World's Greatest Peanut Sauce and Vietnamese Spring Rolls To Dip In It

Ok, so this may not be the world's greatest peanut sauce.  I mean really, how could anyone actually know that.  But it is seriously good.  I have never met a peanut sauce I didn't like at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants, or the bottled stuff from the grocery store, or heck even a wrap I got at Starbucks recently had some pretty darn good peanut dipping sauce with it.   This sauce is really easy, and I can see myself drizzling on all kinds of things, not just spring rolls.

Ahh the spring rolls.  This was my first time making them, and I have a new respect for all spring roll makers out there.  My first few, ok like my first half dozen looked pretty bad.  Didn't get them tight enough, took too long and the wrapper ripped, but towards the end I got the hang of it and they look much better.  They all tasted great, which in the end is what really matters, right?  So, I'm sharing my tips and lessons learned here so you can avoid the same mistakes I did if you are in the spring roll making mood.

With our meal I also made Cambodian Chicken and Rice soup.  We discovered this in a Food and Wine cookbook we bought on clearance 8-9 years ago, and have made it a whole bunch of times since then.  I have blogged about it twice actually, so check out this post for pictures, tips, and recipe - Cambodian Chicken and Rice Soup with Shrimp.  I'll tell you its company-coming-over worthy for sure. 

The peanut sauce is very easy. The hardest part is grating some fresh ginger, and that is not hard people.   Measure out your ingredients, whisk well in a bowl, and wha-la! Perhaps maybe possibly the world's greatest peanut sauce!  For the ginger- don't skimp and use already minced ginger or ginger powder.  Get a ginger root from your vegetable section at the grocery store, take the largest part and peel it with a peeler, and grate it in the bowl.  I love my various size graters, and find the one in the picture that is flat and long is perfect.  Tap tap on the side of the bowl and the grated ginger falls off the back. 

Tip - in hindsight this bowl below was way too small.  Had to be careful when whisking that I didn't slosh the liquids and make a huge mess.  Use a nice big bowl so you don't have to worry about that.   Also, it may seem like it's too liquidy right after you put the water in. Just keep whisking whisking whisking and in a minute or two it gets thicker to the perfect dipping consistency, just like magic.  But, it can't hurt to just add 5 tablespoons and add in the 6th if you feel you need it.  Depends on how firm your peanut butter is.  Mine is the all natural only ingredient is peanuts kind, which needed the 6th tablespoon.   I can get off on a serious tangent on peanut butter, but check your ingredients.  Lots of peanut butter out there is barely peanuts at all. It's vegetable oil and sugar and salt, so I highly encourage the kind that is just peanuts! 

For the spring rolls you'll need some freshly cooked shrimp.  To boost the flavor (and save some $$), cook your own, don't just buy some pre-cooked shrimp in the seafood section.  I bought some large shrimp, not jumbo or extra jumbo, and used about a pound and a half for the recipe.  

To quick boil the shrimp:

1. Peel shrimp and place peels and tails in a pot with enough water to cover your shrimp and the items below.  

2. Add a quartered onion.

3. Add some cajun seasoning of your choice, a good tablespoon. 

4. Throw in some whole peppercorns if you have them. 

5. Bring the water to a boil. 

6. Add shrimp, and cook 60-90 seconds.  The smaller the shrimp the faster they will cook.  

7. Put a larger strainer over a large bowl, and pour contents into strainer (you can dump the quick shrimp stock you just made down the sink but I'd save it, let it cool, and freeze. This has tasty shrimp-y goodness in it!). 

8. Run cold water over the contents, and fish out the shrimp.  

9. Put in an ice bath to keep from overcooking the shrimp. 

Now to get to chopping your other ingredients.   There isn't much prep when you cheat and by pre-shredded carrots. I didn't see the need to chop or shred anything else.  Pull the herbs off the stems, but otherwise I left them whole. 

For the wrappers - they are rigid, and when dipped in warm water become pliable.  VERY pliable.  Set up an assembly line. I used a deep dish pie plate and put warm water in it to dip the wrappers.  Don't soak them, just dip, get a good coat of water on them, put them on your work surface (I used a cutting board), pile on your stuff, and roll.   The wrapper will start our rigid on your work surface, and by the time you have piled your stuff on them and are ready to roll, the wrapper is soft and pliable, and sticky, so move fast.  You can't be indecisive in your rolling. I rolled mine like a burrito - fold over the ends, then start with one side, fold over all the ingredients, tuck tight, then roll.  

Tips - DO NOT let the wrapper sit in the water too long until it's soft. It will be unworkable by the time you put your ingredients on it.  I tore a few of my first ones that way.  Had to double up the one below because I had so many tears in the wrapper.  

Tip 2 - Be decisive in wrapping.  If you try and lift up the wrapper to re-do anything you will tear it.  Just go with it, whatever you want to undo will only be made worse by trying to undo it.  

Tip 3 - Don't overload it.  I put way to much stuff in my first few.  This photo below has too much stuff in one roll.  

This one below is more like it.  Nice neat pile.   I should mention - I used BROWN rice spring roll wrappers vs white rice wrappers like you would be used to seeing most likely at a restaurant. In my quest to cut out white rice and other processed grains, I used brown rice wrappers.  I found these at Whole Foods.  My local Publix only had the white rice kind.   Diabetic?  Know that brown rice wrappers are a thing!  Also brown rice pad thai noodles, brown jasmine rice, etc.....

What you put on the bottom is what shows up best through the wrapper.  What to show off the shrimp? Put them on the bottom.  Highlight the avocado? Put it on the bottom.  Below you can see how they look both ways.  

This recipe is straight from Skinnytaste, with the only change that I used brown rice wrappers.  I played it loose with the amount of ingredients I used, I didn't count out my basil or mint or cilantro leaves, just used the amount that looked right in each roll.   Here is the Original Recipe on the Skinnytaste site.  

Shrimp Summer Rolls with Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce

From Skinnytaste.com

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 rounds rice paper
• 24 large or jumbo peeled and cooked shrimp
• 1 large haas avocado (about 6 oz), sliced into strips
• 3 cups shredded carrot
• 3 cups shredded red cabbage
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• 24 basil leaves
• 24 mint leaves

Peanut Dipping Sauce:

• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons sriracha
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 6 tablespoons hot water, to thin

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix together the ingredients for the peanut sauce.
2. Take a rice paper wrapper and completely submerge it in hot tap water 10 to 15 seconds, until pliable.
3. Place the wrapper on a plate or cutting board and top with 2 shrimp, a few avocado slices, 1/4 cup carrots, 1/4 cup cabbage, 2 basil leaves and 2 mint leaves.
4. Fold the bottom half of the wrapper over the filling, hold the fold in place, tuck in the sides and roll tightly.
5. Repeat with remaining filling and serve with dipping sauce.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Yield: 12 servings, Serving Size: 1 roll, 1 tbsp sauce

• Amount Per Serving:
• Freestyle Points: 3
• Points +: 4
• Calories: 138 calories
• Total Fat: 6g
• Saturated Fat: 1g
• Cholesterol: 22mg
• Sodium: 193mg
• Carbohydrates: 17g
• Fiber: 3g
• Sugar: 3g
• Protein: 5g

Zucchini Coconut Bread - Breakfast Favorite

I love quickbreads.  Always have. Banana bread.  Banana nut bread.  Chocolate banana bread.  Zucchini banana bread.  Zucchini banana nut bread.  You get the idea.  Then I discovered Zucchini Coconut bread.  Imagine those words scripted in the sky with angelic voices singing "ahhhhhhhh" in the background while James Earl Jones says the words aloud, causing all the worlds sick to be healed.  It is really that good.  

After I discovered it a good 5+ years ago, I've played around with a few different recipes.  Since it has coconut in it, I have settled on a version that uses melted coconut oil in lieu of any other type of oil or butter.  That plus the Greek yogurt keep it nice and moist. If you are one of those people who always has to butter everything, then you can still put a dab of butter on your slice before you eat it. No one will judge you.  

Since this uses melted coconut oil, which is solid at room temp, NONE of your ingredients can be cold.  I have skipped this "bringing to room temp" step many times and the texture is more dry because a lot of the oil hardens and sticks to your bowl or whisk.  So don't skip this step. Yes it requires a little more forethought on your part when making it, but so did remembering to buy the ingredients at the store, right?  So don't skip this.  The ingredients that are used that I normally keep cold are the Greek yogurt, egg, zucchini, and whole wheat flour.  I keep my whole wheat flour in the freezer because it lasts generally forever that way.  Whole wheat anything goes bad a whole heck of a lot faster than the white varieties when left out at room temp.  So keep it in the fridge for freezer.  Wondering "I wonder if this is still good" is something I like to minimize, so even if I'm going through a lot of whole wheat flour, the freezer is its permanent home.    

So how long to let this stuff sit out to get to room temp? And what the heck is room temp anyway? Our house can vary 15+ degrees inside from summer to winter.  Ultimately I have decided it is so it doesn't feel cold at all to the touch.  That is not scientific I know.  If you google it, the internet will tell you room temp is 70-75 degrees.  Yesterday when I made this it was warm out and our house was around 75-76 F.  I didn't keep track but after 3 hours it seemed at an appropriate temperature for me to not worry about hardening the coconut oil.  Maybe it would have only taken 2 hours or less, but I am not making this harder than it needs to be ok.  I could get all engineer on you and set up a thermocouple submerged in the yogurt set to alarm when it reaches the upper 70s, but that's my day job talking.  If you have kids and want to teach them about science, there seems to be a good opportunity here. They can learn about heat transfer and thermodynamics for sure.  Cooling naturally in air takes a lot longer than cooling under running water in a vessel for instance.  Ok, sorry, I'll stop talking now, the engineer is taking over this blog again.  (now that I think about it we have a meat thermometer that has an alarm feature. Note to self - use that next time to see how long it actually takes to get to room temp....)

Quick sidebar - We eat A LOT of Greek yogurt. I mean a. lot.  Breakfast most days for one or both of us involves Greek yogurt.  Thanks to Publix for FINALLY having a organic option for 0% fat plain Greek.  I am seriously not going out of my way to get it (ie Whole Foods or Fresh Market).  So thank you Prattville Publix! 

While you are waiting on everything to get to room temp, get out the rest of your ingredients.  If you don't have enough of something, you have plenty of time to get to the store and back. Separate the "dry" ingredients (flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg) from the "wet" ingredients (sugars, coconut, vanilla, egg, yogurt, and zucchini).  You will end up using the "Muffin Method" (I don't know who coined that, but Alton Brown uses it - he taught me a TON about cooking right as I was really learning in the early-mid 2000s).  The Muffin Method mixes the dry ingredients independently from the wet, then you stir them together but not too vigorously and not for too long.  You are allowed to have lumps.  You don't want to overmix or you'll mess with the texture of the final product, and disturb the baking powder action that happens that moment the stuff gets wet.   I could really go all geek on you here, but just google the Muffin Method if you are more curious.   Once I started using it for baked goods, pancakes, waffles = WOW.  Textures were better!  And the pancakes really fluffed up more.  I was apparently a big over-mixer before I learned that it is so wrong to over-mix certain things like pancakes batter. 

Coconut - you can certainly use regular sweetened coconut for this. This is what we all grew up with in the clear bags.  I have not found one that is all natural though, but I HAVE found unsweetened organic coconut.  So that is what I use.  You can certainly use the sweetened kind if that is your thing.  

It doesn't take long to melt the coconut oil, and you don't want it getting too hot since you will mix it with an egg.  Curdling your egg is bad news.  I've done it and you will want to throw a spoon across the room because you just ruined everything and have to start over.  So, start melting in the microwave on 5 seconds, swirl it, 5 seconds more, swirl, etc until it's all liquid and no lumps.  By swirling you are lowering the temp of the stuff while melting the rest so at the end it's not too hot.    This is a good tip for melting butter to use in baking as well.   It's also no fun to get it too hot, then have to wait for it to cool down some but no too much it solidifies again. 

Flour - I don't weigh flour, generally. You certainly could. I scoop with a small spoon into the measuring cup, then level with a knife, thinking of aerating it as I scoop.  Don't use your measuring cup to scoop the flour from the container or it will be too compact.  You will end up with too much flour.  That is why you see many people weighing it, or recipes calling for weights vs volume, because 1 cup of flour isn't equal to another 1 cup, depends on how you scooped and measured, the humidity, elevation, etc.  I also am a fan of sifting, so I sift all my flour after measuring.  I sift as I put it in the mixing bowl. 

The Dry Ingredients

Shredding the zucchini - I love this part.  I love it because I love using my food processor.  This is fun stuff for me.  It makes so many things SOOO easy.  I have the shredder blade, which makes short work of anything you want to shred.  I used my food processor to shred more than any other task to be honest.  Cheese and zucchini are the two made things to get shredded in this house.  You can throw the blade, and all the plastic parts right into the dishwasher too if you don't want to hand wash them.  Just stick all the plastic stuff on the top.   

Shredded Cheese sidebar - Did you know the pre-shredded cheese in bags is coated with a substance, an anti-caking agent, to keep it from clumping in the bag? It's generally cellulose, which is wood pulp.  It's "food safe", supposedly.  It's in other foods too where you see "added fiber".  Fiber literally does grow on trees, wood is fiber, so where do you think added fiber comes from? Often trees.  And no, using wood in food may technically mean it's still all natural (I'm trying to be all-natural with my food) since wood is natural after all, but I just don't particularly like the idea of eating wood with my cheese.  I just want cheese. And oh I love cheese so I do eat a lot of it.  It can have as much as 4% wood in the shredded cheese and still be legal to be called cheese vs "cheese product with added wood".  If I want to eat wood I'll go chew on a stick thank you very much.  It's also SO easy to shred your own with an electric appliance, just do that and save yourself from eating a tree with your cheese.  Food processors and stand mixers both have shredding attachments (like the blade below for a Cuisinart food processor), or you can get a hand crank kind like they use at Italian restaurants, or use a good old box grater and you can get some arm exercising in while you cook. Win win.   Also, once you use freshly grated cheese you will not want to go back.  You will notice it's not all powdery (which is a bit of a turn off anyway you have to admit) and melts a whole lot easier than the pre-shredded kind.  Cheddar cheese should melt very easily folks. If it just sits there, well, that is not normal. Thank the wood pulp.  

Tip on shredding zucchini - use zucchinis on the smallish side.  They fit right in the food processor food feeder tube without having to cut them up that way.  All I do is wash them and cut off the stem end.  Wa-lah. 

Zucchini has a lot of moisture that you need to squeeze out.  This part is fun too.  You can use paper towels (make sure they are sturdy) or a cheese cloth (that you can then wash and reuse). I got lazy yesterday and just used paper towels.  Squeeze and let the juices drain.  No need to go crazy here and squeeze it to death.   FYI the four zucchini's I shredded are over twice as much needed for this recipe.  I will use for other things like Zucchini Fritters - cue James Earl Jones and angelic music again!  I love zucchini fritters.  

Now it's time to get to mixing.  Mix all your wet ingredients sans zucchini, then add in zucchini.  Mix all your dry ingredients together too. I use whisks for both (I have two so that makes it easy).  Then, combine them together, adding in the wet to the dry.  Don't use a whisk for this next step, use a rubber spatula or something else rigid.  Use a folding and stirring action while rotating the bowl to make it even. Don't forget to scrape the bottom.  Definitely DON'T use an electric mixer. You will certainly overmix.  A good rule is to count to 10 and you should be about done stirring by then.  After that, fold in the coconut.  

Scrape into your prepared loaf pan (buttered or sprayed, or use parchment paper).   

This is great opportunity to show off my new Micky Mouse scraper.  See isn't it awesome! On the flip side is a measurement cheat sheet with conversions, etc.  I love it.  Got it at Disney World earlier this year. 

Now it's time to bake!  When it's done, just like a cake, test it with a toothpick until it comes out clean.  For me and my oven, it takes exactly 1 hour.  

Let is COMPLETELY cool before you cut it or else the moisture will escape, and well, you will have ruined it.  Ok not ruined, but you should really wait before you cut it until it's cooled.  I  have certainly not done this as it is pretty darn good right out of the oven.  But just know the consequences of not letting it cool before you slice.  Moisture will escape. Perhaps you are eating/serving the entire thing right away so it's no big deal.  For me, I let it cool on a rack for a couple hours, then put in the refrigerator overnight still in the loaf pan (mine has a lid).  This morning it was time to slice, warm for 20 seconds in the microwave, and eat!

For you butter freaks, now is the time you can put a little butter on your slice and enjoy. I don't think it needs it.  

Zucchini coconut bread

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (at room temperature if you store in freezer)
• 1/2 cup white wheat or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg - fresh is best, grate from a whole nutmeg
• 1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (but not too hot!)
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, combine shredded zucchini, sugars, coconut oil, yogurt, egg, and vanilla extract.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Stir in the shredded coconut.
5. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let zucchini bread cool before slicing.  

Inspired by the recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod - a great food blog! 

Mmmmmm Ribs!

Ribs are awesome.  Just awesome.  Don't let anyone fool you into thinking ribs are just a summertime or fall food, that is a lie! Ribs are for anytime you want them.  If you do need an excuse to make them, the Super Bowl is tomorrow, so get cooking!  Also, this recipe I'm sharing uses exclusively the oven and stovetop, so no grill needed (in case it's frigid where you are or your grill is covered in snow).  I've actually only ever used one recipe -  it's perfection so I haven't tried another.  It's Alton Brown's Baby Back Rib recipe.  I've copied it below. If you go to the link, you can watch a video of him with some tips.   But don't feel overwhelmed, these are actually pretty easy to make.  Your family and friends will thank you (if you decide to share them).

A not-so-rare conversation when anyone mentions ribs, is for them to tell you who makes the best ribs.  Dry rub vs saucy, memphis style vs some other style, spare ribs vs baby back, the choices are endless.  I was raised being told that Dreamland BBQ ribs in Tuscaloosa have the best ribs.  My dad would bring them home after going there for work, we'd get them when going to football games, and they were awesome.  I have to say "were" because when I went to college at UA, I discovered Archibald's in Northport on Watermelon Rd.  Talk about amazing ribs! Sorry Dreamland, ever since then Archibald's (and Archibald's and Woodrow's in Tuscaloosa) are my favorite.  Tuscaloosa location is super convenient too to stop and grab a slab or two on my way back home to Prattville! That said, I must say that this rib recipe give all the others I've ever had a run for their money.  A lot has to do with the quality of the meat you buy, so get good meat. 

Ok, now for the main event.  Ribs.  First, buy some baby back ribs.  This recipe is based on two slabs. Put them on tin foil, shiny side down (so meat is on the non-shiny side).  Be generous with your foil, and use thick foil, not the cheap stuff, you'll thank me.  It's no fun for a bone to poke through and you spill braising liquid all over the place.  I speak from experience.  You'll want a nice loose "tent" around the sides and tops of the slabs.   Mix up your dry rub, and pat it all over both sides of each slab.

VERY loosely wrap up the ribs, trying to make a tent on the top. Roll up one end, leave the other end open like a funnel. You'll see why in a minute.  

Make the liquid, pour it in a measuring cup (with a pour spout), and pour half of the liquid into each rib tent.  The solids will want to hang out at the bottom, so you may have to divide those up once you get to the end of your pouring. 

Put each slab on a pan, they can hang off but make sure your ends are turned up so any liquid will stay in the bottom of the foil "tent".  Both pans need to fit in your oven at once.  Braise the ribs for at least 2-1/2 hours.  

Now for the tricky part, when the ribs are done, you will need to transfer the liquid from the slab foil packets back to a pot so you can reduce the liquid to a sauce.  This is where you will be glad you used a lot of nice thick high quality foil. After you reduce your sauce, brush the ribs with the sauce, then put the ribs back in the oven without the foil to broil. I divided mine up into half slabs for broiling since the whole slab hung over the pan. 

If you are a saucy rib kind of person, you can brush the ribs with more of the sauce after they have broiled.  You can dip them in the sauce as you eat them. Or both.   

~Enjoy! 

Baby Back Ribs - Recipe from Alton Brown

Ingredients:

2 slabs baby back ribs

Dry Rub:

• 8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Braising Liquid:

• 1 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Place each slab of baby back ribs on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle each side generously with the dry rub. Pat the dry rub into the meat. Refrigerate the ribs for a minimum of 1 hour. In a microwavable container, combine all ingredients for the braising liquid. Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Place the ribs on a baking sheet. Open one end of the foil on each slab and pour half of the braising liquid into each foil packet. Tilt the baking sheet in order to equally distribute the braising liquid. Braise the ribs in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Transfer the braising liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring the liquid to a simmer and reduce by half or until of a thick syrup consistency. Brush the glaze onto the ribs. Place under the broiler just until the glaze caramelizes lightly. Slice each slab into 2 rib bone portions. Place the remaining hot glaze into a bowl and toss the rib portions in the glaze.

Cook's Note

This recipe makes several batches of dry rub. If more rub is needed, it can be extended by any amount, as long as the ratio of 8:3:1:1 remains the same.