Rosie Makes Spring Rolls.

 
 I love spring rolls.
They're light, colorful, delicious, and fun to make.
That said, I was all set to make some beautiful spring rolls.

I had my rice sheets ready, along with a dipping sauce, and all my stuffin's.
I was ready to go!

I envisioned myself making kaleidoscopic spring rolls to rival Masaharu Morimoto's rolls,
amazing in their geometric precision.

 And because of a misspent youth, I thought I had this rolling process down pat.
 I had high hopes.  Truly I did.
My execution, however, was somewhat lacking.

Let's start at the beginning.

Here are my ingredients:

green bamboo infused rice from The Spice and Tea Exchange in Duck
The rice was cooked according to package directions, then I drizzled a little sushi vinegar over top and tossed it.
shrimp from the Hawthorne freezer, boiled and sliced
scallion, julienned
carrot, julienned
cucumber, julienned
red and green pepper, julienned
mesclun mix of greens, from Rosie's garden
purple and green basil, from Rosie's garden
mint, from Rosie's garden

I soaked my rice paper in warm water for about 30 seconds, or until it was pliable, then spread it out on my work surface.

I "artfully" arranged my ingredients on the rice paper.

And then I rolled up the rice sheets.
Honestly, I really thought I'd be better than this.

And I made a dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup Tamari sauce
1 TB rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 knob ginger, pressed
1 scallion, sliced
pinch cayenne flakes

Mix all together.
As for the ginger, whenever I buy it, I cut it into 1-inch cubes and freeze it.  When I'm ready to use it, I peel off the skin and nuke the frozen cube for about 23 seconds.  Then I squeeze out the juice with my fingers or you can have a go at it with a garlic press.  This is how you get ginger JUICE!  You can't get ginger juice from fresh ginger.  Scrape the ginger pulp off the press into the dipping sauce.

How do you like my plate?
That was one of my acquisitions from the KDH recycling center!
Never know what I'm going to find there.
Did you know people actually dump BOOKS there?
For God's sake, the library is just around the corner!
But I digest...

I sliced my rolls into bite-sized pieces.

Drizzled some of the dipping sauce around.

And there you have it.

These were delightful.

Then I decided it needed a little something-something.

So I toasted some sesame seeds and crushed peanuts.

And the nuttiness delivered another nuance.

Happy food!

Enjoy!