Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Whenever I go to Vietnamese restaurants, I always have an internal struggle between ordering the fried eggrolls and the fresh spring rolls. Usually, the fried ones win, but since the weather is warming up, this seems more fitting.

And since this month's Side Dish Showdown has a theme of Spring, this seems fitting. Check out Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice and the end of the month to see some other Spring inspired side dishes.

Ingredients:
(Rolls)
- Rice paper
- Rice noodles
- Shrimp
- Thinly sliced meat (I used eye of round that was pre-sliced for hot pot purposes)
- Lettuce
(Sauce)
- Peanut butter
- Hoisin
- Water
- Fish sauce
- Crushed peanuts
- Chili sauce (optional)

Directions:
(Rolls)
- Boil the rice noodles until fully cooked, then rinse it with cold water and set aside.
- Slice the lettuce into quarter inch strips and set aside.
- Cook the shrimp, then cool it, slice them in half if desired and set aside.
- Cook the meat, cool it, and set aside.
- Fill a pan large enough to fit the rice paper with water.
- For each roll, quickly dip two sheets of rice paper in the water (on both sides) and stack them on top of each other, flat on a cutting board. On my first roll, I let the paper soak in the water until it was fully soft. That was too soft and the rice paper fell apart. On my second, I just dipped it quickly, but found that it was still not enough because it'd rip when I tried rolling the spring rolls. Then I tried to dip two quickly and found that was perfect. You can experience yourself too, to see what works best for you.
- Lay a line of shrimp (pretty side down if you sliced them in half) on the softened rice paper.
- Lay a line of the meat on top of the shrimp.
- Lay a line of noodles on top of the meat.
- Lay a line of lettuce on top of the noodles.
- Fold in the edges and wrap up the filling into the spring roll.
- Repeat for each roll.
(Sauce)
- Scoop some peanut butter into a bowl and add a bit of water.
- Pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to help melt the peanut butter.
- Stir the peanut butter/water mixture until smooth.
- Add hoisin sauce and just a dash of fish sauce to taste (a little goes a looong way, so don't add too much).
- Add some chili sauce if desired.
- Stir everything together until it achieves the taste and consistency you desire.
- Top with crushed peanuts and dip spring rolls in the sauce.

Scallion Pancakes

The Chinese name for this dish is cong you bing which literally translates to onion oil pancake, and that's really all there is to it. Since the ingredient list is so short, it's perfect for this month's Weekend Cookbook Challenge which is run by Sara of I Like to Cook: 5 ingredients or less!

I love green onion pancakes (aka scallion pancakes). You can eat it alone as a snack, dipping it in a simple sauce if you'd like. You can eat it as a side instead of rice. You can wrap meat and veggies in it with some hoisin sauce - yum! Fry it up with scrambled eggs for a great breakfast. The list goes on and on. Plus it freezes really well, so you can make a ton and freeze them for convenient future usage! I even had a green onion pancake-off with a friend once. We both made them and fed them to our friends for judging, and I'm proud to say that I won :)

Another thing I love about green onion pancakes are the layers. Look at those gorgeous layers! As a kid, I loved peeling off the layers and eating them one by one, and I'm not ashamed to say that I still play with my food to this day!

Anyway, enough babbling, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour
• Hot, preferably boiling, water (approx 2:1 ratio of flour to water)
• Oil (I like to use a combo of vegetable and sesame and will elaborate below)
• Salt
• Green onions (diced)

Method:

• In a stand mixer, or by hand, mix the flour and water together and knead until a nice dough is formed. The ratio should be about 2:1 and should be a non-sticky but relatively soft dough. It's pretty forgiving, so this doesn't have to be perfect. Hot water is important however because that will give you the texture you want (or so I was told when I first learned to make it).
• Take a small piece of dough (however big you want your pancake to be) and roll it out as thin as possible. The shape doesn't matter (as you can see below). And it's even okay if you rolled it so thin that there are holes in it.

• Drizzle some oil and rub it in with your hands so that the entire surface is lightly covered, but there are no pools of oil in any one spot. I like to use a combo of vegetable oil and sesame oil. I find that all sesame oil is a bit too strong for my taste, but vegetable oil alone is a bit boring, but really, use what you have and what you like. In fact, lard is probably the best option if you're brave enough to use it! (I'm not)
• Sprinkle on the green onions. Again, it's up to your personal preference how much you like.

• Roll the dough into a long rope. It's okay if oil and onions squish out the sides.
• Next, coil that rope into a circle.

• Using your hands and/or rolling pin to flatten out the pancake to your desired thickness. Some people like super thick pancakes, others like thin ones. Both are perfectly acceptable. You may need to let the dough rest a bit if it's being difficult to work with.

• In a pan, heat up a bit of oil over medium/low heat. Plop your pancake down and let it cook until golden brown, and then flip to crisp the other side. Thicker pancakes will obviously take longer (you might want to put the lid on and turn down the heat so that it doesn't burn before it's cooked through) and thin ones will take less time. Deep frying these is another delicious alternative!

• Cut them into wedges and serve them however you like. My favorite is with a dipping sauce of half black vinegar and half soy sauce, but experiment away to find what you like!

Sauteed Green Beans

I'm not a big fan of the traditional green bean casserole. I am however, a big fan of bacon :)

Here is my preference for Thanksgiving green beans, sauteed in bacon fat, with some red bell pepper for added color and sliced almonds as a garnish.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of green beans
• 1 onion sliced thinly
  
• 1 red bell pepper sliced thinly
  
• 2 (or more) slices of bacon
• salt to taste
• almond slices

Method:

• Clean and trim the green beans. Blanche them in boiling water or steam them until tender and put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and to keep their bright green color.
• Cut up the bacon into tiny pieces and cook until crispy.
• Add the onion and saute until soft and carmelized.
• Add the red bell pepper and saute until heated through. I like to keep it a bit crispy.
• Add the green beans to heat through.
• Add salt to taste (this may not be necessary since the bacon is already pretty salty).
• Sprinkle some almond slices on top and serve.
  

Pseudo creamed spinach

This is actually really healthy! No cream, no cheese, minimal butter and still quite tasty.

If you're expecting the super rich creamed spinach you're used to, you'll probably be disappointed, but if you want a delicious, healthy way to make spinach that feels just a bit indulgent, I think this will do the trick...


Ingredients*:
- 2 packages of frozen spinach
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 shallot or small onion finely diced
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 cup of milk (I used non-fat soy)
- 1/2 cup of milk or chicken stock
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- fresh cracked pepper
* As usual, I didn't follow any recipes or measure anything out, so these are all estimations, so do taste tests
Directions:
- Thaw the frozen spinach and squeeze out the water using your hands or cheesecloth
- Melt butter in the bottom of a saucepan
- Put in shallot/onions and sautee until softened
- Add minced garlic
- Sprinkle in flour and mix until wet. If there's not enough moisture to wet the flour, don't worry, we're adding the milk next. - Pour in the soy milk and add the seasonings
- Add the spinach and mix until warmed through and the right consistency
- Add more liquid/seasoning as needed. Flour can also be added if it's not "creamy" enough