Sandwiches made in minutes out of interfacing

 Right.

Now I am liberated to add a sort of cooking sub-department to this blog I have my latest to share.

Every year when we drive down here we go to this really wonderful Thai restaurant in Freeport that has these amazing fresh rolls - made out of rice paper wrappers and salad stuff inside with a few shrimp.

These are A1 units but that's a long way to go to get them, say on a Tuesday night in Halifax.

So I made it my mission to replicate what they serve and I think the head chef and I have come up with a very reasonable facsimile.

These are excellent summer sandwich substitutes and a total snap to make. If your salad gear is already chopped (the short cut sous chef is thinking right now of her food processor at home, or those little bags of shredded salad stuff you can buy at the store) the actual assembly is less time than it takes to cut the crusts off a sandwich and into diagonal slices.

They keep for a few days in the fridge too if you have some left over and are for some reason quite filling, which is unusual for something that is actually good for you.

I can see knocking a few of these back standing at the fridge door with my purse still over my arm and my coat on for example just to tide me over when I come in from work.

O.K.

This is what you end up with (my apologies to all South East Asian readers who will fall on the floor in hysterics over what we have done with this concept - note these are not hors d'oeuvre size, more like standing in front of the fridge door with your purse on your arm size.) And our version does not have rice noodles or other common and proper ingredients in them because cooking those noodles takes time ...

These units are ideally eaten dunked in a sauce. What you like is up to you. Some places serve a peanut sauce but the mecca in Freeport uses a thin chilli fish sauce - my own rendition will be at the bottom of this post.

What you will need:

Rice paper disks. These are sitting around on the shelves at Asian stores or maybe in larger supermarkets than our local Winn Dixie. 

This is what they look like:

When you take these little numbers out of the package they are sort of delicate looking and look just like non-woven interfacing so be encouraged by that.

Don't be fooled. These are sturdier than they look and all you do is dunk them in water for 5 seconds fill and roll.

They won't fall apart or rip and once rolled up they sort of gum up together (doesn't that description just make your mouth water?) and never unwrap. 

So no unrolling like a tortilla wrap, or shattering like phyllo.

This is easy.

If it wasn't I wouldn't be writing about it.

Once you have dipped the circles in water you plunk them down and put in whatever your little heart desires, or whatever you have in the fridge you want to get rid of inside and see what you can do to roll them up. Ours have been made of  shredded lettuce, carrot, cucumber, green onion, a few shrimp and some cilantro.

When you are done this is what they look like on the plate:

Practically zero calories and gluten-free if that is important to you.

The dipping sauce I made has this in it. No measurements because I didn't measure, just taste it:

• some water
• a bit of brown sugar
• some rice vinegar
• some garlic powder
• a slug of fish sauce (this is really the key - and the reason there is some water in this - fish sauce tastes really authentic but will knock your socks off undiluted, mainly because it sort of smells like old socks)
• some asian type chilli sauce from the back of the fridge

Now this is the best part. A video of the head chef making these up. The sound is awful as I was the videographer. We will do better next time.

Enjoy:

Easy fish cooking for sewers: effort proof and fool proof

I am the kind of sewer who is often frustrated by all the things that get in the way of sewing. Cooking is one of those things. Unfortunately I love to eat and have the appetite of a long haul truck driver so this is a problem. DH does a lot of the cooking, but sometimes he is busy and it's up to me.

Which brings me to fish.


Well, I am amazed by the number of people who tell me they don't eat fish. It's sort of like the folks who say they can't sew. I mean try it, you might like it.


However I realize why so many people think they don't like fish. So often it's not cooked in a way that anyone would like it. I know what this feels like.


I grew up in the Canadian prairies in a small town and I didn't see the ocean until I was 18.


So in my childhood fish was:
a) sardines in a can that were only interesting because you were told you could eat the bones which was not true of anything else they put on your plate 
b) frozen fish and chips in a cardboard box which in my house meant Dad was cooking because Mom was out at Brownie night (do they have Brownies in other places? Junior Girl Scouts where everyone was a fairy or pixie or something - I dropped out) 
c) something some neighbour brought back from a fishing trip that was full of bones you weren't supposed to eat and had to pick out which meant the meal took seven hours and essentially was still like eating a toothbrush- to the background noise of my mother telling stories of all the people she knew who had died "right there at the table" after choking on a fish bone. That is distinct from the ones in the family she knew whose "throat swoll right up closed" after they had eaten fish at some dinner party and were saved only by medical intervention by a doctor we knew cutting their throat open with a knife so they could breathe. (My dear mother nursed from 1950-1952 and has been discussing medicinal emergencies ever since).


So I wasn't much of a fish eater.


Then I married my husband who did not grow up on the Canadian prairies. He grew up in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in fact in a family of superb cooks. I think his dinners were different.


So he actually knows how to cook fish. So it is succulent actually. Something that you would eat even if it wasn't one of those things you were supposed to be eating because of "10 healthy habits that could change your life right now" to quote Woman's Day at the grocery line up.


The trouble is that the way he cooks fish require thought and timing.


I will eat this but really, I have an invisible zipper that needs to be put in downstairs.


But I have found a way to cook fish that is fool proof and effort proof.


I put it all in a paper bag. 

Here's how it goes:


1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.


2. Open bag.


3. Put bag on cookie sheet.


4. Take fish fillet (in my case this was salmon from a huge monster my spouse brought home and cleaned up for me - I would just buy fillets at the store of course)


5. Put fish fillet on a plate and sprinkle with salt, pepper and onion powder and whatever else you are trying to get rid of. That 1/2" of Hoisin sauce in the fridge door, that end of ginger that is getting wrinkly at the back of the vegetable drawer. Whatever, people will think you are smart of you add anything.


6. Put fish in bag.


7. To minimalize cooking dinner even more throw whatever fairly quick cooking vegetables you have on hand on top of the fish. Mushrooms, asparagus, stuff like that but not, say, carrots.


8. Cut up lemons or limes and add that too.


9. Fold under the open end of the bag and put the whole thing in the oven for 20 minutes.


Your fish will be perfect. Not dry and it will be very tasty.


It will look like this when you tear open the bag:

It will look like this when you put it on the plate:

Less time than it takes to put in an invisible zipper.

Cooking

They are telling us that we should be eating 10 servings of fruit and vegetables a day. That might work if you sat at a table all day, but I do try. Fruit on no fat cottage cheese for breakfast, smoothies, and vegs with the meals, and then I forget about it.

I do like fruit desserts though and have decided those count.

I love plums, I think they are a highly underestimated fruit but pretty boring in the bottom of a lunch box. So I eat my plums in desserts. This is my favourite way here, I made it last night and DS has already been into it. Trick is to get the plums really ripe, almost too soft for just eating, that means they will be juicy enough for this dessert.

I have ribs underway here today too for tomorrow. I am using the Neeleys' great recipe for a dry rub and BBQ sauce, interesting that there is no salt in it for those who care, and real easy. It has been hot here this week. We don't have AC here, who would for a 2 month summer, so last night Mr. Rascal and I went to bed with the fan on aimed directly at the bed. Best night's sleep we have had in days.

I am missing Tennessee and my husband who is back there now, continuing his month here and month there routine. He has been torturing me with his peach talk and all the things he is cooking for himself. We are talking here of a man who has a microwave, toaster oven, George Foreman, rice cooker and slow cooker in his hotel room. Last time he went down he didn't take any clothes hardly at all with him because he took 15 live lobsters with him. Live lobsters packed in ice in his luggage. They were fine and he cooked them up for the guys he works with when he got there.

Now can you tell me why customs can take away my nail file but let a crazy person with a suitcase full of live lobsters get on a plane no problem?

Thoughts on the South and cooking

I loved my time in Tennessee.

It was really my time out from real life and that does a person  a lot of good. Particularly if she is sewing.

While I was sewing away I watched the food channel in the background. As there was no risk of dogs barking or yelling or babies crying on the TV it was good white noise for Mr. Rascal who was under orders not to start barking in the hotel.

I should give you some background on this. Before I met my husband who is an amazing and obsessed cook I was your good basic get-three-meals-on-the-table-for-three-kids-cook. No one starved, but  I wouldn't say anyone was particularly inspired. 

So since I have been married my husband has done nearly all of the day-to-day cooking and I have enjoyed baking and things that caught my attention. But with the new schedule he has of one month here and one month in the States, but he has promised to freeze me a few meals before he goes. Last night he made and froze about eight meal sized lobster thermadors.

Nice.

Tonight we are having a mega family dinner with the husband's famous BBQ every kind of meat, (what my son-in-law calls the meat sweat special) roast vegetables, my lemon squares and jelly rolls (I love old school desserts and have the jelly roll pretty perfected).

Back to the food network. If you are a sewer I recommend their recipes, once you figure out who you like and who you hate. These are my reasons:

1. The recipes are reviewed. So you know before hand what substitutions, results ordinary people had. 

2. These folks have to cook really fast because they are on air, so a lot of the recipes are fairly simple which means your cooking doesn't cut too much into your sewing time. Which is important.

I was particularly taken with the shows on Southern cooking and anything practical and homestyle.

My absolute favourite is Sunny Anderson who uses simple ingredients in smart ways and has great tips. Also she is real and not pretentious (Barefoot Contessa are you hearing me?). I also like Paula Deen for desserts in particular (anything of hers I have ever made has everyone groaning in appreciation - but these are artery specials so not really for daily use), and the Neelys who do a lot of BBQ meat of course but really interesting sides, and I love the Southern sides, and they have a nice presence on TV. (Oh my god I never, ever watch the tube unless you count the news and HBO and here I am going on about my favourite shows - who cares this is my kind of reality TV.)

Last night I made the Neely's apple crisp which was excellent with pecans and maple syrup (one of my local ingredients) and so much better than the oatmeal heavy versions I have done all my life.

Here's the link.

Oh and we have discovered that my husband can bring up to 5 kilos of Andouille sausage across the border every time he comes home.

We are in business.