Delicious Duck Salad Rolls

Salad rolls are one of my favourite things to make. They are always a hit with crowds of people, they make for a great group activity and the options for the fillings are endless! I ate my weight in salad rolls in South East Asia while I was traveling, developed a 'salad roll connoisseur' status and affirmed that most of them follow some kind of formula when it comes to their insides:

Some kind of noodle: generally rice vermicelli or cellophane noodles. Just submerge them under hot (just under boiling) water until they are soft and tender, about three minutes. If you over cook them they become gluey, so pay attention! Strain the noodles and drizzle with a bit of soy sauce and rice vinegar to keep them from sticking together.

Greens: When it comes to these fresh rolls, my motto is always the more greens the better. I like a mix of herbs; basil, cilantro and mint. I also sometimes include crispy shreds of romaine lettuce to give it some crunch appeal.

Veggies: I like julienned (cut into thin strips) cucumber, carrots and red peppers. When cutting up your vegetables, think about the size of your rolls and make your strips the same size. I like sliced up green onions too, but not in strips, just sprinkled over top before the rolling begins.

Protein: This portion of the rolls is one of the most creative components. Here you begin to develop your base flavour and add texture and body to the rolls. Shrimp are a great option (marinate them in soy sauce, ginger, garlic and chili for twenty minutes before quick frying them in a non-stick pan until pink), marinated tofu (hoisin, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, chili) fried until crispy, barbecued pork, chicken or beef (or pan fried/grilled) (marinate in lemongrass, garlic, ginger, chili, hoisin, lime juice, soy, rice vinegar and brown sugar overnight). If you really want to pull out the big guns though, go buy a barbecue duck.

I first became familiar with barbecue duck from T&T supermarket in Calgary, shopping with my eldest sister for one of her catering gigs. She was making green onion and sesame crepes, filled with barbecue duck and hoisin sauce. I must have eaten at least twenty. The meat is sweet and juicy, salty and crispy in all the right places. You can usually find them hanging in the windows at Chinese restaurants or deli's. I found cheap and delicious barbecue on Main street and West Broadway at Congee Noodle House. I paid $9.50 for half a duck. I always ask for an extra container of the incredible brown sauce that they throw in the box. It tastes like a sweeter, better hoisin sauce.
They generally just chop the bird up with a meat cleaver, bones and all, so make sure to pick the meat off the bones and shred it up with your fingers. Before I put the meat in the rolls I pour that tasty sweet sauce over the shredded meat and stir it to coat.

Rice paper wraps can be found at most grocery stores, and definitely at Asian supermarkets. The trick to getting your rolls to stick together is making sure the water that you soak the wraps in is not boiling hot. If the water is too hot, the wraps rip and don't stick to themselves. They take about a minute to soften in hot water.

If you are organized with your process, it is easy enough to get a good rhythm going when you are ready to roll. Every time you transfer a wrap from the hot water to the towel, put another one in so it's ready to go by the time the other is finished. I usually dunk my rolls into a big pot of water on low after it's boiled. Make sure all your fillings are laid out in separate bowls. Set a clean dish towel down on a cutting board and transfer your moist rice paper wrap to the station. Try and drip off most of the water before laying it down so you don't have to pat it dry with the towel. Put the fillings parallel to the counter, on the side closest to you (ie you will be rolling away from your body). Layer the greens, then the noodles, veggies, protein and then top with sliced onions. Remember not to over stuff and keep your fillings neat and tidy. Gently fold over the side closest to you, tucking all those tasty bits into the roll, roll once, fold the sides in and keep rolling. The first one is always a little ratty, don't get discouraged. Place the rolls onto a plate lined with a moist towel and keep covered until ready to serve.

You'll be amazed at the difference between your first and last roll, I can guarantee that. Serve these with the Asian-inspired table sauce or a mixture of hoisin, chili sauce, and a bit of peanut butter, stirred until smooth.

What's your favourite combination?? Let me know!!

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Three of my Favourite Sauces

I like sauce. I mean, I really like sauce. I sometimes plan a whole meal around a sauce. I've decided to share my top three with all of you beautiful people.

The first one is an Asian-inspired table-sauce of sorts. It makes for a great addition to noodle dishes, rice bowls, stir fry or as a dipping sauce for dumplings, salad rolls or spring rolls.

One of my favourite cookbooks of all time, Hot Sour Salty Sweet, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, beautifully illustrates the art in South East Asian cuisine of balancing those four integral elements. I use this theory a lot in my culinary endeavors, relying more on the balance of flavour than the exact measurement in a recipe. This holds especially true for the table sauce. How much of each ingredient you add is dependent upon your taste, the brand of ingredient you use, and how you feel that day! Trust your taste buds to let you know what you need to add more of. If it tastes perfect to you, it is.

My rough measurements can be used as a guide for this one, but I encourage you to trust yourself!

Mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, juice of one lime, 2 generous tablespoons of fish sauce, minced chili pepper, dash of sesame oil, a bit of grated garlic and a teaspoon of palm, cane or brown sugar. Balance the flavours and accent with thinly sliced green onions, minced cilantro and thin strips of carrot (can use a vegetable peeler to get this effect).

Second sauce on the menu is a tried and true favourite from my lovely friend Kimi. This one is a creamy (dairy-free), delicious and completely versatile. It's so good sometimes I just want to eat it off the spoon. I have used it as a salad dressing to encourage 'non-salad-eaters' to try some greens and have had them licking the bowls clean. If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast, you should be. It's a deactivated yeast mixed with molasses and cane sugar and then dried out, and it comes as yellow flakes. It's a great source of vitamin B and is a complete protein too. It is incredible on popcorn, can make a great vegetarian gravy and boosts dressings and sauces with creamy, almost cheese-like presence. I like the Red Star brand and can usually find it in the bulk section in most health food stores. I like this sauce on brown rice bowls with steamed veggies, on kale salad, soba noodles with stir fried mushrooms...the list goes on and on. I like to put all the ingredients into a mason jar and just shake shake shake until it's smooth and creamy.

Combine a big spoonful of tahini (sesame paste), two crushed cloves of garlic, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1/4 cup olive oil, some grated ginger, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, salt, a tablespoon or so of nutritional yeast, a splash of soy sauce and a bit of warm water. Adjust the components until it balances out - nothing should stand out on it's own. You can use any nut butter in place of the tahini - almond, peanut, cashew...you name it. Adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding more of the nut butter. I have also put a spoonful of light miso into this mix and it tasted divine. Just thinking about this is making me hungry...


Third and final sauce for the day is a Chilean-inspired condiment that is simultaneously tantalizing and incredible spicy, and so good that I can never stop eating it until it's all gone, even though my mouth is completely on fire. I use my blender for this because I like it really smooth, but you can chop the ingredients very finely and just combine in a bowl. I like this one with crusty bread, grilled fish, crispy chicken or on rice. It's hot, it's perfect and once you have it, you will crave it with an intensity that will only be satiated with more of this hot number.

Combine one bunch of fresh cilantro, most of the stems removed, two cloves of garlic, a splash of white vinegar, juice of one lime, salt (be generous) and about 1/2 cup siracha (pepper sauce with the green lid and the rooster on the bottle). Blend until smooth. Eat on everything.

Try these ones out! Let me know what you think!

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A Food Revolution in Action (and Banana Bread)

I have been making moves with this whole idea of a food revolution lately and am enthusiastically delighted with the response it's provoking. My vision is to have people in cities across the country posting recipes all over, for everyone to see. I want to put the reality of simple food and the inspiration to make it tangibly available to people walking the streets, living the daily grind. I want to lift peoples' spirits by showing them that a whole meal can fit on one piece of paper and that they are capable of making it!

I blasted some blocks with a great banana bread recipe a couple days ago and some of you may found this blog from those posts. I already got feedback from one follower telling me that he saw it walking down 16th Avenue and made it! He added walnuts and said it turned out beautifully!

I have come to appreciate my ability to cook in a deep way since I moved away from home and became the Queen of my own kitchen. I grew up in a kitchen with minimal counter space, so the lack of space in my apartment in this new city didn't dampen my epicurious spirits. I have successfully produced magnificent meals out of this kitchen that can barely fit two people in it. I have roasted a mini-dinosaur-sized bird in my tiny oven and it might have just been the handsomest turkey anyone had ever laid eyes on. I will never use the excuse of lack of space to feed a crowd. Amazing things can be done with few ingredients, a little support and some fearlessness in the kitchen.

So for all of you people out there who want to learn how to cook, ameliorate your skills or just get some new ideas of delicious things to eat and inspire you, please follow my journey with me and become a part of this revolution.

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The Best Banana Bread ever…really.

½ cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 3-4 ripe bananas, 1 ¾ cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt.

Beat sugar and butter until smooth and fluffy. Add vanilla, eggs and bananas. Beat until smooth.

Mix dry in order.
Mix dry into wet.

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 325˚ for 55 minutes.

Eat it with lots of butter smothered all over it.
It’ll bring tears to your eyes.

Baked Saucey Salmon, Mashed Spuds and Peaches'n'Cream Corn

Please, for the love, make this salmon marinade. Combine two tablespoons of each: Hoisin, soy sauce, horseradish, dijon mustard, chili sauce (siracha or sambal olek, use what you like) and stir until smooth. Slather a side of salmon with the sauce evenly, place in an oiled baking dish and cook in an oven at 350˚ until firm, juicy and glossy, about fifteen minutes, depending on the size of the fish.

I boiled a bunch of red nugget potatoes, scrubbed clean, skins on, in salted water until nice and soft and then strained them. While they were sitting in the sink, steaming away, I heated up some olive oil in the same pot and added three sliced green onions and a good pinch of salt, sauteing until soft and slightly golden. I poured the potatoes in, added a knob of butter, splash of milk, a crack of pepper and smashed 'em around with a wooden spoon until smooth.

I took an easy route tonight and just heated up some frozen peaches and cream corn in a small saucepan with a little drizzle of olive oil for five minutes, until they were hot and juicy.

The dinner turned out pretty fancy. It tasted divine. I was in the kitchen for less then fifteen minutes total.

I'd say that's pretty good for a Wednesday night.

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Beef Lettuce Wraps for an Impressive, Delicious Meal

My friend Jolene recently asked me to make beef lettuce wraps, and I put the craving into action last night. I did some research and all of the recipes I saw had pretty similar components: beef or pork, mint, cilantro, dried shrimp, soy, sesame, chili, garlic, and ginger. I had never cooked with dried shrimp before, but enjoyed them immensely when they were offered as a condiment to street food in Thailand. So I headed to T&T market (http://www.tnt-supermarket.com/en/)and stocked up on ingredients.

These lettuce wraps are dead simple, and each component is prepared separately, so they are a great meal to make with friends or family, each person being responsible for a filling.

I took a head of ice berg lettuce and cut the core out (about two inches). I dunked this in a sink full of warm water and then plunged it into an ice bath. This trick I learned from Jolene, the defibrillator of the lettuce world. This process can resuscitate any wilted green. The warm water opens the pores in the vegetable and then the cold shocks it, crisping it back to life. I let the water drain off and then wrapped the head in a moist towel and put in the fridge until the fillings were ready.

For the beef: I melted some coconut oil (you could use any other vegetable oil, not olive) in a non-stick skillet on medium high and add minced garlic, ginger, fresh chili pepper, the stems from a bunch of cilantro, chopped finely, and those dried shrimp, all chopped up. They were quite hard, next time I might soak them in hot water before chopping them up. I cooked this down until the beef was crispy and aromatic and then seasoned it with about a tablespoon of soy sauce, a few good splashes of fish sauce, sesame oil and lime juice. I finished it with a good crack of black pepper.

I had separate bowls for minced cilantro, mint and green onion, and lots of each of them!

I chopped some dry-roasted peanuts and added them to a hot pan with a bit of oil, chopped garlic and shredded, unsweetened coconut.

For the sauce I combined a good amount, half a cup or so, of hoisin sauce, a quarter cup of soy sauce, the juice of one lime, grated one-inch piece of ginger, one chili pepper, minced, a handful of cilantro, minced, and one green onion, minced and a spoonful of sugar. Finished it with a couple splashes of fish sauce and a couple drops of sesame oil.

In a mortar and pestle, I combined about four red chili peppers, five cloves of garlic and a healthy pinch of salt. I smashed this around and added a small squeeze of lime juice to finish. This was dynamite, and added a lot of fire to the wraps, definitely needs to come with a disclaimer!!

The assembly was my favourite part. I took a piece of perfectly crisp lettuce, curved perfectly to cradle my tender toppings. I layered some bean sprouts on the base, spooned some beef in next and then added my greens: mint, cilantro and green onion. I drizzled the sauce over the fillings and topped with the crispy peanut and coconut. I wrapped it up into a tight parcel and mowed down.

They were surprisingly simple, but beautifully aromatic, with dynamic and delicious flavours. It's an impressive, interactive meal that brings people together. Go on, try it, I dare you.

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Quick, Clean, Easy Meal

My stomach was feeling temperamental all day yesterday so I was keen on cooking a really gentle meal, with a bit of protein, that would have me feeling satiated without being overloaded.

I marinated a fillet of Basa fish (a mild, white fish that holds its texture well when it cooks) in soy sauce, a spoonful of brown sugar and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. I let it sit for about half an hour, while I got the rice pilaf started.

I finely chopped half a small yellow onion, two cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of flat-leaf parsley. I heated a bit of butter up in a small pot, added the onion and garlic, seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper and cooked for about three minutes, until the onions were soft and translucent. Then I added a cup of long grain wild rice, stirring to combine. I topped the pot up with two cups of water, brought the whole mixture to a boil, reduced to medium low and cooked for about 45 minutes, until the rice was tender. Wild rice isn't as picky with the seal of the pot needing to be closed the whole time, so feel free to stir it occasionally, to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

I have just recently begun cooking with wild rice. I am more likely to pick up a short grain brown or a Basmati, but I picked some of this great organic wild rice up from Capers the other day and I'm in love. It's toothsome - it has a chew to it and eating it feels like I am doing my body some good. It has the most delightful texture!

While the rice was cooking I prepped these beautiful artichokes I bought. They were nice fat ones, so I trimmed down the stems and put them in a steamer for about half an hour, until the hearts felt tender when poked with a knife.

As you may remember, I have this serious obsession with kale. I sometimes think of life in two parts: before I ate kale, and after I ate kale. I pretty much base meals around the damn green vegetable. So I got green (the really curly looking one) and black (the longer, skinnier leaves) kale, picked the leaves off the stems, and tore them into small pieces. I rinsed them well, as these leaves grip onto dirt and grit well and can be really sandy straight from the market.

With five minutes left on the rice, I heated up a non-stick skillet on medium high for the fish. I added a bit of butter and then arranged the Basa in the sizzling pan. I gave the fish a good crack of fresh pepper and let it cook on each side for about three minutes, until golden and crispy. The sugar in the glaze caramelized so wonderfully and created this lovely glossy glaze on the fish. I've done this fish in a stainless steel pan and I have to admit it doesn't have the same effect. The fish ends up sticking and the sauce is left behind on the pan. If you have teflon, use it!

I took the fish out of the pan and added the greens straight to it. There was a little bit of sauce left over from the fish, but if the pan is dry, add some oil or butter before the greens. I added a little splash of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon and cooked for about two minutes, until the greens were soft and tender.

I served the artichokes with melted butter (with a bit of salt and a squeeze of lemon) and a bowl for scraped leaves, topped the glossy, crispy fish on the rice and garnished with a bit of chopped parsley and served the saucy greens on the side. Delightful! Deluxe! Delicious!

The Deluxe Pizza Pie (Vegetable Version 2.0)

I got home late from work the other night with the hugest craving for pizza pie. I was simultaneously fighting my constant craving for that gut scraping, miraculous, leafy green vegetable: kale.

Have I talked to you about my Kale relationship? It's become pretty serious over the last few months. I really got turned onto it by my friend Thea, who always came back from Capers sucking her lips over the kale salad with garlic dressing from the salad bar.

I tried it once and I was completely hooked. I eat it almost every day these days. I like it in all its forms: red, green, black, raw, steamed, stir-fried, baked until perfect crispy... It makes me a different person. There's an almost instantaneous jolt of energy that comes from eating super green foods. It's a clean feeling of satisfaction, without the lethargy or sluggishness that can sometimes accompany a meal.

Anyways...I got home from work and I was ravenous. I wanted the thickest slice of pizza I could imagine. So I went to the grocery store, picked up a frozen, whole wheat pizza crust and then closed my eyes and thought of all my favourite pizzas. The buttercup squash pizza from the bison mountain bistro with Sylvan Star Gouda cheese, chili peppers, and fresh chevre, definitely deserves mention. Same goes for the shrimp pizza that I used to order as a kid at the California Pizza Company. I was feeling inspired.

I bought a yam, a red onion, some portabello mushrooms, a green pepper and kale. I had some leftover bruschetta from the day before, so I just heated it up in a non-stick pan and let it reduce into pizza sauce consistency.

I sliced the yam into thin slices after peeling it, and then drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of cumin. I roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes until they were almost cooked through.

I sliced the red onion up nice and thin, and sautéed in a pan with a splash of olive oil and a small knob of butter on medium high heat for about five minutes, just to develop a bit of colour. Then I turned the heat down to medium, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked them for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden and caramelized. About halfway through the cooking, I added a generous spoonful of brown sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I gave the mushrooms a slice and tossed them into a hot, oiled pan, salted them, seasoned with a bit of crushed rosemary and cooked them down until they were soft and tender, about 8 minutes.

I chopped up some left over shrimp from the night before, crumbled some feta, sliced the green peppers, minced garlic, chopped olives and tore up my beloved kale.

The order of exquisite layers went as follows:

1. Crust
2. Sauce
3. Caramelized onions
4. Roasted yams
5. Portabello mushrooms
6. Chopped cooked shrimp
7. Fresh minced garlic
8. olives
9. Green peppers
10. A light dusting of red star nutritional yeast (weird, I know, but gives it a delicious cheesy taste without the dairy)
12. Lightly sautéed kale
13. Torn fresh basil
14. Crumbled Feta cheese.

I put it right on the oven rack at 375˚ for about fifteen minutes.

I know it sounds involved. It wasn't difficult, this I assure you. Trust me, the layers...the layers are worth it.

The best, guilt-free pizza. It was even good cold, for breakfast the next morning.
Now that's a 'za!