Asparagus Bacon Spring Rolls Tapas Party: a Collaboration with West Elm

When thinking of all the reasons why we love the holidays so much, a million thoughts come to mind. And when we think of the reasons what makes the holidays so stressful, a few pop up to the surface. But avoiding the crazy shopping malls pretty much alleviates all the stress already. Maybe we’re getting old, but as the years go by, our holidays become so much less stressful and quite honestly, so much more enjoyable.

Bye bye to all the fancy holiday gatherings we used to do with days of cooking preparation and decorating the house with all the jingle bells and poinsettias in every corner of the house.

Simply put, we now host casual holiday dinner parties full of tapas, small bites and fun conversation. Holiday life is so much easier that way because between holiday photo shoots and two attention-hungry dogs the more casual the party, the better!

We hosted a special little holiday tapas dinner in collaboration with and some of West Elm’s dishes, which we can never get enough. Before they ever reached out to us to collaborate on a tapas party shoot, we had their dishes stocked high in our studio’s prop room already. So adding a few more pieces to our collection was an easy “yes”. Pull our arms, why don’t ‘cha?

On the menu were some favorite recipes from our cookbook Bountiful including our roasted asparagus and bacon spring rolls, charred shishito peppers  and ever-so-popular and fattening crack dip.

We chose West Elm’s Gather Plates for our party because the etching and theme of what we’re about is gathering. The evening couldn’t have been any more perfect and with the addition of some personal favorites from Lindsay’s Suite One Studio dishes we bought, the table was set the exactly the way we wanted: simple, un-fussy and loaded with tons of great asparagus bacon spring rolls.

If you’ve never rolled spring rolls before or have failed, no worries. Rolling these are actually so much easier than you’d ever think and best of all, you can roll anything in them. It’s one of the most fun ways to gather a group of friends together and eat tapas. Here’s a tutorial we wrote on how to roll spring rolls for any of you newbies.

Part of the fun of our spring roll parties is to have everyone roll their own rolls and cut them into bite sized pieces to share with others. For tapas, that’s the best part because you can small bites from everyones creation.  But the real fun at our gathering is watching to see how everyone rolls. Some spring rolls come out like skinny cigars, while other friends roll huge burrito sized spring rolls. It’s always a great laugh to poke fun at those who end up making burritos instead of spring rolls. But it’s all in fun and that’s why gatherings are so wonderful. There’s never a boring moment.

Now we have two weeks before Christmas arrives and we still can’t believe it’s almost here. Where did 2011, 2012 and now 2013 go to? If you figure it out, let us know!

Hope all your holiday planning is swell, full of family and great food. And fingers crossed, less mall time and less stress!

hugs,

diane and todd

  happy holidays!

Yield: about 10 rolls

Total Time: 30 min

The fillings here are not traditionally Vietnamese, but they are examples of the endless possibilities
for spring rolls. This recipe is not paired with a dip because the bacon is already quite salty.
For dip ideas see our other spring roll recipes.

1 bunch tender baby asparagus (about 1/2 pound / 225g)1 tablespoon olive oilFreshly cracked black pepper12 slices bacon, crisped1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks1 medium carrot, cut into matchsticks (optional)Lettuce leaves?Fresh basil or mint leavesRice paper wrappersPreheat the oven to 400°F (205°C).Trim any dry or tough ends from the asparagus spears. On a sheet pan, toss the asparagus with the oil. Add pepper to taste. (Do not salt the asparagus because the bacon will be salty.)Roast until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. (Cooking time will vary depending on the size and thickness of the asparagus.)Gather the asparagus, bacon, cucumber, carrot (if using), lettuce leaves, herb leaves, and rice paper wrappers and prepare to roll.Fill a large bowl with warm (bath-temperature) water. Gently dip each rice paper wrapper in the water for a few seconds, just until damp. (Don’t oversoak.) Place the wrapper on a plate or wooden board. As the wrapper begins to absorb the water and becomes softer and pliable (10 to 30 seconds, depending on the thickness of the wrappers and the water temperature), begin to add the fillings.On the one-third of the wrapper closest to you, place a layer of each filling (asparagus, one slice of bacon, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, and herb leaves).Start rolling the wrapper over the fillings, away from you, tucking and rolling the wrapper with your fingers, making sure all the fillings remain within the wrapper and tucking in the sides as you roll.

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Spring Roll Bites – “Tapas” for All

Perhaps it’s by birth that I’m so addicted to fresh spring rolls. I can’t negate the fact that I was bred on a diet of rice and noodle dishes, so anything with Vietnamese or Asian flavors always sounds appealing. But if I could name one Vietnamese dish that I have at least three or four times a week, spring rolls are the front and center.

My love for spring rolls goes beyond the traditional pork & shrimp rolls that you would find on most Vietnamese restaurant menus. I call those rolls the traditional rolls and also, the default rolls. Those are the rolls that most Viet restaurant cooks will offer, assuming that is the only way consumers are comfortable eating spring rolls. Well, if you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you’ll know that I love going beyond tradition and making my own versions with different fillings from leftovers.

I’ve been known to break many traditional Vietnamese food rules and make a bacon, lettuce and tomato spring roll. I wrote about it previously and publicly apologized to my Mom. Sorry, Mom!

Now guess what? I’m back again to stir up some more trouble and tell you to forget the rolls and serve them up as little mini bites! like Sushi cut rolls! Oy, I can hear my mom rolling her eyes again and wondering how she raised a daughter to be so rebellious in the kitchen. Again, sorry Mom!

So here I go with some bits of party planning wisdom with spring rolls in mind. Yes, Todd and I have had many, many spring roll feasts in our garden and back yard where everyone gets to roll their own rolls. For these dinners, those spring rolls are the main entree. But what if you want to serve them up as appetizers instead?

Well, let’s take the spring roll to the next level and cut them into bite sized pieces as appetizers, or “tapas” style of eating spring rolls. Serving the rolls this way is so fun and allows you to make different types of rolls for a beautiful party platter. It’s one of those dishes that will make everyone drool over because they’re so cute. And it’s also the type of dish that can easily serve different types of eaters, from vegetarian, to vegan, to gluten free and so forth.

You can decide what fillings you want to add, roll them up and cut them into bite sized pieces for everyone to enjoy. In fact, rolling out ten rolls and cutting them into five pieces each makes a platter of fifty little bites. That’s enough for everyone to have two or three, then move on to the next dish.

For your next gathering, potluck or Summer bbq, whip up a platter of these and you’ll be the talk of the party. Here are some spring roll recipes and ideas that I’ve previously shared along with some great ones from other spring roll lovers:

Happy Bites to you!

-diane

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Shredded Pork Banh Mi Bites- A Take on Tapas

Too much of a good thing is certainly possible. Take for example, my favorite sandwich in the world, Vietnamese Banh Mi. But wait, before you blame me for being biased (you’re absolutely right anyways), allow me to clarify a few things about my subjective love of this sandwich.

Yes, I’m Viet-Nam born, am Vietnamese at heart, and grew up eating banh mi for as long as I can remember when I started chewing solid foods. I often took this sandwich for granted as a grade school kid and was often embarrassed about taking it into my school lunch bag for fear of being sniffed out. As soon as this sandwich emerged from my bag, my classmates would pick up the aroma of pungent pickled daikon and carrots.

The pungent smell of pate and fish sauce laced pork loaf meat was quickly picked up by the rest of my peanut-butter-jelly clan of classmates. Noses would turn up, but not in a hateful way. It wasn’t often that fish sauce scented foods made way into an elementary school cafeteria and pickled daikon was known to clear a room rather quickly.

Still, my humiliation radar turned on. The crusty french bread with fresh pickles, rich pate, flavorful pork meat and tender sprigs of cilantro had no value to me at all. This was not quality food, I kept thinking. This was just embarrassing.

I was wishing I had a ham and cheese sliced white bread sandwich instead. And oh, an Orange Capri Sun would have been nice. I never got Capri Suns in my lunch and wished I was with the cool kids sipping this astronaut looking drink bag. Instead, Mom snuck in a can of tofu milk instead. I’m going off on a tangent, but all this is another long, venting post.

Anyways, fast forward 10 years later in High School. My non-Vietnamese friends are bringing banh mi sandwiches to school that they picked up at the local banh mi shop. Suddenly, banh mi was super cool to have at lunch. The cool Senior bench had cheerleaders sharing a banh mi sandwich and the captain of the football team was sporting a grilled pork banh mi and shrimp chips. Here was the coolest white guy on campus eating a banh mi and I’m sporting a PB & J sandwich. There was something seriously WTF’d up with this picture.

Since then, I’ve found pride again in my native foods and every time I pulled out the white wrapped banh mi sandwich, everyone turns my way in envy, not with their noses turned up. I’m crunching on my fabulous banh mi sandwich with crumbs falling on my lap and with a big beam of pride while everyone around me is barely gnawing on their limp PB & J. Those bastards in my 3rd grade class were definitely losing out. I believe that now.

My menu now at parties normally have a banh mi platter filled to the brim with bite sized sandwiches. But as of late, I’ve been playing with more tapas, bite sized, open faced banh mi bites. I’m loving this because the fillings are exposed and the first bite is always terrific and full of the fresh, flavorful fillings. That’s how my fun parties are started with: tasty little banh mi bites.

Timing was quite perfect last month when I was craving my banh mi bites again and thinking of making some shredded pork for the bites and Gilt Taste contacted us about trying out some organic pork. Normally we don’t accept offers to review food products, but knowing the quality of specialty foods that Gilt Taste offered, it was hard to pass up.

From what I had read at Gilt Taste, their market offers quality food made by artisans and small farmers across the country. We accepted their offer to try the Becker Lane Organic Farm‘s heritage breed Berkshire pork shoulder. We trusted Gilt Taste’s choice to support Becker Lane and quality of the pork and ethics on how the pigs are raised.

The pork shoulder was used to make this shredded pork banh mi and we were extremely pleased with the wonderful marbling and flavor. When pork of this quality tastes this good, you don’t need to eat a whole lot to be satisfied. Better yet, the philosophy of Becker Lane on their farming technique is both admirable and in tune of how we try to be more conscious about where our food comes from.

So thank you to the lovely folks at Gilt Taste for helping us satisfy our craving for more banh mi. Like I said in the beginning, too much of a good thing like great pork on banh mi should always be possible. I never feel a bit of guilt when I can enjoy comfort food from my childhood with fabulous ingredients produced with love.

Enjoy!

diane

Shredded Pork Banh Mi Bites Recipe

This recipe is my standard braised Vietnamese pork banh mi recipe and the only difference is how it’s served. Rather than serving it in a closed sandwich style, I’ve served it bruschetta style. These smaller bites are fun and perfect appetizers for parties and gatherings.

For the recipe and step by step photographs, please refer to my original Pork banh mi post.

You can see from the images on this banh mi bites post on how I served and prepared the final look.

Thanks and have fun with the banh mi bites!

More of my Banh Mi & Vietnamese Recipes:

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