Party Food?

[minoanmiss]

I have a party to go to Saturday! And I want to make non-sweet food to bring (which is individually portioned, non-drippy, and all the other requirements for a party). I thought of making spring rolls with either smoked duck or tofu, but I wanted your advice.

1) is it sensible to make spring rolls the night before serving them?
2) will they be flavorful enough with the sauce on the inside but not the outside? (as in, no dipping sauce, but sauce on the stuffing components)
3) Will I have the energy to make them after working all
day Friday?

I was thinking of modifying this recipe.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/03/easy-vegan-crispy-tofu-spring-rolls-tamarind-peanut-dipping-sauce.html

Comments

[tibicina]

If you're going to put the sauce inside, making them the day before is unwise. Rice paper can do odd things when exposed to too much moisture for long periods of time. Also, the tofu won't stay crispy.

(If you do decide to do spring rolls ahead of time a - make sure to cover with a slightly damp, but well wrung out towel, and b - if you have sauce inside, it will need to be thick, like hoisin or the thicker kinds of peanut suace.)

My general experience is that rice paper rolls do not survive sitting around well. the rice paper dries out or turns this weird extra-rubbery which is hard to eat or starts to disintegrate.

I've had spring rolls that were flavorful enough without a dipping sauce, but it can be a hard ballance to achieve.

(Oddly enough, the tuna salad ones we make sometimes actually do seem to last well and work without dipping sauce, but it's because tuna salad is designed to stand up to bread and is moist enough to keep the rice paper supple without creating weird moisture pockets that tend to cause problems with the rice paper. So maybe if you did some sort of duck salad it would work and distribute the moisture enough.)

[minoanmiss]

This is really useful advice as I contemplate if I can pull this project off. I did actually develop a smoked duck salad based on ham salad, so that suggestion in particular may make this feasable. Or maybe I will try to get up early on Saturday. \ Thank you :)

[rosefox]

That sounds like a TON of work.

[gingicat]

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/09/suzhou-savory-pork-mooncakes.html

With duck, instead.

[acelightning]

Hey, I could eat those - I just have to leave out the scallions! (I don't like duck, though, so I'd stick with the pork filling. Or maybe ground beef - I've seen many Chinese recipes that we Americans think are always made with ground pork, but the authors point out that in China they actually do use ground beef.)

[acelightning]

At first I thought you were talking about Chinese spring rolls, which are a lot like Chinese-American restaurant "egg rolls" - the wrapper is a thin sheet of simple noodle-like dough, and the filled rolls are deep-fried. Those can be made ahead, and cooked until they're just a little bit brown, and then fried to full brown-ness and crispness just before serving - in fact, many recipes recommend doing them that way, because it ensures that the filling gets evenly cooked.

Looking at the recipe you're using, though, I think you could just cook the tofu until it's nice and brown and crisp, and serve it with a couple of different kinds of dips. After all, people eat chips with dips at parties - you just have to make sure the dip is fairly thick and sticky.

(And I'm going to steal that method for frying tofu! I'm thinking it might work just as well as chicken in my peanut-butter-sauce recipe, which I tried with plain tofu once, which was less than thrilling. The browned, crispy fried tofu could be just what I need.)

[killing_rose]

My two cents is "if you want to make spring rolls, assembly line that morning is best". (We made spring rolls for years for International Club's fundraisers, and the biggest problem is is that since they dry out within about 30 minutes without careful application of wet towels, you have to make them continuously.) And yeah, sauce inside is not the best bet.

(That said, I'm now contemplating the tuna rec from up entry)

[tibicina]

One of the random thought experiments my boyfriend and I used to do on long drives was figuring out weird fusion ideas that might work. The tuna salad spring rolls came from that and ended up really good.

(ginger-peach-tea jello and cardamom-almond jello also work really well. We never managed to try out Tom Kha hot dish, but I keep thinking I need to make it sometime.)

[surrealestate]

Oh man, I'm bummed if the party you went to was the one that I was at and I left before you arrived and missed both you AND the spring rolls!

[minoanmiss]

Alas/unfortunately I woke up sick, so no party or spring rolls for me. :( I would have liked to see you!

[surrealestate]

Oh no, that's worse than having missed you! I hope you feel better soon.

[cellio]

Oh, bummer!

[purlewe]

These are for your future files.
I have made these recently and they were good! Made them the night before.
https://www.marthastewart.com/344957/garlic-herb-pinwheels

Also, anytime someone makes devilled eggs they get eaten. Play around with adding curry powder to the filling, or avacado. add a black olive slice if you want them to be more festive. TOTALLY can make the night before.