Vermicelli Vegetable Rolls

With 10 people coming to dinner, we really wanted to avoid having the kitchen as a central hangout. We had moderate success with this by 1. Setting all of the glasses and cups on the kitchen table so that it wouldn't be tempting to sit at the table:



2. Setting up the appetizers in the other room:



Ingredients:

1 package rice-paper wrappers
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, picked
1/2 cup julienned red pepper
1/2 cup julienned yellow pepper
1 cup snow peas, stringed and julienned
1 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup pickled ginger
1 recipe seasoned vermicelli noodles (see below)

Seasoned Vermicelli Noodles

To cook the noodles - bring water to a boil - drop in noodles for no more than 2 minutes - drain. Mix noodles with:

1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 cup cooked vermicelli noodles

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the sesame oil and rice vinegar. Toss cooked vermicelli noodles in sesame mixture. Set aside.

Process:

1. In a large bowl filled with warm water, soak one rice-paper wrapper for about 20 seconds or until soft. Lay wrapper out on a tea towel to absorb excess water. Transfer wrapper to a flat surface.

2. About 1/3 from the bottom of the wrapper, create a 3-inch-long row with some cilantro leaves followed by some red pepper, yellow pepper, snow peas, bean sprouts, vermicelli noodles and a little ginger.





3. Carefully fold the bottom of the rice-paper wrapper over the vegetables. Turn in the sides and continue rolling up from the bottom.

4. To serve, slice the roll in half on a bias. Serve with Orange-Chili Dipping Sauce or your sauce of choice.
Note: Of course we deviated from the instructions and didn't slice the rolls in half since we bought the smaller rice paper. It would make more sense with the larger rice paper rounds. Also, important to note - when serving, having some attractive looking lettuce as a) a base and b) to interweave between the rolls is important. If you just stack them, they'll stick together and you'll end up with a mess.



Orange-Chili Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup fresh orange juice
3 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk together all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Allow sauce to stand for 30 minutes for flavours to infuse. Serve at room temperature.

I also made a peanut dipping sauce to go with the rolls. Unfortunately, I can't find the exact recipe. Here is one that looks similar:

Peanut Dipping Sauce



1/2 cup natural-style creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 small garlic clove, mashed to a paste
1 teaspoon chile-garlic paste
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
Siracchi Chili Sauce (to taste)
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup water



The general consensus was that the peanut dipping sauce was the sauce of choice.

Seasonal Ontario Food have also posted a similar version of this recipe.

We'll be submitting these rolls to next week's Presto Pasta Night Roundup.

Phoney Pho

Cravings are irrational, or so I keep telling myself. I learned early on in my pregnant life (about 100 years ago) that dill pickles are NOT an irrational craving. They only become irrational when mixed with ice cream. Just ask psychgrad about dill pickles. I believe she has some residual cellular memory of these cravings from in utero.

So in a round about way, what I've come full circle on is today's craving which was for a steaming bowl (a tub would have been even better) of Vietnamese Pho Soup. The only issue I have with the real deal is the sodium content (note sodium obsession kicking in). In an effort to keep it healthier, I created my own version and although there's something really special about sitting in a small Vietnamese 6 table restaurant having this massive bowl served to the table, this version does satisfy the craving and I feel better for it for not ingesting excessive amounts of sodium.



Ingredients:
Home made chicken broth (store bought would work too)
Cut pieces of whichever protein you chose (or not). I used chicken
1/4 cup pea pods
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 - 1/2 cup mung bean sprouts
1/4 cup broccoli florets
1 baby bok choy cut up
rice vermicelli noodles to your liking
Siracchi hot sauce (or whatever hot sauce you like)

Process:
1. Fry together pea pods, shredded carrots, broccoli, baby bok choy so that they only lose some of their crunch - about 3-4 minutes
2. Boil water, add vermicelli rice noodles - don't cook for more than 2 minutes, drain.
3. Bring soup to a boil. In the meantime, in a large bowl cut up protein, add drained vermicelli noodles, fried vegetables and then soup.
4. Top with fresh mung bean sprouts
5. Add hot sauce to your taste





This soup is nutritious and very filling. I don't add any spice at all to this soup - the hot sauce gives it both bite and flavour.

Dinner out..

R and I went out for dinner...

I ordered Pho:



He ordered sushi:



Both were just ok. I'm not a big sushi lover. It's true, I belong to what seems like a small minority of people who don't like sushi. A California roll is ok, but seaweed is gross. My pho was pretty bland. The chicken was dried out and the shrimp didn't have any flavour. Oh well, I tried.


UPDATE: I should clarify that my "Oh well, I tried" refers to the restaurant and not to trying pho. I generally like pho and have been to a couple of good pho restaurants. There are a couple of newer pho places in closer walking distance to my apartment and I've tried them out. Both were not great. One was the dish above and the other was beef. Above is my first chicken and shrimp pho. Rich is right, stick to beef. Lessons learned - 1. go to the Vietnamese area of town where there are many pho restaurants rather than restaurants in my near vicinity. 2. stick to beef pho. Other lesson I learned from eating pho 3. don't order an appetizer unless you're getting a small bowl of pho (or have a big appetite). Pho on its own is very filling.