Recipes Discovered

Summer Rolls Recipe

When Seth and I eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, we always get summer rolls. Summer rolls are similar to spring rolls, but they aren’t fried and are served at room temperature. Shrimp, vegetables, herbs, and rice vermicelli (a very thin Asian rice noodle) are wrapped inside an unfried rice wrapper. They are often served with fish sauce or peanut dipping sauce. I don’t really care for fried spring rolls, but there is something about the combination of the chewy rice wrapper and the filling of the summer rolls that I love.

I decided I would make 3 dipping sauces for the summer rolls. The first was the traditional chili fish sauce, which consists of fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, sugar, garlic chili sauce and water. I whisked the ingredients together until the sugar dissolved. The second sauce was peanut sauce, which is another traditional sauce served with summer rolls. >> Read more

Fried Cabbage and Onions Recipe

I needed to use the cabbage that was left over from the summer rolls, and the only thing I could think of was my mom making haluski. Haluski is sauteed noodles and cabbage, but I didn’t have the noodles, so I just went with savoy cabbage and sweet onions. I also didn’t want to use a lot of butter to fry the cabbage, so I used about 3/4 of a cup of chicken stock with a tablespoon of butter. The cabbage and onions wilt down and get really sweet and caramelized after about 20 minutes. It’s a quick, tasty, and very cheap side dish.

Couscous Salad Recipe

I am always searching for interesting twists on classic dishes. I was planning on making a pasta salad for our barbecue today, and when I was looking at recipes, I found one for couscous salad. Couscous is a very tiny pasta that is popular in Moroccan and Mediterranean cuisine. Instant couscous cooks very quickly (5 minutes) and takes on the flavor of whatever liquid it’s cooked in, which makes it a great pasta to pair with vegetables.

To make the couscous, I boiled 2 cups of chicken stock and poured that over 1 1/4 cups of couscous with a dash of salt. I covered it and let it stand for 5 minutes before fluffing it and then letting it cool.

In another bowl, I combined a diced red onion, diced cucumber (I used a seedless English cucumber), and diced orange bell pepper. In another small bowl, I whisked together about a tablespoon of olive oil and the juice and zest of one lemon. I added the cooled couscous to the veggies,  poured the dressing over everything, and then sprinkled chopped parsley on top (I like parsley more than cilantro). I didn’t add anymore salt to the salad, but I did add a bit of pepper.

This salad is such a great alternative to regular pasta salad. It’s very light and has a refreshing flavor from the lemon. The pasta get a lot of flavor from the chicken stock and makes a perfect balance to the crunchy vegetables. It’s served at room temperature and since there is nothing in it that can spoil, it makes a great salad to take on picnics.  Plus, it’s a very attractive dish with all the different colored vegetables. Overall, a definitely crown pleaser and a delicious side side.

Warm Dandelion Salad Recipe

I hesitate to call this dish a salad, but honestly, I don’t know how to classify it. When I was little, I remember my grandmother making hot dandelion. My mom and aunt used to search the yard in the spring to find baby dandelion leaves. My aunt to this day still picks her own dandelion and has continued the tradition of making hot dandelion. I believe it’s an Amish or a German Dutch dish, but the recipe my uses has been passed down for many generations. When I was young, I would never eat it, but as I got older, I tried it. Every year, I go through the same debate if I actually like it or not. It’s a difficult dish to classify. It’s sweet, but it’s also very sour, and salty, and bitter. Since I’m not home this year to give hot dandelion yet another try, I asked me aunt for the recipe to try making it myself. Florida unfortunately makes finding dandelion a bit of a challenge, but luckily, endive and chicory make excellent substitutes.>> Read more

Baked Fish Recipe

Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

Fried fish is really popular and fish ‘n chips is even more popular. It’s also really greasy and not so great for you. I know it’s hard to replace the flavor of fried food when it’s baked, but I had to at least try. So here is my version of Fish ‘N Chips – baked instead of fried.

To add some flavor to the fries, I used sweet potatoes instead of russets. I peeled the potatoes and cut them into large fry shapes, similar to the size of a steak fry. I put them on a foil lined baking sheet and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I put them in a 400 degree oven.

While they baked, I made the batter for my fish. I mixed flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl and in another, I mixed milk and eggs. Then I combined the wet and dry ingredients. The recipe I found for baked fish had some negative reviews. People said the batter didn’t have any flavor and it didn’t really stick to the fish. To fix this, I added a tablespoon of Emeril’s Essence to the batter mixture and also dredged the fillets in a mixture of flour and Emeril’s Essence before coating them in batter. Emeril’s Essence is a combination of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, although I omit the cayenne. I like this as a general spice mix, but any spice mix will do. The batter just needs a little something extra. >> Read more