Need a cure for the cooped up blues? Follow Chef Ben this week as he cooks and eats his way through five countries. Phil and I love ethnic food, and we exposed the kids to it from an early age. One of my gimmicks when the kids were little was to make them little passports, and to stamp them every time we tried food from a different country. When Sophia was really into The Magic Treehouse series, I had her help me plan some time travel meals, too. I don’t remember all the particulars, but we did have buffalo meatballs in a teepee at one point. I think there was also a caveman meal that involved nuts and berries, but little else, so that may have been the last time travel meal.
Our first world tour meal this week takes us to Vietnam. We were first introduced to summer rolls as something a person could do at home, by our neighbors and friends, Howard and Dierdre Tran. We all love summer rolls, and since there was extra peanut sauce left over from last week’s chicken sate, we made good use of it! We don’t exactly have a recipe for this, but here is what we did this time:
Summer Rolls
1 pkg. rice wrappers
1 pkg. bean thread noodles
1 large seedless cucumber, cut into matchstick pieces
1 lb. cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined and halved lengthwise
Mint to taste, julienned
Cilantro to taste, julienned
Lettuce, shredded
(I think that adding bean sprouts would be traditional, but we have even been known to stick in basil, carrots, avocado or mangoes, depending on what we have around.)
Peanut dipping sauce (see Peanut Butter Falcon edition)
Prepare bean thread noodles according to package directions (which usually means placing them in boiling water for 20 minutes or so, and then draining and rinsing them in cold water.)
Place all ingredients is separate piles or bowls for assembly, and put warm water in a pie plate or large shallow dish.
Submerge a rice wrapper in warm water in large pie plate for 30 seconds. Remove wrapper and place flat on rolling surface. Layer on what you like in a latitudinal row, just below what would be the equator if the rice paper were the earth and you were standing at the south pole. I usually put shrimp on first, pretty side down because it shows through. Next comes a dollop of noodles. Follow it with lettuce (more than you think you need), cucumbers, and herbs. Now, this is how we roll. Bring the south pole up over the mass of yummy fillings. Trying to keep everything tight, (you’ll get better by your 10th one) roll it like a burrito, which is to say that east and west fold in just a bit towards the center at about the equator. Then you keep rolling northward until you have a beautiful, delectable summer roll, ready to be dipped in peanut sauce.
Today I wanted to take a bike-walk, but Ben said he wanted to wait until his movie was over. Understandable. He’s only seen it one million times. Of course, by the time the movie was over, it was raining. He had been consulting Alexa about the weather, and he knew what he was doing. He didn’t want to take a bike walk today and he thought that the rain would put me off. Think again, my friend. I told him to saddle up, and I carried an umbrella. (I really needed a walk today.) Every now and then, he would stop, point skyward, point to me, and then work his fingers in a circular motion around the side of his head in the international sign for cuckoo. I always responded with, “Pedal, Boy. You won’t melt.”
We are finding our way along in these unusual times. I try to extend a little grace to Ben, who is managing his disappointment about the loss of friends and routine as best he can. Ben, for his part, extends a little grace to his crazy mother, who makes him bike in the rain.