Spinach and Salmon Salad Rolls

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Margaret

These salad rolls make me feel like spring – pretty coral salmon, bright crunchy greens and bursting-in-your-mouth flavours.

We had them last night for supper and I’m craving them again today. My brain gears are churning – hmmm, what about some shrimp today? or maybe a bit of fresh dill or basil? I know, I could cut some baby corn cobs into sticks . . . and I’ll use that avocado in the fruit bowl . . .

Once you get the hang of using rice wrappers, the world is your . . . salad roll. Seriously. You can wrap up anything crispy and fresh in these, and they suddenly look like you planned them that way (just don’t tell people it’s last night’s leftover salad you’ve repackaged). There is little-to-no cooking involved, and it looks like you fussed. Serve these rolls with a bowl of tasty soup and you have a light ‘Soup and Salad’ meal with a new twist.

Salad rolls are wonderful for entertaining because you can make them several hours ahead, too. The no-cook rice paper wrappers are like a natural plastic clingwrap to keep the salad ingredients sealed-in and fresh. How slick is that? Cut them just before serving.

And if there are any left over, they make a fantastic packed lunch the next day, sealed in a plastic container with a little vial of dipping sauce alongside.

Check the ‘Wingin’ it’ section at the bottom of the recipe for lots of suggestions to make these salad rolls super easy. If you pick up a package of the rice papers on your way home from work, you probably have the fixin’s in your fridge and pantry to make these!

Kitchen Frau Notes: The rice paper wrappers (sometimes called spring roll skins, but not to be confused with spring roll wrappers, which are made of wheat flour and need to be cooked) are found in large supermarkets in the Asian section or in smaller import stores. They keep a long time on your pantry shelves, so are a handy thing to have on hand for whipping up a quick snack, light meal or appetizer. They come in large or small sizes. The larger (8½in/22cm) size works better for these types of salad rolls.

Spinach and Salmon Salad Rolls

Makes 8 or more rolls, serving 4

For the salad rolls:

12 oz. (350gm) fresh salmon fillets
2 teaspoons olive oil
salt and pepper
8-10 rice paper wrappers (8½in/22cm)
4 small handfuls baby spinach leaves
a 5 inch (13cm) length of English (thin-skinned) cucumber
2 carrots
3 to 4 green onions
8 sprigs fresh cilantro

For the drizzling sauce:

¼ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
1 small clove garlic (or half a big one)
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

for the dipping sauce:

¼ cup (60ml) soy sauce (gluten-free if necessary)
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
a squirt of sriracha sauce or other hot sauce

Heat the olive oil n a skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle the salmon pieces with salt and pepper on both sides, then pan-sear them until just cooked through, about 2 or 3 minutes per side, but it will depend on the thickness. Remove from the heat to let cool.

Prepare the drizzling sauce by mixing all ingredients. Use a microplane grater to grate the ginger and garlic, and to zest the lime. If you don’t have one, finely mince these ingredients together or mash them in a mortar and pestle, then add them to the mayonnaise with the lime juice.

Prepare the dipping sauce by stirring all the ingredients together in a measuring cup, then dividing the mixture among 4 small dipping bowls.

Prepare the salad ingredients by cutting the cucumber piece in half, then cutting each piece into 2½ inch (6cm) sticks. Shred the carrot or cut it into fine julienne sticks. Cut the green onions into about 5 inch (13 cm) pieces, slicing the thicker white parts in half lengthwise.

Set out a flat dish (like a pie plate or skillet) and fill it with about a ½ inch (1.5cm) warm water. Set a flat plate at the front of your work surface.

Place one rice paper wrapper into the warm water for about 5 seconds, submerging it to make sure all surfaces are wet. Remove it to the plate, making sure it is laying flat, and leave it to soften for about 30 seconds.

The rice wraps look like they’d be delicate, but they are more forgiving than you think. As soon as the moistened wrap is pliable, lay down a small handful of spinach leaves in a strip, close to the end facing you. Lay the spinach so the leaves curl upward, making the wrap easier to roll. Dollop with about 2 teaspoons of the drizzling sauce.

Next, layer on a small handful of the cucumber sticks, a strip or two of green onion,

a handful of grated or julienned carrots, and a few chunks of the seared salmon.

Garnish the top with a couple sprigs of cilantro.

And roll up by starting at the edge nearest you and helping tuck in the salad with your fingers as you roll. As soon as you’ve rolled it around the filling once, fold over both side edges and keep rolling, tucking in the sides as you go. The wrap sticks to itself, holding the salad roll tight.

Don’t worry if they’re not perfect. You’ll get better with each one you make.

Slice them in half diagonally, and serve with the little bowls of dipping sauce.

Wingin’ it

Anything goes!

For the protein in these rolls, try thawed, frozen precooked shrimp. You can cut them in half lengthwise and lay them on the wrapper first so they show through, or tuck them in the middle. Or use leftover cooked chicken or roast beef cut in strips, or strips of extra-firm tofu, or wedges of hard-boiled eggs. You could even use chunks of canned salmon, or leftover bits of other types of fish or leftover salmon from the night before.

For the veggies, you could use other greens – lettuce or arugula. Julienned sticks of celery, or shredded radishes, strips of sweet peppers, cooked beets, or avocado. Try canned baby corns cut into long strips, or canned water chestnut slices . . . maybe some finely shredded cabbage, or Napa cabbage. Snow peas or snap peas. Fresh bean sprouts, or finer types of sprouts would be divine. Use different herbs, like basil, parsley or dill.

You could even add a few strands of cooked rice noodles or spoonfuls of cooked rice or quinoa or other grain. Try adding a few chopped peanuts or other nuts or seeds, too.

For the drizzling sauce, substitute yogurt or Greek yogurt for some or all of the mayonnaise. Or just use bottled ranch dressing or other creamy dressing instead.

For the dipping sauce, use plain soy sauce, or soy sauce mixed with a blob of wasabi paste. Or use a bottled Thai sweet chili sauce or a bottled or homemade peanut sauce. Or any other sauce that tickles your fancy.

Guten Appetit!

How to Make: Your own Homemade Red Wine Barbecue Sauce – it’s a Cinch!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Margaret

Barbecue season is fast approaching, even though it’s snowing again as I write this.

Yes, you dear readers south of us are probably already basking in your shorts, sipping cocktails on the deck and manning the sizzling, smoking barbecue beast.

We, up here in the north, are dreaming of all that.

And while we dream, I’ve been getting ready. Steaks are in the freezer, summer shorts are out of storage, and wine is a-chillin’.

I am being hopeful.

Oh, yes – and the barbecue sauce is made. I am rarin’ to rush out of the starting gate.

If you’ve never made your own barbecue sauce, now is the time. Plop all the ingredients into a pot, and leave them to simmer together into a thick, tangy-sweet, smokey nectar of the barbecue gods. It’s that easy.

And you will know you are not feeding your family that high-fructose-corn-syrup-laden, cornstarch-thickened, artificially flavoured gloop from the grocery store shelves.

Plus you get bragging rights. How good will it sound when you serve your guests a nice juicy steak or burger and tell them it’s made with your own special, secret Red Wine Barbecue Sauce recipe!? Wow. You can flex your barbecue-flipping muscles and, if you are man, beat on your barbecue-king chest. (We females have much more decorum, and can just smile a mysterious barbecue-lisa smile, and say sweetly, Yes, I made it myself.)

This recipe makes up a big batch that will last you all summer (or at least the next few weeks), but is also easily halved if the amount scares you. Plus, you need to open a bottle of nice full-bodied red wine to make it, so you know what that means – darn it, somebody’s got to drink up the rest of the bottle before it goes bad.

The alcohol in the wine all cooks off, so you can safely feed this barbecue sauce to children – they won’t even know it’s in there. (But you will know what gives this sauce its rich taste!) And if you have no wine in the house – apple juice makes a mighty fine substitute! You could use apple cider vinegar, in that case. And then you’d have to change the name to Triple Apple Barbecue Sauce – on account of the applesauce, apple juice and apple cider vinegar! Jeesh, it’s getting complicated now.

So here’s to barbecue season!

Kitchen Frau Notes: If you are halving this recipe, remember that 3 teaspoons equal one tablespoon, and 4 tablespoons equal ¼ cup.

If your smoked paprika doesn’t say whether it’s hot or mild, it’s probably mild. You can taste it to find out.

Red Wine Barbecue Sauce

2 – 5½oz (156ml) cans tomato paste
1 cup (240ml) unsweetened applesauce
1 cup (240ml) honey
1 cup (240ml) red wine vinegar
1 cup (240ml) full-bodied red wine
¼ cup (60ml) dark molasses (blackstrap or cooking molasses)
1 tablespoon smoked paprika (mild)
1 tablespoon dry mustard powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

Mix all ingredients together in a large saucepan. Set over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until thickened to your liking.

(After about 10 minutes of simmering you can taste it and if you think it needs more kick, add a bit more cayenne pepper. Then continue simmering for the remaining 5 minutes.)

Let cool, and pour into a bottle or jar with a tight fitting lid. I like to keep some in a squeeze bottle for ease of use. (I use an empty agave nectar bottle.)

Will keep for months in the refrigerator, and also freezes well.

Makes about 4½ cups (1 litre and a bit) – enough to fill one quart jar and a smaller jar.

That’s all there is to it!

Now if only the snow will go away.

Guten Appetit!

Gingered Pear Tart (and How to Make Pie Crust Pastry, Gluten-free, too)

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Margaret

Sometimes you just need pie.

Growing up, we never had pie. I hardly knew what it was. Plummy streusel cakes and fruit strudels and nut strudels and buttercreamy torten – now those, I knew what they were. Poppy seed cakes, and luscious quark cheesecakes and dense honey cake – those, too.

But pie – it was something you saw in those revolving glass cases in diners (which we never ate in) and which you sometimes had at friends’ houses. It was something you watched people eat on television and which you sang about in songs – Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? But pie was not a part of the dessert offerings in our German household on the Canadian prairies when I was growing up.

It wasn’t until I met my husband and was introduced to the never-ending pie smorgasbord on offer in his home, that I really got to know what pie could be. Every weekend my mother-in-law would bake (and still does) every sort of luscious pie you could imagine – apple pie and pumpkin pie and lemon meringue pie and flapper pie and plum pie and pecan pie and lemon coconut pie and banana cream pie and of course cherry pie, just to mention a few. There are always at least six or seven varieties to choose from, in an ever-changing rotation. She is a master at making a most crisp and delicate crust – never measuring a thing. And her fillings are always luscious and full of mouthwatering flavour.

Therefore, my children have grown up definitely knowing what pie is. They have been well fed with pie at Granny and Grandpa’s house over the years. They still rarely get pie at home (because why make it when granny makes it so much better?), but every now and then I do feel an urge to bake a pie or two, especially when it’s been a while since our last visit to Granny’s kitchen (she lives too far away for a weekly pie fix).

When I have made pie, I’ve used the trusty pastry crust recipe in my old Fanny Farmer Cookbook – it’s pretty fail-safe. But in the last few years I’ve developed a gluten-free version that works just as well for me. It’s crispy and tender and a perfect foil for this lovely pear tart that made use of the bowls of juicy pears we’ve had ripening on our counter faster than we could eat them.

This is my version of pie – a kind of amalgamation of the lovely fruit Tortes of my childhood and Granny’s luscious fruit pies.

Basic Pastry Formula (Pie Crust)

from inside the front cover of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook (1980)

1½ cups (215gms) flour (all-purpose)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 dL) shortening
3-4 tablespoons cold water

Mix the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or two knives. Combine lightly only until the mixture resembles coarse meal or tiny peas. Sprinkle water over the flour mixture, a tablespoon at a time, and mix lightly with a fork, using only enough water so that the pastry will hold together when pressed gently into a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out 2 inches larger than the pie pan, then fit it loosely but firmly into the pan. Crimp or flute the edges.

Gluten Free Pie Crust or Tart Pastry

from Kitchen Frau’s notebook

½ cup (70gms) sorghum flour
½ cup (80gms) sweet rice flour
½ cup (65gms) tapioca flour/starch
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (115gms) very cold unsalted butter
1 large egg white (reserve yolk for filling)
3 tablespoons very cold water

Mix the flours and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut the cold butter into ½-inch (1cm) cubes and add to the flours. Cut in with a pastry cutter or two knives until the size of peas.

Add the egg white and water and stir with a fork until combined. With your fingertips, quickly and lightly (so as to melt the butter as little as possible) rub the butter and flour together. When you can take up and squeeze a handful of the dough and it keeps its shape, it is mixed well enough.

Press and form the dough into a ball. Flatten it into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill the disk in the refrigerator for an hour, or up to 24 hours. If you chill it more than an hour, remove it from the refrigerator about ½ hour before you wish to use it, to make it more pliable to work with.

If making tarts, cut the dough into 6 wedges and roll each one into a ball, working it lightly with your fingers. It will crack, but you can press any cracks easily back together. On a floured surface (use sorghum or sweet rice flour), roll the dough out about an inch larger than the tart shells. (You can also roll it between two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap). Lift it carefully into each tart shell, and press it together to seal any cracks. This dough is quite forgiving, and easy to repair – like play dough. Take any extra bits that you trim off the edges to press into any thinner spots on the rim of each tart shell.

Or roll out the dough into one large circle to fit an 11 or 12-inch tart shell. For a large tart shell made with gluten-free flours, you will definitely need to roll it between two sheets of wax paper or plastic. Work the rolling pin from the center of the pastry and roll toward the outer edges.

Peel off the top layer of wax paper or plastic and invert the pastry into the tart pan or pie pan. Carefully peel off the remaining sheet of wax paper and ease the pastry into the pan. Flute and trim the edges.

Makes six 4½ inch tart shells or one 11 or 12 inch tart or pie shell.

Kitchen Frau Note: This tart involves a few steps in making it, but is worth the trouble when you are looking for a special dessert for a special occasion – or just for a lovely afternoon tea. Sometimes the fiddling and making of a dessert like this is the fun part – if you have the time and feel the need for a creative outlet. All the cares of the world drop away as you roll and slice and putter. And the end result is a delectable dessert – honeyed and golden and rich with a whiff of ginger and sweet melting pears.

Gingered Pear Tart

one recipe Basic Pastry Formula or Gluten Free Pie Crust (see above)
1 large egg yolk
¼ cup (30gms) almond meal/flour
2 tablespoons natural cane sugar
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
3 large or 4 medium-sized ripe pears (any variety)
2 tablespoons liquid honey
1 tablespoon white wine or rum (or water)
1 tablespoon coarse decorating sugar (or regular sugar)
a few pinches of almond meal/flour for garnish

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Fit the pastry into six 4½ inch individual tart tins, or one 11 or 12 inch tart (or even a 10 inch pie plate will work). In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk with a fork until smooth. Use a pastry brush to coat the bottom of the pastry in each tart tin or the larger tart.

In a small bowl mix together the almond meal, sugar and powdered ginger.

Divide it evenly among the yolk-coated tart shells, spreading it out lightly with your fingers (about 1 slightly heaped tablespoon per shell) or sprinkle evenly over the larger tart shell.

Cut the pears in half lengthwise, core them and slice them into very thin wedges. Arrange the wedges evenly in the tart shells (alternate the direction of the slices for best fit) or fan them around the large tart shell in a circle.

In a small bowl mix the liquid honey and white wine or rum. Whisk til smooth. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the pears, using up all the mixture. Sprinkle with the coarse sugar (½ teaspoon per each individual tart shell) and a few pinches of almond meal.

use red pears . . .

. . . or green ones

Bake the tart shells for 35 to 45 minutes and the large tart pan for 45 to 55 minutes, until the juices in the center are bubbling, the pears are tender when pricked with a fork, and the crust is golden brown at the edges.

Makes 6 (4½ inch) individual tarts or one large 11 or 12 inch tart.

Guten Appetit!