Kitchens Are Monkey Business: Rosie's Making Rice Rolls.

Monday, January 6, 2025

Rosie's Making Rice Rolls.

I was in the mood for something light, yet filling - a semi-substantial meal. Typically I turn to Asian cuisine for inspiration for such a meal and that's how I came up with the rice rolls. I started to call these "spring" rolls, then I started researching the subject (i.e. Googling) and found out that in the pantheon of Asian rolls, we have, among others, three basic rolls – spring rolls, egg rolls, and summer rolls. And they're all different animals.

According to my Googling, spring rolls originated in China and were served at Chinese New Year banquets. They were called spring rolls because the Chinese New Year is also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival and marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, representing the desire for a new life. Well, I think we can all relate to that. Spring rolls have a paper-thin wrapper made from flour and water. They're filled with whatever combination of pork, shrimp, cabbage, and bean sprouts, and then they're fried. The wrapper crumbles and shatters into flakes easily when eaten.

This is different from an egg roll, which is an Americanized variant of the Chinese spring roll. An egg roll has an egg in the wrapper batter, resulting in a thicker batter. It's still fried, so you have a blistered and bumpy skin, whereas the spring rolls, although fried, are smooth.

Now, if you're still with me, a summer roll has a translucent wrapper and is not fried. It's served room temperature or cold and goes by such names as Vietnamese spring rolls, fresh spring rolls, or salad rolls. The wrapper is rice-paper and they're based on the Chinese spring roll but were taken by Chinese immigrants to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines. Ingredients varied due to local climates and existing culinary traditions, so the summer roll is a lighter, fresher offering.

That said, let's make some (summer) rolls. I'm not calling my rolls Vietnamese, because that would probably be offensive to the culture, and I don't want to start off my year being offensive to any one particular culture. I prefer to be pan-offensive, so, for now, I'll just try to keep my rolls culture- and gender-free. I'll just call them Rosie's Rice Rolls, if only for alliterative purposes. Whatever you call them, I think you'll enjoy them.

Rosie's Rice Rolls

Makes about 12 rolls.

1 package of rice paper

For the filling:

1 cup cooked white rice*

1 lb. ground pork

4 TB soy sauce or tamari sauce**

1 shallot, minced

2 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed

4 baby carrots, julienned***

1 large radish, julienned

6 scallions, thinly sliced

butter lettuce leaves****

basil leaves, chiffonaded*****

For the pork:

In a medium bowl, combine the pork with the soy or tamari sauce. I mixed by hand until well-combined.

In a medium skillet, heat 1 neutral-flavored oil until shimmering hot, then add shallots and pinch of kosher salt. Cook, stirring, until light brown, 3-4 minutes. Add in minced garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet, let it get hot, then add the pork mixture, breaking it up with a wooden spatula, until brownish. Add in the rice and stir until evenly incorporated. Transfer to bowl with shallots and garlic and let cool to room temperature. Stir in scallions.

*For the rice, I used 1/3 cup uncooked basmati rice, poured it into 1 cup salted water, brought it to a boil, reduced heat, covered it, and cooked 15-20 minutes, until water was absorbed, then added in a plunk of unsalted butter. You could use jasmine rice, if you like. Both are long-grain aromatic white rices Basmati has a nutty flavor, whereas jasmine is slightly sweeter and has a floral fragrance.

** Both soy sauce and tamari are fermented soybean products, but tamari is generally made without wheat, so if you want a gluten-free option, there it is. Typically, soy sauce is thinner and saltier with a sharper flavor and a bit of a bite whereas tamari sauce has a longer fermentation process, resulting in a thicker sauce with a smoother taste and a richer, deeper umami flavor.

*** Julienne is a French cutting technique in which the food is cut into very thin, even strips, like matchsticks. I cut the carrots and radishes into thin planks and uniformly stack them, then cut into matchsticks.

**** Butter lettuce is also known as Bibb or Boston lettuce. This is a soft, leafy, tender green which pairs well with crunchy ingredients and, because of its delicacy, lends itself nicely to wraps. You'll find butter lettuce usually encased in a plastic dome with the roots still attached, which keeps the head fresh longer.

***** Chiffonade is a another cutting technique where you stack your fresh basil leaves on top of each other, roll them up tightly lengthwise, then slice crosswise, cutting the leaves into very thin strips or ribbons.

Dipping Sauce for Rice Rolls:

juice of two limes

zest of one lime

1 garlic clove, finely minced or pressed

1 serrano chili, pith and seeds removed, minced

1 tsp sugar

1 TB soy sauce or Tamari sauce

1 scallion, sliced

Combine all ingredients, whisking until sugar dissolves.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Optional: minced ginger with its juice. I buy whole ginger root, cut it into 1-inch cubes, and freeze it. That way, I always have ginger on hand. Also, freezing ginger is the best way to get the juice out of it. I take the frozen knobs, nuke them for 15-20 seconds, then simply squeeze the juice out and it comes out readily and abundantly. Use 1-2 knobs of ginger for this sauce, or to taste.

Assembling the rolls:

Set a lightly oiled baking sheet nearby to place the assembled rolls on.

Fill a wide, shallow dish with warm water. Soak one rice paper wrapper in the water until it just starts to soften, about 10 seconds. (If you leave it in the water too long, the wrapper will disintegrate.) Lay the softened paper on a cutting board and place a lettuce leaf or two along the bottom third. Place julienned carrots and radishes on leaf, then the pork mixture. Top with chiffonade of basil. Fold lower portion of wrapper up over the filling, then continue rolling, tucking in the sides, to create a tight bundle. Set on oiled sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining ingredients until the pork mixture is used up. Serve now, or let sit at room temperature, covered, for up to 2 hours. To serve, slice each roll into fourths and accompany with dipping sauce.

If you're serving these rolls for a crowd, it's always fun to make a do-it-yourself spread. Lay out all the ingredients and let everyone assemble their own. This can be quite entertaining as you observe the range of your guests' rolling skills - from the totally inept (I'm looking at you Rhymes-With- Schmarilyn. Yes, I've seen your pathetic attempts at the cooking classes at the NC aquarium.) to those whose muscle memory from a misspent youth suddenly kicks in and they're rolling like Snoop Dog (although I think Snoop actually has someone on the payroll whose job it is, forsooth, to roll his blunts.

Toppings:

Chopped parsley or cilantro

Red pepper (sweet bell or hot), diced

Toasted sesame seeds

Sliced scallions and/or curled scallion strips (Use mostly the white parts down to the bulb for slicing, the top greener parts for curling.)

For the toppings, sprinkle chopped parsley or cilantro, small slices of red peppers, toasted sesame seeds, and sliced scallions. For a nice little flourish, you might want to make curled scallion strips also. This is a technique that can come in handy when you want to add a bit of a decorative and tasty accent to your plate. Using mostly the green part of the scallion, cut it into very thin strips lengthwise. Submerge the strips in ice cold water. The chill causes the fibers in the onion to contract and the strips curl up. Takes about 7 minutes.