Summer Rolls & Dumplings

To celebrate the end of Jess's semester (straight A's!!), we planned another fun cooking day. I told her that she needed to come up with the idea, because she's a better picker than I am. The only kindasorta rule I have is that it should be a project that neither of us has undertaken before.

Summer Rolls and Steamed Chinese Dumplings won. A few thoughts:

The recipe for Vegetable Summer Rolls is a winner, but only makes four. Ummm... neither Jess nor I think it would be worthwhile to make four of these. We made them until we ran out of ingredients, which I think was 15. We didn't assemble them exactly as directed, because I'd researched summer rolls in Fine Cooking and gotten ideas for how to make the outside look pretty. We tried various combinations -- green herbs on white noodles, green herbs on orange carrot and a few others.



They are delicious. The flavors are fresh, light and perfectly balanced with cilantro, mint & basil. The peanut sauce (not pictured) is good enough to eat with a spoon (we didn't) or to lick with your finger (we did).

just prior to our first taste-test:


The recipe for Shrimp & Spinach Dumplings with Asian Dipping Sauce is also a winner. We would change two things, though. The instructions say to cut the wonton wrappers into circles. Ha! Jess said there was no way she was doing that (waste! tedium! no way!). I said we'd do at least a few and then if she wasn't having fun, we leave the rest in squares. Plus, we know that you can buy round wonton wrappers, and why the recipe doesn't specify that to begin with, we don't understand. We would next time. We also think you could double or triple or quadruple the amount of spinach.

steaming dumplings:


Too. Much. Fun!!! We had a great time, as we always seem to. The food turned out great, as it always seems to. Next up, we're either having a Paella Party or we're doing a huge Indian spread. Stay tuned!