Vietnamese Spring Rolls

This is a recipe that I have been doing since we lived in another city and used to eat these delicious Vietnamese Spring rolls in a restaurant. The wrappers were filled with fresh vegetables, pork and shrimp and then deep fried!

My whole family loved these spring rolls which we all dissected to see what was in the wrappers. The stuffing was not minced so easily identified and easily made at home.

I have been making these for my daughter in university as a quick supper. They are her favourite and I still continue to have a supply in my freezer.


There is no real recipe other than using a package of ground meat, chicken or pork, thinly sliced Chinese cabbage or regular cabbage, grated 2 -3 carrots, diced small onion, grated ginger, handful of chopped cilantro.  Mix well. The filling is a very mixture and you can add more to create a very colourful filling. 

Sauté the meat and finely chopped onion.. Thinly sliced pea pods, green onions are nice.. However, bean sprouts are a pain as they poke through your wrapper!!
Chopped shrimp can also be added to the filling. I don't put garlic into the filling as I can't stand the smell in the deep freeze as they are first frozen on a cookie sheet before packing them in a covered container.

The spring roll wrappers that I find are the easiest to use and do not tear are made in Singapore by Spring Home, TYJ Spring Roll Pastry. These can be found in the Asian section of your super market. 

About 2 tablespoons of the filling were added to the centre of the wrapping.

The wrapper was folded up and then each side was folded inward to make an envelope.   A trick I learned was to dab a bit of a flour and water mixture at the top end to help the wrapper stick together. 

The package of 50 wrappers, even though I made a big bowl of filling, 5 wrappers were left over. Not a problem, wrap half a banana and enjoy it with maple syrup or ice cream!

!

Since I had Tourtiere filling leftover. I used this along with caramelized onion, hot mango sauce,  slivers of pineapple , cabbage and cilantro.

This filling was very tasty and as always tasters are a favourite of my hubby and I! 

The spring rolls can be deep fried but I have been baking them in my toaster oven for years.  Lightly spray the uncooked spring rolls with cooking oil and bake until golden and crispy, about 20 minutes! Serve with a sweet and sour sauce, my husband loves Hoisin sauce. 

Tourtiere Pies, Meat pies

One of the things I like to have in my freezer is frozen mini Tourtiere Pies.  These little pies were always sent uncooked with my daughter when she attended university.  All she had to do was vent the pie to allow steam to escape as she baked a pie for 30 to 40 minutes at 350.  She said by the time she could smell the pie baking, she was ready to enjoy her supper.  Gravy is traditional served with meat pies but Fresh Salsa is delicious and not as heavy as gravy!  

A French Canadian friend who grew up in French Canadian village talk about this dish always been served after midnight Christmas Eve mass.  

There are many versions of meat pies in Quebec using different meats and spices depending on the area. 

The ground meat is cooked first and then layered into an uncooked pie pastry.  I use a combination of beef and pork along with sautéing a small finely diced onion. 

I used 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1 tsp dry mustard and tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce as the spices.  It is a fragrant pie while baking. 

Since this was a complete meal for my daughter, I liked to add peas to the meat pie which she liked or never complained about it! 

From the standard pie pastry recipe, I am able to make six very packed meat pies.  It occurred to me that I have never baked these pies in a mini size so do not have any pictures of a baked mini meat pie.  I have prepared these pies for my new son in law's birthday this week,  who also loves these pies.   These pies are ready to be packed into a ziplock bag once frozen. 

Vegetable Noodle Bowl with Homemade Ponzu Dressing

 

This easy noodle bowl dish is refreshing and delicious. It is a good way to use up vegetables in your refrigerator.  Perfect as a lenten dish or to reduce the amount of meat in our diet. 

Ponzu dressing is a citrus based watery thin soya dressing which you can also buy in the Asian  section of the Supermarket but easily made at home. 

Ponzu Dressing:

1/4 c soya sauce
1/4 c water
2-3 T mirin/sake
2-3 T rice vinegar
3- 4 T lemon juice or lime juice
1 T dried Bonito flakes 
1-2 tsp Chili flakes
Rind from the fruit

A combination of lime and lemon as the juice is very nice.  I also used a small chunk of Jalapeños in place of  chilli flakes. 

Combine the ingredients in a  sauce pan and bring to boil. Stain sauce into a jar.

For this noodle salad use a combination of vegetables. 

I dehydrated Shitake Mushrooms in hot water until soft, then sliced them thinly as this mushroom is very meaty.  White mushroom can also be used. 

Pan fry the mushrooms in a bit of olive oil along with minced garlic clove and minced fresh garlic.  You can add a hot chilli 

Add finely sliced vegetables.  I used cabbage, white onion and red bell peppers. 

To assemble either in a single bowl or family style eating, add the cooked noodle, then the sautéed vegetables, grated carrots, finely chopped cilantro.  I topped this with steamed shrimp, drizzled the Ponzu dressing, sprinkled sesame seed.  

The combination is endless, other vegetables such as pea pods, bok choy, Chinese Cabbage, peanuts and green Onions.   

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Tomato Roses- Pizza in a Bun

Having some of my No Knead refrigerator dough bread in the refrigerator , I decided to make for lunch an idea I had seen on Facebook. 

I had made Apple Rose Buns for my Daughter's High Tea shower in July and thought I would do them the same way but use thinly slicedTomatoes, grated Mozzarella Cheese, caramelized onions and Italian seasoning.

  I was surprised how lovely they looked and the taste was awesome.. The only think I would do differently is to add some fresh basil inside the roll and as garnish. 

Hot Dogs!

Valentine Dogs for my Grandchildren

These dogs are easy to make and at a moment's notice if you have No Knead Refrigerator dough.   

The recipe has been around for a few years, but the beauty is that you can keep this dough in a vented container for two weeks in the refrigerator..

Perfect for pizza, buns and in this case, wrapping a weiner in dough. 

Aebleskiver (Danish Pancakes)

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday or Fat Tuesday, the beginning of Great Lent in our house.   One of my daughter's favorite food is pancakes and she would eagerly looked forward to this day!  She loved the centres of her pancakes gooey! Why?  With two older brothers, she was able to get the first pancakes of the grill before they did! 

Recently, I found another aebleskiver pan and was anxious to try out using two pans at the same time.  

My husband made his regular pancake batter without separating the eggs and beating the whites, which he often does for his waffles and some of the Aebleskiver recipes do suggest doing this.

Blueberries were dropped into the centre and more batter was added .

The only problem we had was too much batter was used to fill the pockets in the pan.  Some playing around  was needed with keeping the jagged edges in the pockets as the puffy pancakes cooked, but they worked out fine. The pancakes just took longer to cook!   

Whistle Pig Maple Syrup a special gift from Vermont was used! 

Mongolian Beef- Slower cooker

Couple of weeks ago, I saw a recipe for Mongolian Beef posted by one of my friends on Facebook.. I picked up the beef to do it and mentioned the recipe to the cashier at Superstore during check out. Yesterday, Kelly was back in Express and asked if I had made the recipe as she had and thanked me for the recipe.   Her husband loved the dish, although she had used 3/4 cup of Brown sugar and 1/4 cup of white sugar.  Having just bought Beef chunks, I thought I should make the recipe for supper. 

On research for the origins of this recipe, I found that the dish was Chinese-American originating from California.  The recipe is stir fried with vegetables in a savoury brown sauce made using Hoisin, soya sauce and hot chilies. The dish and name was after the method of cooking cut vegetables and meat in a sauce over a very hot grill.  Yet neither are traditional Mongolian.   The Ichiban Restaurant in Winnipeg is fashioned after this style. 

Into the crock pot went beef cubes

along with;

• 1/4 c cornstarch
• minced Garlic
• fresh Ginger 
• 1/2 c of soya sauce
• 1c  water
• 1/2 c Brown sugar

This can also be slowly cooked in the oven at 275 degrees using a covered dish.

When cooked, add 1 c of grated carrots.. I garnished with sesame seeds and chopped green onions.  

Serve with rice or noodles.  I served the beef with sushi rice and a broccoli salad with an Asian dressing.

Although the recipe called for more sugar, it still was pretty sweet.  The beef was tender but did lacked flavor.  Need to increase the amount of spice, i.e. ginger, garlic if I make this again!