I love summer rolls.  The cold chewy texture of rice paper wrapped around a little package of refreshing flavors is so fun to eat and pleasing to the palate.  There are endless combinations and the fun is in creating rolls that match your tastes.  I was inspired to make these vegetable rolls after I enjoyed my friend Meghan's version.  They make such an impressive presentation when using vibrantly colored vegetables.  I used the vegetables that I had in my refrigerator and I also took the liberty of adding some tempeh that I sauteed in olive oil.  The process for making these is very straight forward – once all of the ingredients are prepped it's just a matter of assembly.  One tip that Meghan shared with me is wrapping each roll twice with the rice paper.  This makes for a chewier roll that stays wrapped more readily.  The dipping sauce that I used was my all-purpose peanut sauce but you can use whatever dipping sauce that you like.  Feel free to experiment with your favorite fillers too!

Veggie Roll-ups

• Rice paper wraps
• Tempeh
• Purple cabbage
• Rice vermicelli noodles
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Cilantro

1)  Begin by cutting the tempeh into small cubes.  Heat a sautee pan over medium heat and add a tablespoon or two of olive oil.  When the pan is hot (I sometimes just flick a little water on the pan and when I hear a sizzle I know it's hot) add the tempeh and stir regularly to lightly brown all the sides.  Once the cubes of tempeh are lightly golden set aside on a plate to cool to room temperature. 

2)  For the vermicelli rice noodles just follow the instructions on the box – typically you just soak them in hot/warm water until they transform into delicate limp strands.  Set aside.

3)  Meanwhile – prepare all of the vegetables that you'd like to include in your summer roll.  I used:  purple cabbage (added great color), carrots, and cucumber.  For the cabbage just remove the outer most leaves and cut the head in half – then when its rested firmly on a flat surface cut thin slices to produce the shredded cabbage effect – use a quarter of a head of cabbage (chop some more if needed).  For the carrots and cucumber I just cut them into long thin strips.  I washed the cilantro and left a bunch of it along with the prepped veggies.  Once everything has been prepped it's time to assemble the rolls.

4) Prepare a shallow baking dish with warm/hot water for dipping the dry rice paper sheets. The rice paper, as you'll discover, comes packaged in dry and brittle sheets and you'll need to dip it into very warm water for a few seconds to allow it to soften and become malleable. You'll do this dipping step only when you're ready to assemble the rolls and you'll want to do each one individually. Take a piece of rice paper, dip it in the warm water until it's softened enough to work with, place it on a clean flat surface, place a few leaves of cilantro along the bottom, add some cabbage on top then the carrots, cucumber, and tempeh – all in a narrow row along the bottom part of the rice paper.  Finally add the vermicelli rice noodles. Now for the rolling part, you basically want to wrap it as you would a burrito. There is more than one way to do this but to help guide you I found a great site that explains this very well. This part can be a little tricky but after a roll or two you'll get the hang of it. As you get used to rolling you'll also find out the best way to layer ingredients so that they look nice through the translucent rice paper (which is why I recommended starting with the cilantro but you may find a preferable arrangement once you try a few rolls).  Now that you have your little roll – take another sheet of rice paper – soften it in the warm water and then re-roll your original roll so that it's double-wrapped.  This extra step really helps the rolls stay together and also adds more of that great chewy texture I find so enjoyable in summer rolls.  When all of your rolls are done I either leave them in the fridge or on the counter well wrapped for about 20 minutes before serving – this gives them time to slightly firm up and they'll hold together better when you cut them.  

For the peanut dipping sauce:

• 4-6 Tablespoon water (this is to thin out the sauce, I use 6 for a very runny sauce but if you prefer it a little thicker use less)
• 1/4 Cup Peanut butter (My favorite kind of peanut butter is the all natural kind so that's what I used here – there's no sugar added. If you use the kind of peanut butter that already has sugar added then go light on the brown sugar that I add later or maybe omit that ingredient all together – you'll have to go by taste…)
• 2 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoon Tamari soy sauce, low sodium (use whatever kind of soy sauce that you have on hand)
• 2 Tablespoon Rice vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon freshly grated or finely chopped ginger (I got a microplane for Christmas and I LOVE to use it for grating ginger – you'll find that the ginger blends into the sauce very easily when grated)
• 1 Teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 Clove garlic finely chopped

Instructions:

1) Mix all the ingredients together except for the water – I recommend adding the water slowly at the end so that you can control for how viscous you'd like your sauce to be – (because this sauce is so flavorful you can add quite a bit without compromising taste).  As you'll see, the peanut butter "melts" when you start stirring it with the soy sauce and other ingredients.  Stir very well until everything is combined.

Enjoy! 

A few months ago Kareem and I joined our friends Dan and Alicia for brunch in their neighborhood.  Since Kareem and I had never really explored that 'hood Dan, a fellow foodie, gave me a tip on a good gourmet market in the area.  On our way back from brunch we stopped in and spent some time meandering the aisles and checking out all of the goodies.  One of my purchases was Spanish smoked sweet paprika.  I have played with it a little here and there but I must admit that I have really not given it a fair try.  Little did I know that it would be by accident that I would discover the powerful flavor potential of this beautiful red spice.

In an attempt to de-clutter my refrigerator I decided to make some hummus with the bowl of chickpeas that were left over from a salad I had made the day before.  I poured them into my blender, added a clove of garlic, a pinch of salt, a drizzle of olive oil, a few squeezes of lemon juice, and then out of no where came the idea to add a 1/2 teaspoon of sweet paprika.  A few whizzes and whirls of the blender later I gave the hummus a taste.  Yum!  The cool chickpeas were the perfect host to the sweet yet spicy paprika and the hint of smoky flavor in the background rounded out the flavors perfectly.  Enjoy this with your favorite crackers, toasted pita bread, or crostini.

I should also note that I usually add tahini (sesame paste) to my hummus but didn’t add any this time and I actually preferred the taste – I find that the tahini easily overpowers the chickpeas.  Omitting the tahini also makes this a much lighter dip.

Hummus That Makes You Go Hmmm… 

• 1 15 oz. can chick peas – rinsed and drained
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2-3 Tablespoons water (I used 2 Tablespoons but you can add another if you want a smoother consistency)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1/2 Teaspoon sea salt (add more to taste)
• 1 Teaspoon smoked sweet paprika

1)  Add all of the ingredients into a blender/food processor and blend.  I add just 2 tablespoons of water but to get an even smoother consistency you can add more.  Once blended taste it to adjust the flavors of salt, lemon juice, etc. 

2)  Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika atop the hummus and serve!

Here's my simple version of tzatziki:

1 Cup Greek style yogurt (I used some that I found at Trader Joe's and it was delicious, another brand that you can look for is called Total)

1/4 finely chopped English cucumber – I like to use English cucumbers because you can leave the skins on them and they don't have too many seeds, I scrape out the seeds

1 Tablespoon dried dill (or mint if you prefer)

1 clove garlic finely minced

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

1)  I begin by preparing the garlic, mincing it as finely as possible and then sprinkle with the sea salt and continue to mince.  The coarseness of the sea salt will help further mince the garlic and then you can use the side of the blade of your knife to mush the garlic and salt into a paste.  Creating a paste will allow the garlic and salt flavors to permeate the yogurt sauce without overpowering it or causing anyone to bite into a chunk of raw garlic.  Add this paste to a small bowl. 

2)  Chop the cucumber lengthwise and using a spoon scrape out the seeds – you'll notice that the English cucumbers don't really have many seeds compared to the regular cucumbers so this part is easy.  Then finely chop the cucumber and add it to the small bowl with the garlic.

3)  Add the yogurt, dill, and a few turns of the pepper mill.  Stir all of the ingredients together.  Taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking.  Keep in mind that the garlic flavor will get stronger the longer it has a chance to marinate in the yogurt.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

I am very excited to share the first ever video segment on my blog. I hope to make this a regular feature on my site. As you'll notice when watching I'm a total newbie at the whole cooking on camera thing. (Most notably, I was so overly concerned with prepping my area that I completely forgot to get myself camera-ready!) My aim is really to help share tricks, techniques, tools, and recipes in way that will be useful to people. I am open to any comments or suggestions! When brainstorming about a yummy, easy recipe to prepare for my debut on camera I quickly came up with the idea of guacamole. It wouldn't require me to turn on a stove so that meant that we could easily stop and restart without interrupting the cooking process. Guacamole is always a welcome addition to any gathering. There is so much to love about this dip: the creaminess of the avocado, the zing from the lime juice, the freshness from the cilantro – all of this pairing so nicely with a salty, crispy tortilla chip. I hope that you'll enjoy this!

Guacamole

2 Ripe avocados
1 Lime
1/2 Clove garlic, minced
3 Tablespoons red onion, chopped
1 Pinch coarse sea salt
5 Grape tomatoes chopped or 1/2 tomato diced
1 Small handful chopped cilantro (if you're not a cilantro fan you can omit this)
Jalepeno - optional

1) Mince the garlic – when finely minced sprinkle with the coarse sea salt and mince together with the knife using the side of the blade to help mush the mixture into a paste. Creating a paste will help to incorporate the garlic flavor without overwhelming anyone with a bite of sharp fresh garlic. (This is a great technique to use when making tzatziki too.) Add to a small/medium size bowl.

2) Chop the red onion and add to the bowl. When choosing avocados make sure they are ripe – they will give in to the pressure of your thumb when ready. Prepare the avocados by sliding your knife through the top of the fruit until you reach the center pit, then run your knife around the fruit so that it breaks open revealing two halves, one with the large round pit. To extract the pit whack your knife into the pit so that it sticks and then turn the knife to losen it – it should come right out. Just whack the knife against your cutting board if the pit remains stuck to your knife. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh from the avocado and give it a quick chop before adding to the bowl.

3) Slice the lime and squeeze the juice from the entire lime into the bowl – the acidity from the limes will help prevent the avocado from turning brown. It also adds fantastic flavor. I like to use a fork to help extract the juice from limes – twisting it in the lime as I'm squeezing is very effective I find. (The limes that I used on the video clip had no seeds but if there are seeds in your limes you may want to squeeze the juice into a bowl to make it easier to remove the seeds.)

4) Now, here's the fun part: with a fork "mush" the avocado while also mixing in the garlic, onion, and lime juice. You can make this guacamole as chunky or mushy as you please!

5) Chop the cilantro and tomatoes and add those in – stir to combine. If you want to add some heat to your guacamole you can add some finely minced jalepeno at this point. Be really careful when dealing with the pepper though because the oils from the pepper are what irritate your eyes and cause them to sting! Also, be sure to remove the seeds and ribs of the pepper as that is where a lot of the heat comes from – the rib is that white part that holds the seeds to the flesh on the inside of the pepper. I've seen some people use rubber gloves when dealing with hot peppers – you can use whatever method you feel most comfortable with! Just make sure to wash your hands really well afterwards.

Enjoy with some tortilla chips!

Tuscan White Bean Dip with Basil and Lemon

1 15 oz. Can of cannellini beans (rinse well with cold water in a colander before using)
1 small handful of fresh basil leaves (I used about 6-8 big leaves)
1/2 Garlic clove
2 Tablespoons toasted pine nuts
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 Teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 pinches of lemon zest
Sea salt/ Freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1) In a dry pan I add the pine nuts over medium heat. Make sure to keep a watchful eye when toasting nuts because this takes very little time and it’s super easy to burn them. Gently shuffle the pan a little bit from time to time so they get a nice golden color evenly on more than one side. You’ll begin to smell the nutty aroma of the nuts and you’ll notice they start to glisten as the oils begin to emerge from them – these are signs that they are just about ready. When they look slightly golden or toasted remove from heat and allow to cool before adding them to the rest of the ingredients in the food processor.

2) While the pine nuts are cooling begin by rinsing the beans to rid them of the syrup in which they are preserved and add them to a food processor along with the garlic clove, olive oil, basil leaves, lemon juice, lemon zest (this is best removed using a microplane or super-fine grater that will just remove the zest – avoid getting the white part known as the pith which is very bitter). Also add the toasted pine nuts which have cooled. Pulse these ingredients together in the blender – before it’s completely blended together add a pinch of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Blend it and then taste – if you think it needs more salt or pepper add a little bit at a time. I try to blend the mixture so that it’s all combined but still has a little bit of texture meaning it isn’t completely perfectly smooth – blend it to your desired consistency though.

Enjoy with crostini which are just toasted pieces of baguette – I slice pieces of bread about 1/2 -1 inch think and line them on a baking sheet. Stick them under the broiler in the oven for about 5-10 minutes until they are toasted.

It’s so easy to make a lot of this dip so it’s great for parties and entertaining! It holds up very well in the fridge too so you can make it the day before.