SRC - Chicken and Apple Rice Paper Rolls

Well it's reveal day for Group D of the Secret Recipe Club! This month I was delighted to be given Natural Noshings by Nora. I came across Nora's blog quite a few months ago and had already flagged a number of recipes to make.

We have been making a real effort over the past 6 months or so to cut out processed foods and remove refined sugar from our diet. We have a pantry full of oats, coconut oil, chia seeds, natural nut butters and raw cacao. Natural Noshings has some amazing recipes that are gluten free and use real whole ingredients with nothing artificial or processed in sight.

I have bookmarked some of the sweet treats to make like the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough Bites (which will be the perfect after kindy snack for my 4 year old) and the Healthy Nutella (which my peanut butter loving 2 year old will go nuts for - pun intended!).

Yet again though I have chosen to make a main because quite simply I couldn't go past these. Nora calls them spring rolls but in Australia spring rolls use a different wrapper and are baked or fried. We call these rice paper rolls. But really whatever you call them they are little parcels of deliciousness!

Adding the apple was a stroke of genius. The sweetness of red apple paired with the chicken and peanut sauce was fantastic. My kids adored these. Well actually Charlie my 2 year old couldn't be convinced that the rice paper wrappers were actually edible so he just ate the fillings and lots of sauce.

The original recipe had apple and cabbage but as usual I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some extra veges into the kids. All the colours of the rainbow crammed into something they can roll up and dip in a yummy sauce (my version of the sauce has a few extra flavours added). All in all a healthy and delicious dinner!

Apple and Chicken Rice Paper Rolls with Peanut Sauce 
Adapted from Spring Rolls on Natural Noshings

For the rolls:
12 rice paper wrappers
4 small chicken thighs (marinated in a little soy sauce and sesame oil then baked and cut into strips
1 medium red apple, sliced into matchsticks
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 medium avocado, sliced thinly
1 small red capsicum, thinly sliced
½ bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped

For the peanut sauce:
3 tablespoons hot water
3 tablespoons peanut butter (mine was smooth, all natural)
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice malt syrup
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon sesame oil

To prepare the sauce, place all the ingredients in a small jug and whisk to combine.

To prepare the rice paper rolls, fill a large shallow bowl with just warm water. Working with one wrapper at a time, submerge it in the water and allow to soften (about 30 seconds) turning once or twice. Carefully remove from water and lay flat on a damp tea towel.

Half way between the centre of the wrapper and the edge closest to you, layer on some carrot, capsicum, avocado, chicken, apple and chopped coriander, leaving a gap of about an inch on each side.

Take the edge closest to you and fold it over the filling. Roll it once more and then fold the shorter left and right sides inward, like you would a burrito. Then continue wrapping and rolling until sealed. Place on serving platter, leaving a little room between them as they will stick together.

Repeat with remaining wrappers and serve with the peanut sauce!

BWJ - Savoury Brioche Pockets

 

I had a bit of a brain freeze and totally forgot that this was BWJ week. Luckily without a mixer I have perfected a brioche dough made in the breadmaker and whipped these beauties out in about 2.5 hours!

They are called Savoury Brioche Pockets, and just as the name suggest, they are a brioche dough wrapped around a savoury filling. As I had forgotten about the recipe I didn't have any goat's cheese or chives on hand but I did happen to have leftover steamed potato in the fridge.

To make my filling I sauteed some onion, garlic and spinach in butter until soft then added it to cold mashed potato along with a handful of grated cheddar cheese, some salt and pepper. Basically it made the yummiest mashed potato you can imagine!

The taste test ...

They didn't blow my socks off but it was pretty tasty. The filling was delicious and you can't go past brioche. I'm just not a huge pan of potatoes in bread. It just seemed a bit too heavy even though the filling was lightened up with veg. I think my brioche discs were a bit too thick so the ratio of bread to filling was a bit off. Still a success overall though.

Carrie of Loaves and Stitches will have the recipe up today and to see what the other bakers thought of this one, check out the LYL section.

BWJ - Upside Down Mini Apple Cakes

So yesterday I went to the supermarket specifically to get rhubarb. I came home with bread, lemons, broccoli and a bag of spinach ... and no rhubarb. I really hope other people do things like that! There was no way I was going back there with 2 ratty kids so I made do with what I had, and that meant apples.

I made 12 little cakes using a large hole muffin tray. I put a little blob of butter in the base of each and topped it with a slice of gala apple then spooned the batter on top.

I ate 1 (ok, 2!) warm from the oven and they were absolutely divine. The creme fraiche (or greek yoghurt in my case) made for a lovely moist and slightly tangy cake which paired beautifully with the sweet apple. They may have made out of a mistake but they were a definite winner!

To see the real recipe for Fresh Rhubarb Upside Down Baby Cakes make sure you visit out host Erin of When in Doubt.

Secret Recipe Club - Mongolian Lamb

This is now my third month with the Secret Recipe Club and I'm loving everything about it! From waiting expectantly for the email with my assigned blog inside, to spending many happy hours scouring that blog to find just the right recipe.

This month I was assigned Lynsey's blog called Lynsey Lou's. Despite living on the other side of the world I found we have lots in common from being married at around the same time in 2008 and starting to blog soon after, to just a general passion for food and cooking. I loved all of Lynsey's recipes and had a really hard time choosing just one! In the end I let my husband choose his favourite and that was Lynsey's Mongolian Beef. Not sure whether it's just in Australia but we used to get Mongolian Lamb whenever we had Chinese food so I of course adapted it to use lamb instead. 

I haven't eaten much Chinese food at all in recent years after figuring out I have a sensitivity to MSG aka Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. Hubby and I went to a Thai restaurant on our second date and I spent half the meal locked in the bathroom feeling faint with heart palpitations and a throbbing headache. Lucky for me he stuck around!

Anyway, no such problems this recipe! It was absolutely delicious, packed with flavour and probably the closest thing to takeaway Chinese food that I've ever made at home. It was the first time I've fried meat like this and it really gave the dish that authentic taste and texture. I did find it a little too sweet so next time I would reduce the brown sugar to just 1/2 cup. Otherwise this was a huge success.

Mongolian Lamb
Adapted from Lynsey Lou's Mongolian Beef

2 ts vegetable oil
1 tbs fresh minced ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
Vegetable oil, for frying (about 2 cups)
500g lamb steaks
1/4 cup corn flour
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 green shallots, sliced finely

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the ginger and garlic to the pan, give it a quick stir then quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Add the brown sugar, stir to dissolve, and then bring the sauce to the boil until it thickens and reduces, approx 5 minutes. Remove sauce from the heat and set aside.

To prepare the lamb, slice it thinly on the diagonal into ½ cm thick pieces. Tilting the blade of your knife to about 45 degrees will give wider cuts. Dust the pieces in corn flour then leave to rest for a few minutes so it sticks to the meat.

Heat 2 cups of oil in a wok or large deep fry pan until it's hot but not smoking (a wooden spoon dipped in the oil should start to bubble straight away).Carefully add the lamb in 2 or 3 batches to the hot oil and fry for two minutes, or until it just begins to darken on the edges. It doesn’t need to be cooked through at this stage. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly then remove with a large slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Repeat with remaining batches of lamb. Tip the hot oil into a heatproof jug then return the pan to the stove over medium heat.

Add the red onion and shallots (reserving a small handful of the shallots for garnish) and sauté for a few minutes until it becomes soft and translucent. Add the beef and the sauce and cook, stirring for another few minutes until it is well combined and the sauce has thickened.

Remove the lamb and onions (leaving excess sauce behind as it is very rich) and serve with plenty of steamed rice and a sprinkle of shallots over the top. Serves 4-6.

BWJ - Rustic Potato Loaves

 aka the bread that almost wasn't.

I had it in my head that this was a typical long-rest bread. Add to that I was going to have to actually cook potatoes first AND I don't even have a mixer at the moment, I was sure this was not going to happen!

But then I realised how quick it would be, and hubby cooked the potatoes for me, and I realised I could mix the dough in the breadmaker. Voila.

I made half the recipe and got a really decent sized loaf. You will notice from the picture that I forgot to cook the bread seam side up so it doesn't have the same look as the book. Still, it was delicious and made the house smell like an intoxicating mix of fresh bread and hot chips. Doesn't get much better than that!

Make sure you visit our host Dawn of Simply Sweet for the recipe.