Archive for the ‘vietnamese’ Category

The Crunch Craving: Granola without Oil

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Posted by Kelly

My boss April is a new mom, trying to keep up with breastfeeding her three-month-old twin boys. When she told me that her lactation specialist told her to eat more almonds and oats, I immediately thought of granola! It is a win win for April who likes oats but not oatmeal and finds that grabbing just yogurt in the morning leaves her hungry for something to actually chew. Speaking of breast milk, did anyone notice it is all over the headlines? First one woman assaults a police officer with her milk, and now a chef in New York City has made cheese from his wife’s breast milk. This morning on LIVE with Regis and Kelly (Andy Richter was guest hosting) they actually ate the cheese!! April has assured me that she will do nothing of the sort. :)

Continuing on, Kristin and I only have one issue with most granola recipes out there, they contain oil. Some recipes over 1/3 cup! In our minds, the best part of granola is the high nutritional content, why would we go and put all that canola oil on it? There had to be a better way. We used some guidelines in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian as a starting point and off we went!

We have been eating this granola all week with fruit and yogurt, and sprinkled on top of our smoothies. We hope you enjoy our delicious, crunchy and oil free granola!

Granola in a mason jar

Crunchy Granola

6 cups of rolled oats

1 1/2 cups almonds

1 1/2 cups walnuts

1/2 cup flax seeds (ground)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup honey

1  tablespoon vanilla

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tablespoon molasses

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a small saucepan over low heat, mash together bananas, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir until combined.

2. Add all remaining ingredients to a large bowl and mix these together. Little by little add your wet mixture to your dry, stirring to combine.

3. Place entire mixture on large jelly roll pan lined with a Sil Pat or parchment paper. Every ten to fifteen minutes, remove from oven and stir the mix. You want to remove the moisture, so constant attention is necessary!

4. After about an hour, your granola should be lightly brown and dry. Remove from oven and stir one last time. Then bring to room temperature before storing in an airtight container.

** We actually meant to add raisins to this, but forgot to mix them in at the end. Now on second thought we think this might be better with some sort of tropical dried fruit added or perhaps a combination of dried fruits like mango, pineapple and bananas.

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Posted in Uncategorized, beef dishes, grilling, vegetables, vietnamese | 1 Comment »

Vietnamese Spring/Summer/Winter rolls

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Vietnamese salad rolls or Goi Cuon make a light, refreshing meal. In the spring. That’s why people call them spring rolls. But don’t get them confused with Chinese spring rolls, which are fried crispy. They’re also good to eat in the summer, which is why some people also call them summer rolls. Get it? And now it’s winter so … sorry. I know that was lame, but I couldn’t resist. Apparently this has been a topic of some contention. Really, I don’t know what the seasons have to do with these crunchy, fragrant little rolls, but if you took the wrapper out of the equation you would be left with … salad. Not only does the name “salad roll” make the most sense, but apparently this is also the literal translation of “Goi Cuon.” Besides, you’re supposed to eat them year round.

I have been meaning to make these for some time. The first time I ever made them we used rice noodles that were too thick and they were quite chewy. And to further add to the naming confusion, my very clever father in a fit of hilarity dubbed them, “rubber rolls.” We rolled and chewed and chewed and giggled and then chewed some more. We even took a nice photo.

When I got this lovely book in the mail a while back, I saw there was a recipe for rubber … er salad rolls and also vietnamese baguette sandwiches or Bahn Mi. They call for a lot of the same ingredients, so recently when I decided to try my hand at salad rolls again, I made plans to have Bahn Mi the next day to use up the leftover herbs and vegetables.

These were really tasty. In fact they were so tasty and I was so hungry that I failed to take a clear photo. In the midst of eating them I decided I had better get up and take a picture, but I didn’t have the patience to make a nice pretty roll for the photograph. Instead I took a big bite out of the fat, lop-sided roll that was sitting on my plate, held it still (I thought) and snapped a photo in my dark kitchen. I didn’t zoom in to make sure it was clear. I just put the camera away and continued to polish off my dinner as if I were a starving child in Africa (my apologies if any starving children in Africa are actually reading this). So I present to you this seemingly chubby hand (and why is it that my hand always looks chubby in photographs?) holding a half-eaten lop-sided blurry salad roll. Taa daaa!

I know. Hold your applause. I also meant to mention before that I was inspired to make salad rolls again when I saw this post at ChezUs. Notice the pretty pictures, the nice even rolls and the non-chubby hands.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls

Disclaimer: This is not really a recipe. It’s more like a starting point for how to make your own salad rolls written in recipe format. People put all kinds of things in salad rolls. The most basic recipe includes cucumber, carrots, a few herbs and boiled shrimp or pork (or both). Add or substitute other meats, herbs, veggies, or fruits, keeping in mind color, texture and flavor. Many rolls are made with bean sprouts or bell pepper. Jicama might be a nice variation and I’ve even heard of adding mango. P.S. A mandoline is a good thing to have for julienning the vegetables. Watch those fingers!

Rolls

1 large carrot, julienned 

½ english cucumber, julienned 

2 large radishes, julienned 

1 head boston lettuce 

4 oz rice vermicelli 

1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined 

fresh mint 

fresh cilantro 

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 

1 clove garlic, minced 

1 fresh jalapeno or serrano, minced 

1 package of rice paper wrappers

Dipping Sauce

⅓ cup lime juice 

2 tablespoons sugar 

3 tablespoons fish sauce 

1 tablespoon soy sauce 

1 clove of garlic, minced 

1 fresh jalapeno or serrano, minced

1. In a small bowl combine the shrimp with the hoisin sauce, garlic and jalapeno. 

2. Place the vermicelli in a large bowl and add boiling water to cover. Soak for 15 minutes or until the noodles are tender. Rinse in cold water and set aside. 

3. Prep the veggies and carefully wash and dry the herbs and lettuce. Cook the shrimp in a small skillet until they just turn pink. Allow to cool. 

4. In a small bowl combine the dipping sauce ingredients. 

5. To serve, assemble all the fillings. Place a large, shallow bowl of hot water on the table and allow each person to make their own. 

6. To make a roll, dip a rice paper round into the water for a few seconds to soften and then lay it on a plate. The wrapper should not be softened entirely in the bowl. It will continue to absorb residual water and soften as it sits on the plate. 

7. In each wrapper place three shrimp, a lettuce leaf, some rice noodles and a small amount of each of the veggies and herbs. Fold the sides of the wrapper in and roll like a burrito. It may take some practice to create a tight roll without tearing the wrapper. Rolls that are not pretty still taste good (see chubby hand photo as evidence). 

8. Dip in sauce and eat.

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Posted in appetizers, asian, seafood, vegetables, vietnamese | 1 Comment »