Cardio and Cooking: Summer Rolls Before It "Falls" (ba dum tish!)

I wanted to try something new today. I decided to pay tribute to summer before autumn officially hits, after being inspired by one of my new favourite food blogs, Broke Ass Gourmet. First of all, I love the title. Secondly, in addition to your typical recipe prep and cook times, the author, Gabi also provides her readers with the individual costs of each ingredient she has used. It goes to show that you don't have to spend that much to eat well and I like that idea :D

Things I have learned today about summer rolls:
- They are called summer rolls. I've always just called them salad rolls because that's what the English on menus in Vietnamese restaurants say.
- They are a super fast, easy, and inexpensive lunch idea! Ideal for students ;P
- They will magically transform into spring rolls if fried (or baked)!

I wish I could have put all the typical fixings in them (i.e. carrots, glass noodles, beansprouts, cilantro, shrimp, etc.) but I didn't have any of those things at home. I just decided last night that I wanted to make them, which is about as convenient as most of my ideas are. So. Mine were what you would call more...improvisational...and..."contemporary"...?

So, I saw that Gabi had used avocado in her rolls. I happened to have a ripened avocado~ (And I was not going to make the same mistake as last time where I put the whole thing into a blender and smoothie-fied it.) I also have this thing where I need to keep an aesthetic balance in terms of colour. I thought of using a peach instead of mango because it's...kiiind of similar? :/ And then, I wanted something orange-ish. I had no carrots at home, so I settled for...eggs. I don't like eggs, but it looks nice, no? So, there. I ate an egg today.

My first try at summer rolls. I need practice on folding them without tearing the rice paper...

Today's Summer Rolls Version 1.0
(Makes 5 rolls)
Half of an avocado
Half of a white peach
2 eggs
5 rice paper circle sheets (called spring roll wrappers or "Banh Trang")
Warm water

1. Boil your eggs. After they have boiled, place them into a bowl of cold/ice water until cooled. Then, peel the shell, and slice into halves, and then halves again.

• To boil your eggs, set however many eggs you want into a pot, and fill it with cold to room temperature water just an inch above the eggs' surfaces. Make sure that if you are making a lot, you only have a single layer of eggs in your pot. Don't stack them. Bring to a rolling boil without the lid for a 2-3 minutes, then remove it from the heat, cover with a lid, and set aside for about 12 minutes.

2. Pit, skin, and slice half of the avocado into strips.

• Of course, you can use the whole thing, but you'll just need more fruit, more rice paper, and more eggs. I knew already knew it would be too much, so I used the other half of my avocado and peach for breakfast. I pureed them together, spread that onto two slices of toast, and drizzled it with a teaspoon of honey. Sorry, I didn't take a picture because I was too hungry. It was good though. :)

3. Pit and slice half of the peach into strips.

• If you don't want the skin on the peach, you can blanch it. Do so by adding it to your pot of eggs when the water is boiling, and remove it with a slotted spoon after about 1 minute. Place the peach into a bowl of cold water for a bit before removing the peel, and it should come off very easily. You can do this for tomatoes as well, but tomatos are much faster and take only about 30 seconds.

4. Pour some warm water into a pie dish. Place one rice paper circle into the warm water for about 10-15 seconds until soft enough to use. Remove the rice paper and put it onto a plate to arrange your summer rolls. Don't leave the rice paper in for too long or it will get soggy and tear and die. I found that out the hard way today...
5. Arrange strips of avocado, peach, and egg in a row. And...roll and tuck like Peking duck!
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all of your ingredients disappear. Serve with peanut sauce or hoisin sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Et voila! C'est magnifique! (But not really...I would say put something crunchy inside too. All of my fillings were soft, so it wasn't as awesome as it could have been. :/)

• My peanut sauce wasn't very fancy. It was essentially melted peanut butter...

So there you have it! I will try again soon enough but with the real goods at some point because I now have a stack of rice paper circle sheet things in my pantry.

-M