Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Another perfect summer recipe, inspired by Vietnamese cuisine! Fresh and delicious!! It makes a great appetizer or a wonderful light supper.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 lb steak
1 pkg vermicelli
1 pkg spring roll wrappers (round)
1/2 cucumber (seeded, peeled, and finely julienned)
2 carrots (peeled and finely julienned)
1 bunch scallions (finely cut on bias)
Mint (chopped)
Cilantro (chopped)
Basil (chopped)
Chopped peanuts

NUOC CHAM (Traditional Dipping Sauce):
2 T lime juice
1 T rice vinegar
1 1/2 T sugar
1/2 C water
2 T fish sauce
1 clove garlic (finely minced)
1 T sweet chili sauce

PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE:
2 T hoisin sauce
1/2 C water
2 T peanut butter
1 T sweet chili sauce
1 T sugar
2 cloves garlic (minced or crushed)
1 tsp ginger (finely minced or crushed)

MARINADE:
3 T soy sauce
1 T fish sauce
1 T brown sugar
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 tsp ginger (finely minced or crushed)

DIRECTIONS:
1. For the steak:  combine marinade ingredients and marinate as long as possible, up to overnight.
2. To cook the steak:  grill or broil until medium or medium-rare.  Slice against the grain into strips about 1" long.
3. For the nuoc cham:  mix ingredients.  Adjust to taste.  (Personally, sometimes I like a little extra rice vinegar, fish sauce, or sweet chili sauce.)
4. For the peanut dipping sauce:  combine ingredients.  Adjust to taste.
5. Cook the vermicelli per package instructions.  Do this just before you're ready to make the summer rolls.
6. To prepare the rolls:  get a pie plate filled with hot water.  Put a cover over it to retain the heat.  This is how you will prepare the rice wrappers.

When ready to roll, dip your wrapper into the hot water until it softens, 5-20 seconds.  (The hotter the water, the quicker it will soften.)

Take it out, put it on your plate.  Fill the center (not too full!) like a burrito, leaving some room at either end.  Put first your steak, then your vermicelli, then your veggies, then your herbs, and finally your peanuts, if desired.  Fold the two ends in toward the filling, then roll like you would a burrito.  Make sure it's firm, so that it'll stay together!  (Not quite the traditional way, but this makes it easy!)

Enjoy!!

NOTES:
It works best to have everyone make the rolls as they're ready to eat them.  That way, the wrappers stay fresh and soft!  (They can go a bit hard/tough/rubbery if you prepare them in advance.)

Drew's Bruschetta

The best summer recipe ever!! I LOVE this with our homegrown heirloom tomatoes!

INGREDIENTS:
Tomatoes (best quality possible, preferably heirloom, diced)
Mozzarella (cubed)
Basil (Genovese, torn or chiffonade)
Olive oil (best quality possible)
Sherry vinegar
Salt
Baguette (cut into pieces at angle)
Procuitto (best quality possible)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Put tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella in bowl.
2. Gently mix in a decent amount of olive oil and sherry vinegar, to taste.  It shouldn't be so that the tomatoes are drowning in oil, but it should be enough so that there's some "juice" when you put it onto a piece of bread.  Don't put so much vinegar in that you overwhelm the oil or tomatoes!  You want the flavors to dance together subtly, rather than hitting you over the head.
3. Add salt, to taste.
4. Toast the pieces of baguette, preferably on a charcoal grill.  Get them toasty, with slight char marks.  You want crunch, so that texture will offset the juicy softness of the topping.
5. When ready to serve, set out the tomato mixture, the warm bread, and the procuitto.  Have everyone assemble their own:  bread, topped with the tomato mixture (with a bit of the "juice") and then a piece of procuitto.  Enjoy this lovely taste of summer!!

NOTES:
You want good quality tomatoes for this to work.  The tomatoes you usually buy in the grocery store smell and taste like plastic!  Go to your local farmer's market...or grow your own!  You want slicing tomatoes; paste tomatoes just won't work here.  I like to add color, so I use green, yellow, orange, pink and red tomatoes.  It makes my plate so pretty!