18. Go Forth and Roll (summer rolls)

There's been much talk of favourites around here. I've shown you my favourite Lebanese dish, my preferred fish and the winner of my search for the perfect pound cake (which turned out not to be a pound cake at all). But what's my favourite, hands-down, desert island, last meal before I get strapped to the chair, #1 thing to eat? Summer rolls!

Known also as a Vietnamese salad roll or fresh spring roll ("roll" doesn't even look like a word to me anymore), they're typically stuffed with pork, prawns, lettuce, noodles and herbs and served with a fish sauce-based dipping sauce. I'm not a huge prawn fan and I find the usual fillings and sauce a little bland, so while they're tasty with just about anything you have on hand, here are some of my must-haves:

• Protein. I usually use pork (either roasted then sliced, or sliced and quickly pan-fried with hoisin), but I've had good results with marinated tofu strips, chicken and sauteed prawns.
• Basil and mint. Sometimes I only have one and I always miss the other. If you can only get one, pick basil.
• Crunchy (and preferably sweet) vegetables. This time I used carrot, daikon, green onion, romaine and red pepper, but I also like bean sprouts, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, cucumbers, sliced green beans and snap peas. 
• Vermicelli. Plain rice vermicelli does the trick, but for a little more nutrition and fewer calories check out bean thread or konjac noodles. These cushion the wrapper from the pointier ingredients.
• Of course, rice paper (banh trang). Check the sodium content of the package; I once bought a 900-times-the-daily-intake-of-sodium pack by mistake. They shouldn't taste salty. 
• MANGO! It's just not the same without it. 

Here's our setup. Shredded vegetables, meat, sauce, noodles and a rimmed plate for warm water to soften the wrappers as we go. The sauce on the far right really ties the whole thing together. In a saucepan (or usually just the same pan I cooked the pork in. . . mmm, porky), mix equal parts hoisin sauce and chunky peanut butter on low-medium until smooth. Add sriracha and sesame oil if desired. You'll probably need to thin it with a lot of water.

You can pack a lot of fresh vegetables into these little rolls.

After you dip the wrapper in warm water for 10-15 seconds, lay on the toppings. . . 

 And roll it up like a burrito. For extra points, wrap it so that the prettier ingredients (read: not pork) are visible on the outside.

Dip into hoisin-peanut sauce. Chomp. Lay another wrapper in the plate to soften. Built-in digestion time!

We end up having these every few weeks, which is absurd since they're fresh, delicious, can be made with just about anything and require so little prep since they're assembled at the table. When I'm hungry, it usually takes 8-10 rolls to fill me up. Bonus? When you're starving they don't even have to resemble rolls. Make up a tostada-looking affair and stick it in your face.

Dinner. Done.