Stir Fry with Brown Rice Wraps

I make this often, mainly for James, because he loves stir frys.  I have been making variations of this dish, and I finally got it to taste the way I wanted it to.  It's easy, and great as a last minute hot meal.

I use Europe's Best frozen vegetable medley, they have two Asian inspired variations, Zen Garden, and Imperial Blend.  I usually buy a few bags when they're on sale, and keep them in the freezer.  You can use fresh vegetables, but then you have to plan ahead.  I like frozen fruit and vegetables for certain dishes and shakes.  I don't use canned, because of the sodium content, the poor taste, and the squishy texture.  Frozen on the other hand, in some cases, tastes better than fresh.  Reason for this being that in order for produce to be sold fresh in a supermarket, it has to be picked while it's still green and it ripens on it's lengthy journey.  Ripening in a transport box won't make it taste as it would if it had a chance to ripen on the vine, tree, shrub, etc.  Frozen fruit and veggies are picked when they are ripe, and then frozen, which preserves the yummy sweet taste.  Try this little test, buy a box of strawberries (which are not in season locally), and compare the taste to frozen strawberries.  Amazing, right!

So, back to the stir fry.  I heat up a bit of sesame oil, this gives the dish a great base flavour.  If you don't have any, buy some, you can use it in salad dressings as well.   Into the oil add: garlic and ginger - fresh is always best, but again, if this is a last minute thing, use powder, black and white sesame seeds, a bit of soy, some Worcestershire sauce, a bit of pepper, a pinch of cayenne or hot pepper flakes, I don't add salt, as the soy is plenty salty already.  If you like a bit of sweetness, add some honey or agave nectar.  Mix it all up, then add the frozen veg.  The amounts of spices depend on how many vegetables you're making, and your flavour preference.  Use a lid to speed up the defrost process, once the vegetables are defrosted, uncover the pan, so that excess liquid can evaporate.

You can use this with rice, I usually use brown, or use rice paper and make stir fry with rice wraps.

I kind of packed these ones, and layered the veg with the rice, but you can mix it all up before wrapping.  The front two have veg on top, the back one has rice on top, just to show you how it looks.  Sometimes I add shrimp, which can be mixed in to the veg, or layered separately in some pattern, so they add to the presentation.  In that case, layer the shrimp first, then the rest.  I usually add a bit of spices to the rice as well while it's cooking, so that it's not plain tasting, but also not overwhelming to the vegetables, and / or shrimp.

Enjoy!

Light Bites

I love eating meals in appetizer format.  If you pair the right foods, you can eat healthy, get a wide array of foods on your plate, and be full at the end.  This is great when you can't decide what to eat.  I assemble various plates, including cheeses, meats, veg, fruit, condiments, dips, etc.  The 2 variations I had this week, are:

A tasty assortment of delicious and healthy foods, packed with flavours.  Home grown and pickled beets, home made locally grown caraway sauerkraut, Schinkenspeck prosciutto, German pumpernickel, and Polish cherry wood double smoked sausage.   I love this sausage, well I love everything on that plate, but I'll focus on the sausage.  It has an amazing texture, and a very smokey flavour with a hint of sweetness. 

I never buy sausages at a supermarket, because that's like buying a "sausage" at a hotdog stand and thinking you're eating a German, Italian, or Polish sausage, when in fact you're not much better off than had you just ordered a hotdog.  Go to your local deli, Farmer's Market, or butcher's and taste the difference, never mind the healthier ingredients.

The other plate I made was more sauerkraut - I can't get enough of this stuff, jalapeno ciabatta with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip, and more Schinkenspeck, because it's so good.

I used this 6% Italian balsamic wine vinegar: medium bodied, fruity, sweet and sour flavour went well with the spicy bread.

Appetizer plates have endless possibilities, and I love that about them.

Chestnut Pureé

Happy New Year!  I gotta say, I've been a slacker with this blog, but in my defence, time's been passing by unbelievably fast.  Christmas went by so quickly, it's as if it never happened.  I spent Christmas Eve at my folks' place, and Christmas Day with James' family.  I made a delicious French yule log... chocolate... chestnuts... rum!

This log took forever, I'm not kidding, because I couldn't find any chestnut pureé.  I ended up buying fresh chestnuts, boiling them, cooling, peeling, and processing.  I sliced my thumb in the process.  I'll be conservative here, and not post a photo, though personally, I love "gross" stuff, pathology was my fave class.

Maybe it wouldn't have taken so long, if I hadn't bought and made about 3 or 4x as many chestnuts as I needed, but I had never made chestnut pureé before.  It's quite easy, but time consuming.  I'm very determined once I decide on a recipe/ dish.  I was quite sick - sinuses, possibly feverish - when I was driving around town, from supermarket to supermarket, at 1am, looking for pureé.

Here is how you make chestnut pureé, in case you ever need it and don't live in France or the UK, where you could get the stuff at any store.

1. Score your chestnuts.  Cut an X on the flat side of each chestnut.  If you have one which is flat on both sides, then just pick a side.  The reason for the flat side is because it's easier to cut, than a convex hard slippery surface.

2.  Boil for about 20 minutes.

3.  Let cool; keep the water/ liquid, you'll need it later.

4. Peel all the chestnuts.  I used a curved paring knife, it only ended up in my thumb once.

5.  Put chestnuts in a food processor and add some of the liquid from cooking.  Don't dump in too much.  You can always keep adding, until you reach the desired consistency of the pureé.  If you have leftovers, like I did, freeze.  I have 2 plastic containers in the freezer for next time.

This yule log took the better part of a day, but it was worth it, very dense and rich chocolatey goodness.