CookingAndRecipeTips.com

There are many variations in spring roll recipes. This one originates from Vietnam and makes truly excellent spring rolls. The spring roll shells or pastry sheets used in this recipe are quite large and so are cut into quarters.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

1 pkt spring roll shells – quartered

Filling:
1 kg finely minced lean pork
3 cloves garlic – finely minced (or crushed)
250 g carrot – grated
8 dried mushrooms – soak and sliced finely
2 medium onions -  finely minced
1 cup soaked mung bean vermicelli
2 ¹/₂ Tbsp sugar
1 ¹/₂ tsp salt
¹/₂ tsp pepper
oil for deep frying
a little plain flour and water made into a paste

Sauce

6 Tbsp Fish sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
juice of 2 lemons
6 Tbsp water
3 cloves garlic – finely minced
2 red chillies – finely chopped
1 small carrot – cut into fine julienne strips

Method:

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water until soft then drain and slice finely.
2. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl until sugar is completely dissolved and let stand for around 30 minutes.
3. While the sauce is standing, mix all filling ingredients together in another bowl.
4. Take approximately 1 tablespoon of mixture and roll up in shell.
5. Seal the edges with the paste made from water and flour
6. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown (around  7 minutes).
7. Serve with the sauce as a dip

Variations

If you don’t have mung bean vermicelli, you can substitute rice vermicelli.

There are many recipes for  rissoles but this is one of the tastiest I’ve found. I think that is possibly because the onion is cooked before it is added to the rissole mixture.  It is a fairly healthy meal since the rissoles include lots of veges so it’s one way to get the kids to eat veges.

Rissoles

Ingredients:

500g mince
2 onions, diced
1 cup grated carrots
2 cups shallots cut into small pieces
1 cup diced capsicum
2 Tbsp parsley finely chopped
6 slices bread broken into small pieces
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying (not canola)

Method:

1. Fry chopped onion till translucent.
2. Combine bread, eggs and milk in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. You can use your (clean) hands to mix everything and ensure it is at a good consistency.
4. Shape into rissoles and fry.

This is a very quick and easy recipe to make. It uses lots of garlic which means you probably don’t want to have it for lunch just before an important meeting. However, garlic is a great aid to health. The active components are antiseptic and kill those cold and flu causing bugs. (Mind you, part of its effectiveness may be because no one comes close to you after eating it!)

Fettucini With Mushrooms

Ingredients:

400g mushrooms
4 – 6 cloves garlic
300 ml sour cream
400g fresh egg fettucini (if not available use regular packet fettucini)
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying
chopped parsley for garnish

Method:

1. Clean and slice mushrooms. Some people like to wash the mushrooms, others like to just wipe them with paper towel.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan and add crushed garlic. Fry for about 30 seconds then add the sliced mushrooms.
3. Fry gently until the mushrooms are soft.
4. Add sour cream, mis through and heat gently. Do not allow to boil.
5. Cook fettucini in boiling salted water until al dente (usually 8-11 minutes depending on brand and how firm you like it).
6. Drain fettucini and add mushroom sauce. Serve with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

Variations

You can use butter instead of the oil for frying. You could also use about 100g butter instead of the sour cream to make the sauce.

Asian style vegetable cooking is notable for its colours and flavour. While roast vegetables or steamed vegetables can be tasty with a meal, stir-fried vegetables are much more interesting in the tastes and textures.  They are also very healthy as they are cooked for a very short period and thus retain more of the nutrients. As with most recipes here, you can use whatever vegetables you have to hand.

Stir-Fried Vegetables

Ingredients:

3 sticks celery
250 g Chinese Cabbage (wong buk)
250 g broccoli
100 g green beans or snow peas
2 small white onions
3 Tbsp oil for cooking
1/2 cup rich chicken stock
1 chicken stock cube (optional)
1 Tbsp Oyster sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
s tsp finely chopped ginger

Method:

1. Prepare vegetables and cust into even sized pieces. Keep each type separate.
2. Heat wok, add oil and heat. Lightly fry ginger for 6 – 7 seconds.
3. Add vegetables to cook according to hardness. Stir fry constantly to keep from burning. If the wok is too dry you can add a little stock.
4. Crumble stock cube into remaining stock and add to wok together with oyster sauce. Season with soya sauce.
5. Sauce can be thickened if desired with a little cornflour blended with cold water. Bring to boil and serve immediately.

Variations

I usually include some carrot and baby corn in this just to have a variety of colours. Water chestnuts can be used to give more interest to the texture.  Red capsicum makes a bright splash of colour when it is in season as well as providing a dose of vitamin C.

Tips

If you want to prepare this ahead of time, you can blanche the vegetables instead of cooking them in the wok. Then when you want to serve them, just cook the ginger, reheat the vegetables with the sauce and serve.

This makes a great accompaniment to just about anything.

The preparation time for this is fairly lengthy but the end result is worth it.

Lamb And Asparagus

Ingredients:

1 boned shoulder of lamb
seasoned flour
4 small onions
60g butter
2  tbsp flour
1 large tin green asparagus spears
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice

Method:

1. Trim fat off meat and cut into 3cm cubes
2. Toss in seasoned flour
3. Peel and chop onions
4. Melt butter in a saucepan or frying pan and cook meat and onions until brown.
5. Drain asparagus and cut spears into half – retain liquid
6. Puree bottom half of asparagus
7. Gradually blend in liquid from the asparagus plus the wine – this should make up to 2 cups
8. Simmer gently with lid on until meat is tender.
9. Remove any fat
10. Stir in asparagus puree and cream
11. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
12. Arrange asparagus tops around the edge of a heated serving dish and spoon meat and sauce into the centre.

Serves: 6

Preparation Time: 1.5 hours (90 minutes)

Tips:

You may want to thicken the sauce a little before adding the puree and cream. The traditional method for thickening the sauce is to add a little plain flour, however, you could also use cornflour or arrowroot as an alternative.

If asparagus is in season, you can use fresh asparagus. Cook it and retain the liquid then use as for the tinned asparagus.