Spicy peanut rolls ala Esrati

The real credit for these goes to the now defunct Dharma Deli that was in the Second Street Market. I loved their spicy peanut rolls, and since we sort of cut out bread in the house, these have become a lunch staple.

I typically whip 2 of these up for lunch. Everyone I’ve made them for has loved them- so I decided to share the recipe for my spicy peanut rolls as a how-to video.

What you need- and where to get them:

From International Foods ^[1] on Airway (4770)- right next to Linh’s Vietnamese Restaurant ^[2] (one of my favorite places to eat in Dayton)

• Rice paper wrappers- they come in a hundred or so pack for $2
• Sweet chilli sauce- (egg roll dipping sauce) this is the hardest part, my favorite had a yellow squeeze bottle top, but haven’t seen it for a while. There are plenty of different brands, but they are all different. And- almost all the brands have horribly designed labels. A big bottle is $3. You can get a tiny 8 oz bottle of this stuff at Trader Joe’s for the same $3- but why?
• Firm tofu- you can get this stuff almost anywhere.
• Red cabbage- I shave it- then chop. Green cabbage doesn’t work- I’ve tried- different taste.
• Organic carrots- grate them. This is one food that I demand to buy organic- the other carrots now taste weird to me.
• Organic peanut butter- doesn’t matter what brand.
• Red bell peppers- again, I’ve tried the green ones and it doesn’t taste the same. Slice them in long strips to stiffen the roll.

Prep your veggies- heat a bowl of water in the microwave. Dip the rice paper in- get it wet and soft, then put it on a plate. Spread peanut butter in a line down the middle, put a slice of tofu in, line up the red pepper slices along side, cover with the sliced red cabbage and the carrots- pour on your sweet chilli sauce and then fold in sides and roll the rest (see the video).

Be careful what you put these on- the rice paper sticks to lots of stuff. I usually make two for lunch. If the veggies are prepped takes less than 5 minutes for 2. Veggie prep takes a bit more time- about 1o minutes – and I keep them in a Rubbermaid container for the next day.

Here’s the video:

The video was shot by our former intern Daniel Lyon and edited by The Next Wave ^[3]‘s own Max Spang. We can do videos like this for your business- to help draw traffic from YouTube to your site. YouTube is the number two search engine out there.

We also plugged the amazing anti-microbial Pasha Sponge ^[4] which is a side project of The Next Wave’s Lou Lozada who runs our new Miami FL office. Lou has won One Show Pencils, Cannes Lions and can ride a surfboard, shoot video and speak Spanish all at once. You should really consider trying out one of these amazing sponges- I’ll not go back to anything else again- our other sponges just feel filthy compared to the Pasha Sponge.

Happy eating!