Summer Rolls by Rachel

Summer's come and gone and so have my summer rolls!  Bad pun, I know, but that doesn't make my summer rolls any less tasty and the recipe is extremely easy.  You can really put whatever you want into a summer roll, but here's the recipe that I go back to time and time again.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb of beef or pork (totally up to you)
1/2 cup cilantro, torn or chopped coarsely
1/4 scallions, diced
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of soaked cellophane noodles
1/4 cup of toasted rice powder
1 package of Vietnamese rice paper



- Mix the raw beef or pork, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and salt into a bowl and let marinate for about 20 minutes.

- Using a medium skillet, cook the meat with all the sauce until the meat is completely cooked through and then set it aside to cool.

- Take out one sheet of the rice paper and douse it with warm water until the sheet starts to feel pliable.  Make sure not to keep it in water for too long because it will start to get sticky.

They start out as a hard sheet, but after a quick soak, they become softies!

- Place the soft rice paper flat on a large plate with one corner facing you.

-Scoop about 2 tbsp of the meat about 3 inches from the corner that is facing you and lay it out in a line.  This will make it easier to fold the summer roll.

- Now it's time to customize.  You can add in as much of the noodles, cilantro, scallions, and rice powder as you want.  You can even put a little extra sauce into the roll if you want.

- To roll them, start with the corner closest to you and pull it over the filling.  Roll it over once and make sure that the roll is tight.  Fold in the left and right corner tightly and then continue to roll the filling into the rice paper until you reach the end.  The last corner that you fold over will be sticky enough to hold the whole roll together without any additional sealing agent.

- Et voila!  You have a summer roll!  Repeat the last 4 steps as many times as you want until you use up all the filling or until you've made as many as you want to eat.

Dip them in any sauce you want, but they're great in hoisin sauce or fish sauce.  This dish probably takes a total of 40 minutes to make so it's great for a weeknight appetizer.

  Dig in!