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Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls {Chả Giò}

June 30, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

There is a certain local Asian noodle bar that has built an entire business model on its take-out boxes of delicious noodle dishes, but what keeps me coming back are their spring rolls. Piping hot and crisp, full of savoury pork, carrots, bean thread noodles, and general umami-ness, they are served with crunchy green lettuce leaves and sprigs of fresh cilantro to wrap around them and salty-spicy-sweet nước chấm for dipping. They are insanely delicious and I could easily eat half a dozen in one sitting, but sadly each order only contains two rolls.

Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls {chả giò} with delicious but not exactly authentic ingredients… | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Around the World in 12 Plates, Main Dishes, Recipes, Soups, Sides & Snacks Tagged With: appetizer, Asian cuisine, ATW12P, deep fried, pork, prawns, recipe, spring rolls, Vietnamese cuisine

The Canadian Food Experience Project: The Christmas Eve Potluck

December 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

IMG_7989

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. Visit Valerie’s blog, A Canadian Foodie, on the 15th for a round-up of this month’s posts.

This month on the Canadian Food Experience Project, we are talking Canadian Christmas traditions. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that for me, Christmas means cookies, cookies, and more cookies. From a “Christmas tradition” stand-point, that topic has pretty much been covered… so I tried to think of something else to talk about. Christmas dinner? My Mum’s bacon-covered turkey and stuffing. Christmas dessert? Yule log. All already documented, and none particularly specific to the West Coast of BC or Salt Spring Island. I finally turned to Facebook and asked my friends: What food-related holiday/Christmas traditions do you celebrate with your family? Is there something specific to the West Coast/Salt Spring Island?

Predictably, I got a varied response – everything from the traditional Canadian fare of tourtiere and buttertarts to sushi to smoked salmon eggs benedict to stollen to a breakfast bake of bread, egg, bacon, sausage, and cheese called either “busy woman’s breakfast” or “wife saver” depending on which of my friends you ask – but one commonality was the number of people who mentioned a Christmas Eve gathering of family, friends, and food. Growing up on Salt Spring Island, potluck dinners were the preferred social gathering and were as abundant as gumboot-wearing hippie sheep farmers (ie, very abundant). As an only child with a fairly small extended family, our family Christmas on December 25 was (wonderful but) pretty quiet, whereas Christmas Eve was always a rockin’ potluck at our family friends’ house, with tons of food, kids, and Christmas carols. For the past five or more years, I’ve spent Christmas Eve at my friend Lynette’s family dinner, which includes several other families all contributing to the meal, resulting in some of the tastiest Christmas food ever – I still dream about the creamy, cheesy scalloped potatoes from a few years ago, and Ghislaine’s frozen chocolate orange mousse is to die for. My preferred potluck contribution is usually dessert, but one year I brought these bacon wrapped, almond stuffed apricots with balsamic syrup and Stilton as an appetizer, and they were pretty darn good – worth a spotlight on the blog, for sure. Plus, they are super easy to put together – no recipe needed – and they come on a stick, which makes them great finger food and perfect to take to your next holiday potluck.

To make, cut some slices of bacon in half and cook until not quite crispy – it still needs to be pliable. Stuff dried apricots with a whole almond (you should be able to find the opening in the apricot where the pit was removed), then wrap each in a half-slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Bake in a hot oven or broil a few inches away from the broiler element (watch the toothpicks so they don’t burn) until the bacon is crisp, turning them over once during cooking – this shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Put them on a plate, drizzle with crema di balsamico (make a homemade version by simmering some balsamic vinegar with a spoonful of honey until thickened), and sprinkle with crumbled Stilton or blue cheese. To eat, pile some Stilton on top, or spear some with the toothpick. These could easily be assembled ahead of time and then popped into the oven when guests arrive, or warmed up on site if you are taking them to a potluck.

What’s your favorite holiday potluck offering?

Filed Under: Recipes, Soups, Sides & Snacks Tagged With: appetizer, apricot, bacon, Christmas, potluck, recipe, Salt Spring Island, The Canadian Food Experience Project

Grilled Hot Wings with Blue Cheese Dip

February 9, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

When Nate said he was going to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, I suddenly got the urge to make hot wings. I was hoping that I could tie this in with my cookbook resolution, but wouldn’t you know it, I couldn’t find a recipe for plain old hot wings in any of my cookbooks. So to the internet I went! This is a twist on the basic hot wing sauce – butter, vinegar, and hot sauce – spiced up with a little chipotle (because I can’t seem to make anything without adding chipotle, but you could use any kind of hot chili sauce) and poured over grilled chicken wings. The grilling part was Nate’s idea, and it was a good one; however the thing about barbequing in February is that it gets dark early, and then you find yourself wearing your camping headlamp and feeling like a dork while turning your chicken wings. And because it’s dark, it’s hard to tell when things are getting a bit charred. But charred or not, these were really tasty and I can’t wait to make them again – but maybe I’ll wait for better daylight ;).

Grilled Hot Wings

Hot wing sauce adapted from Allrecipes.com

Place 3 lbs of chicken wings (drumettes and wingettes separated) in a large bowl and season very generously with:

black pepper

salt

garlic powder

cayenne or other hot chili powder

Toss the wings around with your hands so they are all evenly seasoned.

Preheat the barbeque, then arrange the seasoned wings on a lightly greased grill over low heat. Put the lid down and let them cook 10-15 minutes, until lightly brown on one side. Turn them over and grill for another 10-15 minutes with the lid down, until they are evenly browned and cooked through, moving them around a bit to avoid hot spots and burning. The wings need a little more babysitting during the second half of cooking, as they can go from golden brown to charred pretty quickly.

Losing the light (the camping headlamp didn’t quite cut it for photos!)

Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt 6 tbsp butter, then stir in:

1/3 cup + 2 tbsp hot sauce (I used 1/3 cup Cholula hot sauce and 2 tbsp chipotle purée – use whatever kind of hot sauce(s) you prefer)

1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

When the wings are cooked, place them in a bowl, pour the sauce over them, and toss to coat. Serve with Blue Cheese Dip (below), cut-up veggies such as celery and carrots (optional), and lots of napkins (definitely not optional!).

Blue Cheese Dip

In a small bowl, combine:

1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/4 tsp garlic powder

dash of paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, to let the flavours meld a bit. Serve with the hot wings.

Filed Under: Recipes, Soups, Sides & Snacks Tagged With: appetizer, bbq, blue cheese, chicken, cooking, grilling, hot wings, recipe, spicy food, Super Bowl

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I'm Korena: cook, baker, dirty-dishes-maker. My favourite things include flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate. Read More…

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All content © Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen, 2011 – 2021. Please contact me before duplicating any content, including pictures. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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