Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls with Shrimps

Fresh spring rolls are a delicious and healthy appetizer. They are a nice change from the fried rolls (eggrolls) which are served warm. For this recipe, I added shrimps in the rolls for a more complete dish but you can replace them with fried tofu if you like. Enjoy!

Serves 2 (2 rolls per person)
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: **

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 oz (75g) dried rice vermicelli
- 4 jumbo shrimps, cooked, peeled and sliced half lengthwise
- 1 romaine heart (or other lettuce you like), leaves separated, rinsed, and dried
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 4 rice-paper wrapper
- 1 small Persian cucumber, cut into matchsticks
- 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- 1/3 cup roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped

- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/2 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic chili sauce

Place the rice vermicelli in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes. Drain well.
Fill a bowl with warm water. Dip one wrapper at a time into the water for about 15 seconds or until soft.
Place the wrapper on a flat surface. Top the central part of the wrapper with vermicelli, cucumber, carrot, peanuts, mint, lettuce and two shrimp halves.

Fold the lower part of the wrapper on the ingredients and roll tightly, folding in the sides. Put on a plate, cover with a damp cloth and repeat.

For the dipping sauce: In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, sugar and chili sauce.
Serve with the spring rolls.

Chinese Fried Rice to finish roasted chicken leftovers

Over the week-end, I sometimes roast a whole chicken to feed my family for about 2 meals. I there are leftovers, I detach the meat from the bones and prepare a Chinese Fried Rice. With chicken, I also add omelet, tomatoes, peas, onion, bell pepper and other ingredients I have in my fridge. Delicious and complete, the dish makes everybody happy.

Serves 2
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: *

Ingredients:
- Vegetable oil or peanut oil
- 1 egg lightly beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
- 1 onion cut into wedges
- about 1 cup cooked chicken strips (leftovers from a roasted chicken or pan-fried in advance) OR ham
- 2 cups cooked cold rice
The rice should be refrigerated a few hours before making fried rice to let the grains dry out and separate.
- 1/4 red bell pepper cut into small squares
- 1/2 cup frozen green peas
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 cup small prawns, peeled (optional)

Heat the oil in a wok or a large pan and add the egg, spreading it over the bottom to get a small layer, like for an omelet. When it is almost set, break up into pieces to resemble scrambled eggs. Set aside.
Heat a bit more oil in the wok/pan and stir-fry the bell pepper and onion, until soft. The onion should be transparent and should not turn brown.
Add the chicken or ham and stir-fry for 1 minute.
Add the rice, peas and cherry tomatoes. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes until the tomatoes and peas begin to soften.
Add the scrambled eggs, soy sauce and prawns (if using).
Heat through and serve.

You can add other ingredients to "customize" your fried rice. Here are some ideas:
carrots (cut into Julienne strips)
spring onions (cut into short lengths)
peanuts or cashews
bacon
black Chinese mushrooms
garlic and ginger (before frying the onion and the bell pepper)
pork or duck strips
bamboo shoots

Primavera, Mushroom, Seafood Risotto... Invent your own!

Risotto is an incredibly flexible dish which you can adapt according to your envy. There are some basic principles and techniques to know which I'm going to explain but it is not difficult to prepare.
Depending on the ingredients you use in your risotto, it can be an appetizer or an entree and you can make it with veggies, seafood or meat.


Serves 4
Preparation: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: **

Ingredients:
Basic ingredients needed for any type of risotto
- 400g risotto rice (14 ounces)
- 2 liters of stock (6 1/2 cups)
I prefer using chicken stock or vegetable stock. Clam juice can also be used for seafood risottos.
- olive oil or butter to fry the onion at the beginning of the preparation
- 2 tablespoons butter to add at the end of the preparation
- 1 small onion
- 2/3 cup wine or liquor (10 cl)(optional)
Any wine can work with risottos. White wine is the best bet but for more "fancy" dishes, I already used Sake or Ricard to customize my risottos.
- 2 nice handfuls of parmesan cheese (better if freshly grated)

Boil the stock and reserve it aside, keeping it very hot.
Heat the olive oil or butter in a large pan. Slowly fry the onion without coloring them, they should become transparent.
-- You might now add ingredients that need to cook with the rice, like raw vegetables, meat cut in small pieces... --
Turn up the heat and add the rice and stir so that it is coated with butter/oil.
Then add the wine and keep stirring until the rice has absorbed all the liquid.
Add salt and pepper.
Turn the head down and add the stock in small batches, stirring and waiting for the liquid to be absorbed before adding more stock.
-- If you are making a seafood risotto, you can add the seafood in the middle of the cooking process here. Since seafood does not need to cook for a long time, do not add them too early. --
After about 30 minutes, the rice should be "al dente" and the texture of the risotto should be creamy. Add more stock if you feel that it's too dry.

Take the risotto out of the heat and check the seasoning: add salt and pepper if needed.
Stir in the butter and the parmesan. If you like, you can top with freshly grated parmesan before serving.

Examples of other ingredients to be used in risottos
1) Risotto Primavera: carrots, celery, green peas, artichokes, asparagus, green beans...
Cut them in cubes and add them to your preparation.

2) Mushroom Risotto: fresh or dried mushrooms like porcinis or chanterelles. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water before using them in this recipe.
For a "Japanese style" mushroom risotto, you can use shitake and/or oyster mushrooms. Sake can be used in this version.

3) Seafood Risotto: bay scallops, shrimps, calamari, ...
It's better to use fresh seafood but if you have a frozen medley for example, you can heat it in a pan first and reserve the juice to cook the rice. As mentioned above, do not add the seafood too early or it will become chewy, especially if you are using frozen seafood.

Enjoy!