Messed Up Summer Rolls and Other Delicious Mistakes

Thursday, May 17th, 2012 | posted by mike

Ahhh, the merry month of May. These gorgeous fresh days of spring make me want to head out to the country with family and friends for a nice picnic. We usually try and keep it simple and grab a few things from our market like Cajun shrimp, squid or octopus salad, some market slaw, maybe a little smoked fish, shrimp cocktail, creamed herring, shrimp gazpacho, a nice cheese, a baguette, a bottle of wine and were headin’ out! Sometimes we get a little more ambitious and make up a Niçoise salad with fresh tuna or a blackened wild salmon salad. Those are meals in themselves!

I was having lunch at Tomukun Noodle Bar the other day and ordered their summer rolls. They were great and I thought, these would make great portable picnic fare. A total healthy meal that you can hold in your hand! These rolls are Vietnamese in origin and the ingredients vary but are built usually around lettuce with fresh basil, mint and cilantro, rice noodles, maybe julienned carrots, cucumbers, and sometimes sprouts. Shrimp, roasted pork, chicken or tofu can be used and are added in any combination. You can have a lot of fun in creating your own summer roll! You’ve got everything in one package, your seafood or meat protein, your rice noodle starch, your salad of lettuce, carrots and herbs and with no added fats they’re so light and delicious! We used wild gulf shrimp and believe it or not king crab in ours. We have broken pieces and knuckles of king crab at the market that we sell for a lot less than the legs and they were fantastic in this recipe. You can also add lightly poached squid and/or thinly sliced poached scallops.

When we first decided to give these rolls a try at home I looked at several recipes that looked pretty cut and dry. Looks can be deceiving. We had all these wonderful ingredients laid out before us. Super fresh cilantro and basil, mint right out of the garden, beautiful organic red lettuce, julienned carrots and cukes, rice noodles ready to go, and lovely shrimp and crab. Now just follow the simple directions and time to EAT! Submerge rice paper in hot water for 15 seconds, place ingredients in the center and roll ‘em up.

shrimp summer roll-lisa monahan photography

Lettuce wrap or a salad?

Yeah right! The rice paper stuck to my hands, stuck to the cutting board, holes were exposing the gaping stuffing. Disaster! After about 5 tries I realized that I didn’t know all you need to know to do these things right. My wife had all her photo equipment set up for the big shot. Props, lights, camera all ready to go. I’m getting frustrated, cranky and hungrier by the minute. All these great ingredients and I can’t even figure out how the restaurants make these rolls look so perfect with their transparent skins showing off all the contents. The heck with it!

Now I’m not usually a quitter but it was getting way too late for a work night. Then Lisa had a great idea! Since these rolls are basically a wrapped up salad, why not make lettuce wraps out of them and we’ll use the sweet chili lime dip. Nothing like a little flexibility with good ingredients. We could have thrown everything in a bowl and had a fantastic salad too.

The next day the thought of my failed attempts at summer rolls was really bugging me. How hard can this be? A little less tired and a little more patient I brought out the ingredients from the night before and gave it a go. It didn’t take long before I realized three major mistakes that I had been making. One was that 10 seconds at most was plenty of time to soak the rice sheets. Any longer they get too flimsy. Another was to lay them on a lightly dampened towel to make them a little easier to work with and the biggest mistake was over stuffing them. I made sure I had a good inch of space on either side of ingredients, rolled them tight and made a few more than originally planned.

Just goes to show ya, If plan A doesn’t work try plan B and then maybe C and if at first you don’t succeed – give up (?), but try again! And in the case of these summer rolls, once you get it down, they’re really pretty easy. Serve for light dinners, picnics or appetizers. You’ll love these with Bernie’s Thai peanut sauce or sweet chili lime dip!

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Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Thursday, May 17th, 2012 | posted by mike

Serves 4 – Makes 8 rolls

shrimp summer rolls salad

Substitute lettuce for the wrap if desired

8 – 9 inch diameter round rice papers

4 oz. rice noodles

16 jumbo wild gulf shrimp (10-15 cnt per lb.) boiled and cut in 1/2 lengthwise

1/4 cup cooked crabmeat (lump, Jonah or king crab)

1/2 cup cucumber cut into 2-inch long matchsticks

1/2 cup carrots cut into 2-inch long matchsticks

16 basil leaves

16 mint leaves

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

8 red lettuce leaves, tear into 5-6 inch lengths

In a large bowl soak rice noodles for 10 min. in hot water, cool in ice bath, drain and set aside

Submerge rice paper sheets, one at a time, in hot water for around 10 seconds (no longer) and place on a clean dampened towel

Arrange 4 shrimp halves colorful sides down lengthwise in center of paper

Spread crabmeat over and between shrimp

Top with some rice noodles, 2 basil leaves, 2 mint leaves, cilantro leaves, carrots and cucumber

Tightly roll lettuce leaf and place on the top

Do not overstuff!

Fold bottom half of paper over ingredients, making sure that the stuffing is tightly stuffed, fold the sides in then tightly roll

Store on a sheet tray covered in saran wrap until ready to serve

Bernie’s Thai Peanut Sauce

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 T soy sauce

3 T rice vinegar

2 T peanut oil

1 T brown sugar

1 clove garlic, minced

1 t ginger

pinch red pepper flakes

Sweet Chili Lime Dip or Dressing

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 T fish sauce

2T sweet chili sauce

Juice of 2 limes

1 small serrano chili pepper thinly sliced (optional, if you like it HOT) or a light squirt of sriracha sauce

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Schwartz' Wild Gulf Shrimp Banh Mi

Thursday, July 21st, 2011 | posted by wendy

(Makes 4 sandwiches)

Here’s the recipe for the components  necessary for the sandwich…you can save them to use in other things like salads as well.

Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish
1 cup warm water
¼ cup distilled white vinegar
2 T sugar
2 tsp Salt
½ pound carrots (grated through a medium fine grater)
½ pound Daikon Radish (grated through a medium fine grater)

Mix the water, vinegar, sugar and salt until the sugar and salt dissolves. Place the carrots and Daikon radish in a container and pour the liquid over. Let pickle for one hour. Can be stored in the Fridge for up to a week.

For the Shrimp
2 T Sugar
2 T water
1 T Fish Sauce
1 T oil
1 shallot finely diced
2 cloves Garlic finely chopped
1 pound wild gulf shrimp
1 T Fish Sauce
½ tsp black pepper

Heat the sugar and water in a pan on medium high heat until the sugar caramelizes and turns dark brown. Carefully (it will splatter) add the water and Fish Sauce and stir over low heat until the caramel dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add Shallot and Garlic and sauté for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add Shrimp, caramel sauce, fish sauce, and pepper and cook until shrimp is pink all over about 3-4 minutes. Let cool.

Assembling the Sandwich
1 Baguette
4 T Mayonnaise
1 t Soy Sauce
1 lb. large wild Gulf Shrimp (see above)
¼ cup pickled Daikon Radish (see above)
¼ cup pickled Carrots (see above)
½ cup thinly sliced Cucumber
1 bunch Cilantro
1 Jalapeno or 2 Serrano chilies thinly sliced (optional)

Cut baguette into four pieces and slice in half. Mix Mayo and Soy Sauce together in a bowl and spread on bread.   Divide Shrimp among 4 sandwiches, place the remaining ingredients on each sandwich and enjoy!

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Schwartz Concocts a Banh Mi Sandwich with our Wild Gulf Shrimp!

Thursday, July 21st, 2011 | posted by mike

When we opened our fish market back in ‘79 our staff was pretty thin. There were just a few of us and a key guy was “Schwartz.”

Mike Schwartz was a U of M student at the time and was working a lot of hours with us, considering he was a student. He had an interest in fish and cooking and already had restaurant experience behind him from his high school years in Livonia. From the start he helped us with recipe ideas for the market and even though Mike went on to become a lawyer and now a teacher, he still pops in to help out, make a prepared dish, or give some recipe ideas.

This past Tuesday Schwartz prepped an amazing lunch special for us. I’ll let him describe it for you along with the recipe. He used our wild gulf shrimp, which we think are the finest out there. The flavor and the firm ” snappy” texture is so much better than the soggy, limp farm-raised shrimp that shows up everywhere nowadays. We also like to support the U.S. fishermen and fishing communities .

I have been telling Michael (Monahan) that he needed to have a lunch special that was served cold. Well, the forecast for the Art Fair this week was HOT. So I thought I should try to get him to serve one of the most refreshing sandwiches around, Banh Mi.  This sandwich usually contains sliced pork or a pate of pork, but I was looking through some of my favorite food blogs and came across Banh Mi burgers on the food blog, Closet Cooking. I remembered that he had a shrimp Banh Mi sandwich a while back, so I searched the archives and found the recipe.

These fill the bill for a cool and refreshing meal on a hot day. There is some cooking, but that can be done ahead of time so that the stove can stay off in the heat of the afternoon.  The Caramelized shrimp will keep for a day or two and the pickled vegetables will keep for a week.

The trick to all of the fresh vegetables is to cut them thin enough. I use a mandoline for the cucumbers and the peppers.  For the carrots and daikon radish I use my Borner 4 sided grater which a julienne side that is just perfect for this cut.  If you use your coarsest setting on your box grater it is a little too large.  I would suggest slicing the carrots and Daikon on a mandoline and then cutting the slices into matchsticks.

As for some other variations,  you could substitute red pepper flavored rice vinegar for the white vinegar in the pickling part of the recipe.  You could also use Monahan’s Mustard Mayo dip instead of plain Mayonnaise (add the soy sauce to the dip). You could also substitute Monahan’s Salmon Burgers for the Shrimp. I would sauté the Salmon Burgers for 1-2 minutes each side before adding the liquid in that cooking step.

Mike Schwartz’ Shrimp Banh Mi is our recipe of the week. Enjoy!

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