Showing posts with label starter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label starter. Show all posts

Sunday, November 21, 2010

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.

Friday, January 15, 2010

"Eggs Mimosa" (Deviled eggs), cute appetizer

Eggs Mimosa
This recipe is called "Mimosa eggs" (oeufs mimosa in French), probably because the egg yolk gives the mimosa color to your plate. You probably know it better as Deviled eggs. This appetizer is one of the easiest existing and you need a minimal number of ingredients to prepare it. I usually serve the Mimosa eggs atop a Belgian endives salad because I like the way the egg tastes with endive but any type of salad works.

Serves 2
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Difficulty: *

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon regular mayonnaise or Vegenaise (vegetarian mayonnaise, without eggs)
- salad: Belgian endives, red and green oak salad, spinach salad, or any other salad you like
- paprika (optional)

Boil the eggs for about 10 to 12 minutes. The egg yolks need to be hard.
Let them cool and divide them in two, lengthwise.
Remove the egg yolks and set aside. Fill the holes of the egg whites with mayonnaise and crumble the egg yolks on top of the mayonnaise. You can also divide the yolks in two and place them directly on top, without crumbling them.

Prepare your salad and lay it in your plates. Place the eggs on top and sprinkle paprika over the eggs.
Serve right away.