Fresh Spring Rolls

(8 spring rolls)

These spring rolls are fairly easy to prepare, very flexible, and they make great appetizers or snacks.

I've listed what I had on hand to make these, but you can try combining different herbs and vegetables. The shrimp can be left out entirely or swapped out for leftover cooked chicken, beef or pork, or use tempeh or tofu for vegetarian versions and replace the fish sauce with tamari or soy sauce.

spring rolls
2-3 cups warm water
8x 9-inch rice noodle disks

2- 3 cups washed lettuce
3 oz rice vermicelli cooked to al dente, drained and rinsed
1 medium carrot, sliced with a potato peeler
a 4 inch section of English cucumber, cut into match sticks
16 Thai basil leaves
16 mint leaves
8 sprigs of cilantro
16 large cooked shrimp

dipping sauce
small clove garlic
1 tbsp - 1/4 cup *dry roasted peanuts (leave out if you are on a Paleo diet)
2 tsp sesame oil
up to 1 tbsp honey
2-3 tbsp rice vinegar
up to 1 tbsp fresh key lime juice
2-3 tbsp water
1-2 tbsp fish sauce
1/4- 1/2 habanero chili thinly sliced, to taste

For the spring rolls:

Place one rice noodle disk into the water at a time. It will only take about 30 seconds to soften. Lay it out onto a flat surface.

Place some lettuce, vermicelli, carrot, cucumber, 2 basil leaves, 2 mint leaves and a sprig of cilantro just off to the centre of the noodle disk leaving the edges clear. Place 2 shrimp over the noodles and vegetables.

Pull the shortest portion of the noodle over the filling snugly and start to roll it up. Fold in both sides and then continue to roll up the spring roll.

Place a moist towel over the finished roll/s while you finish making the rest.

You can make these a couple of hours ahead of time if you wrap them carefully in plastic wrap and store them in a covered container in the refrigerator.

For the sauce:
Rub the interior of a mortar with the garlic clove. Add the peanuts (*I use the entire 1/4 cup of peanuts for a chunky sauce which I end up spooning over my spring rolls as it becomes too thick for dipping; use less peanuts if you prefer a thinner sauce. Leave the peanuts out entirely if you are on a Paleo diet as they are legumes, not true nuts.) Pound the peanuts with the pestle until they are fine. Work in the sesame oil and honey. Starting off with the lower amounts of the rice vinegar, lime juice, water and fish sauce, stir these into the peanut mixture. Then tasting the sauce as you go along, add a bit more of whatever you prefer until you find a balance you like of sweet, sour, and salty. Stir in small amounts of the sliced habanero pepper until you achieve the desired hotness.

Serve this sauce with the spring rolls.

Smoked Sardine Spread

(about 1/2 cup)

It's been years since I've eaten sardines. They were too much of a good thing while I was in college, I suppose. Back then they were incredibly cheap and very convenient to have around for snacking.

The last time I encountered them was almost two decades ago on a trip to Portugal to visit my mum. She had rented an apartment for the winter in Albufeira, I think it was. It had a tiny white kitchenette where my mum had filled one huge drawer with fresh oranges and another with sardines. It looked to me like she had at least 50 or 60 tins of the stuff. I couldn't help but chuckle as she excitedly explained how she had an orange or two for breakfast, then sardines for lunch and dinner with perhaps another orange, and how healthy it all was!

Recently I found myself in an isle at the grocery store checking out various tins of seafood and fish. I was surprised by how many varieties of canned sardines were available. Skinless and boneless, smoked, packed in water, in tomato sauce, in mustard, olive oil, or Mediterranean style with black olives. The selection had grown considerably since I was a student. Curious, I brought home several tins. A couple of lightly smoked sardines packed in olive oil, as well as a tin of skinless and boneless sardines.

This recipe is adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Sardine Rillettes, from Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, 2010). This relatively inexpensive and delicious sardine spread is great as an appetizer or a snack!

The following can be easily doubled or tripled, if desired.

1x  3 3/4oz tin of lightly smoked sardines packed in olive oil

2 oz Neufchatel or cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

1-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, to taste

1 pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 green onion, finely sliced

1 tsp drained capers

Remove the sardines from the tin and drain. Carefully remove any bones, if desired. They are quite soft and will break up easily when mashed.  Set aside.

In a small bowl or the bowl of a food processor combine the Neufchatel cheese with the dill, half of the lemon juice, cayenne and a bit of salt and pepper. When the mixture is smooth, add the sardines, onions and capers. Mix them in until they are well combined with the cheese mixture, or pulse a few times if using a food processor. Add more lemon juice if needed. Season with more salt and pepper, if needed.

Serve with crackers or cut up vegetables.

Chocolate Crunch Bars

I haven't really given baking much thought this month. I had planned on skipping it entirely, but by the time this weekend came around, I lost my resolve. A simple cookie recipe might have been more appropriate for me, but instead I made a rather rich bar cookie, which in reality was closer to candy. Oh well. It was a recipe I bookmarked several months ago in one of my cookbooks, The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion; The Essential Cookie Cookbook, (The Countryman Press, 2004).

This recipe was aptly named, Sinfully Rich Chocolate Crunch Bars. Curiously the very same recipe is posted on the King Arthur website where it's been renamed, Yuletide Toffee Squares. I wondered briefly if the first name scared too many people away, lol.

I have scaled the original King Arthur recipe down to fit a 13x9 inch pan.

1/2 cup salted butter, melted (1 stick)
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
3 cups gluten free rolled oats (not the quick cooking kind)
1 1/3 cups (9 ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp virgin coconut oil (the kind that is solid at room temperature)
2/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Lightly grease a 13x9 inch pan. After greasing the pan, I lined mine with parchment paper because there was mention of the oat base sticking to the pan on the King Arthur website. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and vanilla and salt, and stir until you have a smooth thick mixture. Add the oats and combine until they are evenly coated. Press the mixture firmly into the pan.

Bake the oat base for 10 to 14 minutes, or until it's an even light golden brown. Watch carefully after about 9 minutes; mine was done at 11 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together, stirring constantly until smooth. Spread the mixture evenly over the cooled oat base and sprinkle on the chopped toasted nuts.

Cover very loosely and chill the squares in the refrigerator until the chocolate is firm. Remove from the refrigerator and carefully remove the bars from the pan.

Cut into small squares.

Last Minute Cheese Spread

(about 1 1/2 cups)

Need a last minute appetizer, but don't have time to head out? You might be in luck if you have some cheese on hand, some wine.... oh and a food processor would be handy too!

I served this cheese spread with sesame rice crackers. Plain might have been better, but that's all I had in the cupboard.

1/2 lb of firm cheese, I used a combination of gouda and sharp cheddar
2 tbsp butter or cream cheese
1 1/2 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
a pinch or two cayenne
up to 1/3 cup of dry wine
1 tbsp drained capers, chopped chives, sliced green onions, chopped red onion, or chopped bell pepper

Cut the cheese into chunks and place into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter or cream cheese, mustard, paprika and cayenne. Pulse a few times until the mixture looks crumbly. With the motor running, add one tablespoon at a time of the wine until you have a smooth spread. You might have to stop a few times to break up the cheese inside the bowl which might form into a ball.

Scrape down the sides and add the capers or whatever you have on hand for a bit of texture. Pulse a couple of times, just enough to mix in.

Serve with cut up vegetables or crackers.

Chili Goulash

(4-6 servings)

Recently I made some chili con carne in tandem with a friend. We hit the grocery store together then headed to our respective homes to cook. We spent the afternoon sending each other photos of our work in progress, from chopping up the veggies, to the beer we were drinking while preparing our meals. Both of our chilies turned out great, loaded with ground beef, various peppers and kidney beans.

When I finally finished the last of it over a week ago, I got to thinking it would be interesting to make a goulash seasoned much like an American chili. Nice chunks of marbled beef cooked slowly with an assortment of bell peppers and chili peppers, until the meat was fork tender and the vegetables broken down into a thick aromatic sauce. I left out the kidney beans Texas style, but added tomatoes which some believe don't belong in a proper goulash.

This Hungarian-American hybrid goulash was amazing! It was the perfect meal for a cold winter night.

1-2 tbsp oil, give or take
1 1/2 lbs marbled round steak (London Broil) cut into 3/4 inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large yellow onions, chopped fine
3 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp whole caraway seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
2 cups beef broth

14.5oz can diced tomatoes
3 bell peppers, seeded and diced

1 poblano pepper, seeded and diced

1 red fresno chili pepper, *seeded and diced

1-2 jalapeno peppers, *seeded and diced

1/4 cup finely ground cornmeal

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a large skillet and fry the meat until it's nicely browned. You might have to do this in batches. Place the meat into a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid; alternately you can place the meat into a slow cooker.  When you have finished with the meat, add more oil to the skillet if needed and lower the heat.

Add the garlic and the onions and fry them until they have softened. Stir them, scraping up the bits from the fried meat. When the onion mixture has softened add it to the meat in the pot or slow cooker.

Stir in the the paprika, chili powder, cumin, thyme, oregano, caraway, salt, pepper, broth and diced tomatoes. Bring the chili goulash to a gentle simmer, then stir in all of the diced peppers and *chili peppers. *Add the seeds for additional heat, if you prefer it hotter. Bring to a simmer again. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover the pot. Cook for about 3-4 hours or until the meat is fork tender. If you are making this in the slow cooker, it will probably take an extra few hours on the lowest setting; I'd probably aim for 6-7 hours.

Check and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Sprinkle the cornmeal evenly over the top, then stir it in until it's evenly distributed. Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the chili goulash has thickened, stirring from time to time.

Ladle into bowls and serve. Garnish with parsley, if desired. This goulash reheats really well.

Marinated Mushrooms

(about 1 1/2 pints)

These delicious mushrooms are very addictive, and thankfully they don't contain a lot of oil. This recipe can easily be doubled if you prefer making a larger quantity.

1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped or 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 lb small button or cremini mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 green onion, sliced thin
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly cracked pepper

Place the broth, wine, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, pepper flakes and lemon zest into a pot large enough to hold the mushrooms. Bring the mixture to a simmer over moderate heat.

While the broth is heating up, clean the mushrooms and trim the stems. Add the mushrooms to the broth and simmer for about 5-6 minutes. The liquid will not cover the mushrooms, so you'll need to stir the mixture to ensure the mushrooms get rotated in the hot broth.

Remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon and place into a non-reactive bowl or large jar.

Add the bell pepper, green onion, and garlic to the broth, increase the heat and cook until the liquid has reduced down to about one quarter of the original amount. Remove from heat.

Stir in the vinegar and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the mixture over the mushrooms. Toss until the mushrooms are evenly coated.

You can serve the mushrooms after an hour or so, but they are best after a day or two. They will keep refrigerated for about a week.

Clam & Fennel Chowder

(4-6 servings)

This tasty chowder is so full of vegetables, it's almost like a stew. Toward the end I added buttermilk instead of milk and its subtle tang was really nice. I will definitely be using buttermilk again the next time I make this.

1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
2 - 3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 fennel bulb and its stalks sliced
1 cup dry white wine
1x 8oz clam juice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1/8 -1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper, to taste
3x  6.5oz canned chopped clams with juice
1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2" dice
3 tbsp finely ground cornmeal
1/2 cup water
salt, to taste
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp heavy cream

Heat the oil in a large pot with a tight fitting lid over moderate heat and add the garlic. When the garlic becomes fragrant add the onion and saute for a couple of minutes, stirring from time to time.

Stir in the celery, carrot and fennel and saute for about 5 minutes, adjusting the heat if necessary to keep things from burning.

Pour in the wine and clam juice. Add the ginger and ground pepper. Place a tight fitting lid over the pot, lower the heat and cook for about 25 minutes.

Stir in the juice from the canned clams, setting the clams aside. Stir in the potatoes, cornmeal and water. Top with the lid and cook gently  for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Check and adjust the seasoning with salt, if needed. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the reserved clams, parsley, buttermilk and cream. Cook until heated through, but don't allow the chowder to come to a simmer or boil or else it might curdle.

Remove from heat and serve. This chowder seems even better if you wait and reheat it the next day.

Lemon Dill Tuna Salad

One small can of tuna can easily be transformed into this delicious lunch for one.

5oz canned tuna, packed in water
1/2 stalk celery, finely diced
1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1 tbsp chives, sliced
1 tbsp sour cream
1 1/2 tsp mayonnaise
1/4 wedge of a medium lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Drain the tuna (it doesn't need to be squeezed dry) and place into a small bowl. Using a fork, break up any large chunks.

Add the celery, dill, chives, sour cream and mayonnaise. Remove the *zest from the lemon wedge and add this to the bowl as well. *I get the best results using a microplaner, however if you don't have one of those, then make sure to mince the zest as finely as you can before adding. Toss with a fork until evenly mixed.

I prefer my salad lemony, so I'm inclined to squeeze out the entire 1/4 wedge of lemon over the salad at once. Start with a squeeze or two and taste as you go along. Keep mixing the salad as you add the lemon, as well as the salt and pepper to taste.

Serve.

Buttermilk Dill Cucumber Salad

(4 servings)

I never tire of cucumber salads. They are light and refreshing, something I very much welcome this time of year.

2/3 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped (or 1 tbsp dried dill)
1 tbsp chives, finely sliced
freshly cracked pepper and salt, to taste
2 cucumbers

Combine the buttermilk, sour cream, dill, and chives in a small bowl or jar. Lately I have been using jars with lids, so I can combine the dressings easily by shaking the jars.

Add the pepper and salt to taste. Set aside.

Wash, then slice the cucumbers into thin rounds. I love using a mandoline for this, but a knife works well too.

Pour the buttermilk dressing over the cucumbers and toss well to coat evenly. Check and add more salt and pepper, if needed.

Serve.