Monday, May 10, 2010

Rice Paper Rolls and my latest food obsession

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Patience - that's what I am cultivating and loads of it, enough to handle all the pranks and discoveries of a one year old. Needless to say am also looking to spend less time in the kitchen without compromising on variety and quality. To satisfy my craving for quick and healthy recipes I made this quick appetizer over the weekend.
It so happened that I brought back a bag of rice paper sheets on my recent visit to an International grocery store. I was eying them for quite sometime now. You see, for the past few years we often ordered these rolls at Thai restaurants. They were sold for almost $2.50 a piece so i often thought that they were really time-consuming to make. 
However I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that they are actually very easy and healthy too.  They are everything you want an appetizer to be - easy, quick,healthy,make-ahead and simply superb for the summer since they can be served cold.




What you need is : -

2C shredded vegetables( I used a mix of red cabbage,carrots,spinach leaves)
1/4C finely chopped cilantro and mint
Rice paper sheets
Warm water and a napkin
 Hot and sweet dipping sauce

1. Pour warm water on a shallow plate and place the rice paper for 20s till it becomes soft.
2. Now spread the rice paper on a cutting board lined with a clean kitchen towel
3. Place the veggies and cilantro-mint mixture.
4. Carefully fold the edges and bring together in a roll.
5. Chill in fridge for 1 hour and then serve with dipping sauce



There are endless combinations of fillings for this roll. Like this one on One Hot Stove that uses Tofu or this one that uses chickpeas. 
This almost a no-cook recipe that can be assembled in less that 20mins for a regular home cook. So this goes to Twenty-20 Cooking Event hosted at Kitchen Samraj.

And now my latest food obsession - Sun dried tomatoes. I picked up a jar this weekend and ever since the ingredient is finding its way in most of my cooking.
 
I am loving its sweet,tangy and moist  flavor. So far I have used it in salads and sandwiches. I will post some blog-worthy recipe soon. Have you been using it for any other recipes ??







3 comments:

Niloufer Riyaz said...

an easy breezy snack, tasty too. thanks for sending it to my event. do send more

Sangeetha said...

Suparna, Thanks for stopping by my blog! Seems like we have a few important things in common - a cooking blog and a infant. Mine is 9 months old.
The summer rolls look very tasty!

Spice Rack said...

Tasty summer dish, Looks so delicious. One main attribute that I consider as a good or shall i say a competitive cook is to know how to maintain his/her place clean, doesn’t matter if the kitchen is big or small. We all know it is impossible but it is a must. Lucky spice rack contribute a great help to his/her master when it comes to cooking at maintaining clean place both at the same time.