.: evil jungle prince :.

Last night we were invited to a neighbor's cocktail party. I'm notoriously ill-equipped to cope with social events like these, so I'm thankful I can at least communicate with food. To my great delight, my gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese summer rolls, sometimes called Vietnamese spring rolls) were a huge hit! Everyone gobbled them up very quickly and the praise I received was overwhelming.

Gỏi cuố are unfried wraps typically made with pork, shrimp, herbs, rice vermicelli, and other ingredients wrapped in rice paper. My version is the halal version, omitting pork completely.

They were served with a spicy peanut sauce -- sorry, I don't know the Vietnamese name for it. (If you know, please let me know.) This dipping sauce is a mixture of peanut butter, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, garlic, and chili. Believe me when I say the combination of the fresh, cool, herby summer roll dipped in this spicy, savory sauce is a match made in heaven. Honestly!

I'll frankly state here that making Vietnamese summer rolls is a royal pain in the you know what. At the same time, they are so very delicious that they are worth the effort. To prepare them, you will need some patience and practice. Also it is necessary to prepare all of your fresh ingredients in advance, as the wrapping process is a quick process. Wait too long and your rice wrappers will get soggy.

1. Start by preparing your shrimp. These are dropped into boiling salted water until they turn pink. Remove, rinse with cold water, and drain. Pull of the tails and slice in two. Set aside in the refrigerator.

2. Now prepare your fresh ingredients. In a line of bowls, prepare little piles of the following: fresh cilantro with stems removed, fresh mint with stems removed, romaine leaves with the rib removed, crushed peanuts.

3. Now it's time for the difficult part. You will need Vietnamese rice paper rolls and rice stick noodles. These can be obtained at Southeast Asian grocer and sometimes at American grocery stores in the Asian food section. Starting with the rice stick noodles, remove one sheet. Bring a large pot of water to boil. When it boils, turn off. Bend the rice noodle sheet into the pot until it's submerged and cover with a lid. After five minutes of soaking, pour out contents and strain. Rinse noodles with cold water to stop them from cooking. Drain. Place in a bowl next to your fresh ingredients.

4. And now the rice paper rolls. Everybody has their own method, but here's one the works perfectly for me. In a large pan, bring water to a boil. When it boils, turn off flame. Dip one half of the rice paper roll into the water quickly and remove. Rotate. Do the same with the second half. Now place the wet roll on a plastic cutting board. The roll is now ready to be wrapped -- what is happening while you take time to roll it is it's getting softer and softer. By the time you have stuffed it and are ready to roll, the rice paper is ready too. Fill the bottom portion of each rice wrapper with each ingredient. I like to begin with three shrimp so that they 'show' through the wrapper when wrapped. Rice wrappers are rolled just like burritos. Roll from the bottom once to cover the ingredients. Now pull in the sides and roll the bundle upwards, pulling in the sides tightly all the way up. Be sure to wrap the roll tightly or it will look sloppy.

5. Now that your rolls are done, you can refrigerate the rolls or leave them out while you prepare the peanut sauce. This is easy and can be made according to taste. The general makeup is one half peanut butter, one half hoisin sauce. Begin by frying some garlic in peanut oil, add the peanut butter and hoisin sauce, and supplement with some chili (for heat) and fish sauce (for saltiness) to taste.

What do you like to to stuff inside your gỏi cuố?