Fresh Spring Rolls

My mother loves Vietnamese spring rolls and I obliged her by making some before I left back to Boston College. There is no Vietnamese restaurant anywhere near me in Michigan, so it's a bit of a treat for her(and me, since I never go out to eat anymore). They are easy to make, they just take a fair amount of preparation time and finesse to make a first. If you're too impatient, you're just going to tear apart the rice wrapper and it'll just be a pile of fillings and some torn up rice paper. While this may taste nice, It's not what we're shooting for. Anyway, here's the methodology:

Vietnamese Fresh Rolls

8 Extra-Firm Tofu(a little more than half of the normal tofu package)
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/2 cup Oil
1/2 tbsp Curry Powder
1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 tsp Ground Pepper
2-3 Cloves Crushed Garlic

Rice Paper
Shredded Carrots
Bean Sprouts
Vermicelli(Rice) Noodles
Lettuce(I prefer Boston Bib)

Slice the block of tofu into slices that around 1/4 of an inch thick, maybe a bit more. Mix all of the top group of ingredients well and marinate the sliced tofu in that mixture. Try not to break the tofu pieces at all, that just makes your end job harder. Marinate it for at least one hour, though I usually do it for an afternoon.
Brown the tofu in a pan, cooking it well. Slice it in half length-wise, and get all of the bottom group prepped nice and ready for yourself. Dip the rice paper in warm water, put the tofu in the bottom, and all of the other ingredients on top and fold together. Yes, I'm being purposefully vague on how to do that becasue I'm giving you a video link on how to do it. Yeah, I pretty much stole the recipe. What of it?

Udon Noodle Bowl!

By far one of my favorite things to get when I go out to eat are Vietnamese(Pho) noodle bowls. However, since I live in the middle of bloody nowhere and I have never seen a Vietnamese restaurant in all of Southeast Michigan(I'm sure one does exist somewhere, I just don't know where that is). So, naturally, I had to find an acceptable recipe so I could make it myself. It did take me until last week to actually find some udon noodles that didn't have cornstarch though(Eden Organic is the brand if you happen to be in Michigan, I've never seen them outside of here). Anyway, I took the majority of this recipe from a gluten-free website that I can no longer remember. If I do, I'll say it in the comments.

Broth:
8 cups vegetable broth (either make your own[look at veganyumyum for a good recipe for that] or Pacific and Imagine brands both make corn-free pre-made broths)
1/3 cup Tamari (a more flavorful kind of soy sauce)
2 small unpeeled onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled (still whole)
A 1-inch piece of ginger, coarsely sliced
Two 3-inch cinnamon sticks
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp szechuan peppercorn
3-4 allspice berries (these may be small but they pack a wallop, so watch out)
1/4 teaspoon tumeric (optional, and I accidently put in too much last time which created a bitter aftertaste unfortunately)
Sprinkling white pepper
Sesame Oil
Lime juice

Soup Fillings:
1/2 Pound Udon Wheat Noodles or Rice Noodles

1/2 of a large Radikon
3-4 cups Sugar Snap Peas
2-3 medium carrots
1/2 package(of a total six ounces, I believe) baby bella mushrooms
A small head of broccoli
1/2 cup bean sprouts
A few green onions
Whatever else you want (I actually put parsnips in this one actually, as I had one sitting around)
Optional: 8 oz pan browned tofu, to give some more protien and filling power.

To start the broth, throw everything in a stock pot except for the broth and dry char everything until the onions and garlic are starting to blacken a bit then slowly add in the broth. Let the brother slowly simmer for an hour covered, then run it through a colinder to filter out all the onions, garlic, etc...

Once the broth is finished, things move fairly quickly. Cook the noodles and add the prepped(mostly chopped) vegetables to the soup itself, only around five minutes before actually serving (leave out the green onions for now). If you're adding in tofu, do it at the same time as the vegetables. After cooking all the vegetables, add in some sesame oil(I'd start with 1/4-1/2 tsp) and then serve the soup onto the noodles. This is actually somewhat important, as if you leave rice noodles sitting in water they'll disinigrate and become fairly unappetizing (very important if you have leftovers). Add in the chopped green onions at the last moment for the best flavor from them. If the flavor is too spicy or intense from the allspice, I recommend adding in the lime juice to help counter that.
My final product(my broth is dark because I cook it in a poorly seasoned cast iron pan, which causes the iron to leech in and darken the broth):