Just Picked: Green onions punch up salmon salad rolls with mild bite

Raw or cooked, green onions – with their hollow green stalks and solid white bases – lend a little bit of a bite to all kinds of dishes.

They aren’t as mature as spring onions and don’t have the rounded bulb at their tail end. Their flavor is also a little less intense, so they can be used as a substitute for chives, shallots or leeks.

Green onions add a fresh and mildly pungent flavor to miso ramen and other soups, stir-fries, crispy pancakes and spring rolls.

Less acrid than their larger red or white cousins, they’re great in the raw for garnishes. Sprinkle some over hummus or a creamy homemade ranch dip. Use them to top grilled meats, baked potatoes or pizza.

Or, toss them into salads and salsas, and, tuck them into sandwiches.

Bring out their gentle, natural sweetness with a light sauté, slow roast or flash blanch, followed by a little time on the grill. They’ll punch up pasta, risotto, vinaigrettes or cream-based sauces with their less robust bite – as well as the deep emerald color of their stalks. Consider adding them to a favorite egg dish, such as a frittata or scramble, for a little more pizazz.

Most recipes, including this one for Salmon Salad Rolls from Diane Morgan’s new “Salmon” cookbook, require green onions be chopped. The entire long stalk is edible. Don’t waste the tender stalks or the crunchy bases.

Rinse them under cool water, trim the roots and remove any wilted tops or slimy skins.

Green onions are best used soon after they are picked and purchased. So, whatever you decide to do with these elegant alliums, don’t wait too long. You don’t want them to wither in your fridge.

Salmon Salad Rolls

From “Salmon” by Diane Morgan

Flavorful, healthful and beautiful, these rolls make perfect appetizers, particularly to kick off an Asian-inspired meal. They’re also great additions to a lunch box or easy picnic fare for a summer outing. With leftover salmon on hand, they come together quickly. What goes into the rolls depends on what you have on hand. Sometimes, Morgan uses watercress instead of pea shoots, adds shredded carrots and substitutes mint for cilantro. If you’re short on time, bottled peanut sauce works instead of the scratch-made dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce

2 tablespoons chunky natural peanut butter, warmed slightly to soften

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce, preferably Vietnamese nuac Mam

1 teaspoon peeled and minced fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

For the rolls

2 ounces dried rice vermicelli

8 round rice paper wrappers, about 9 inches in diameter

2 ounces pea shoots (watercress works, too)

1 (12-ounce) piece of grilled or broiled salmon fillet, skin removed, cut into 8-inch long strips

4 green onions, including green tops, halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 4-inch lengths

To make the dipping sauce: In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, hoisin, water, fish sauce, ginger and red pepper flakes, and mix well. Cover and set aside until ready to serve. (The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.)

To make the rolls: Bring a small saucepan filled with water to boil over high heat. Remove from the heat, add the rice vermicelli, and let soak until tender, 5 to 10 minutes.

Drain in a colander, rinse under cold running water, drain again and pat dry.

Have ready a large bowl of warm water, a clean, dry linen towel, a platter and rice paper wrappers. Dip a wrapper into the water for about 5 seconds, turning to dampen both sides, and then transfer to the bowl. You will use one-eighth of each ingredient for each roll.

To assemble the first roll, lay a small portion of pea shoots horizontally on the bottom third of the dampened wrapper. Top with a small mound of noodles, spreading them horizontally. Place a salmon strip, two pieces of green onion and three cilantro sprigs horizontally on top. Roll the edge of the wrapper nearest you over the filling, creating a tight cylinder.

Roll it halfway over again and then fold in the sides of the cylinder, envelope style.

Continue rolling the wrapper, always keeping the filling tightly packed, into a finished cylinder. (It is important to roll the ingredients into a snug cylinder. If it is not snug, the filling will fall apart when you cut or bite into the roll.) Place the roll, seam-side down, on the platter.

Repeat with remaining rice paper wrappers and filling ingredients. Cover the rolls with a damp paper towel and then with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for up to 2 hours.

Cut each roll in half on the diagonal. Arrange on a platter or on individual small plates.

Serve with little bowls of the dipping sauce.

Yield: 8 rolls