sugar in it.  Mmm that's the stuff! And finally, after preparing veggies & herbs and soaking the rice noodles, it's assembly time! People can customize their rolls as they prefer. Today we got shrimp, tofu, rice noodle, lettuce, chives, mint, basil, cilantro, cucumber matchsticks, and (not pictured here but in a later photo) mung bean sprouts. The herbs specifically are what make this dish for me, the mint in particular is very refreshing but it's all good.  The secret to wrapping summer rolls is to keep everything damp and work quickly. You soak the wrapper for a few seconds in a plate of water, and then lay it on a damp paper towel. arrange the fillings on top: it's traditional to put the protein down first then a bed of rice noodles so you can see the protein through the wrapper, followed by whatever other herbs/veggies you like. This time around I did not include scallion, hot peppers, or sliced radishes, but those can all be good.   It all gets rolled up burrito-style. The wrapper is a bit delicate and extremely sticky so a bit of practice helps.    And when everybody's got the rolls just as they like them, it's time to serve!  So there you have it, summer on a plate. Not pictured: the seconds we all had!
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 16:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 21:07 |
|
|
Looks delish!
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 17:12
|
|
|
Very nice!
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 17:27
|
|
|
I want all that cronchy tofu
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 18:10
|
|
|
I love a good summer roll. They look great!
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 19:29
|
|
|
BrianBoitano posted:I want all that cronchy tofu
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2022 02:17
|
|
|
Very nice! That tofu looks great, and I really like the aesthetics of being able to see the ingredients.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2022 02:51
|
|
|
I'm scrolling through this instead of paying attention to a meeting and for a hot second I was trying to figure out where you were using the Progresso Tomato Basil soup in this. Would eat those rolls
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2022 19:10
|
|
|
That tofu looks wonderful. I miss making peanut sauce but our 7-year-old is allergic so that's right out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2022 22:09
|
|
|
This is so pleasingly fresh, and I echo the tofu sentiment!Casu Marzu posted:I'm scrolling through this instead of paying attention to a meeting and for a hot second I was trying to figure out where you were using the Progresso Tomato Basil soup in this. I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure that out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2022 17:27
|
|
|
Casu Marzu posted:I'm scrolling through this instead of paying attention to a meeting and for a hot second I was trying to figure out where you were using the Progresso Tomato Basil soup in this. Bollock Monkey posted:I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure that out. lol! And thank you all for the kind words.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2022 17:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 21:07 |
|
|
Hard to beat dinner and a view. These look really great.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2022 18:38
|
|
