Pork and Veggie Rolls

For lunch today I made my own variation of the Summer Rolls that you get at Vietnamese restaurants. The outcome was a little labor intensive but very, very tasty.

Note: This recipe made way more then we could possibly finish between 2 people. It would have been enough to feed about 6 people with my guessimate.

1 pound ground pork
½ pound bean sprouts
1 bag of coleslaw (prepackaged at most supermarkets)
1 Tbsp Salt
1 Tbsp Dried Cilantro
1 lime, juiced
1 cup of water
1 package Rice Paper Wrappers
Sweet Chili Sauce

1. Make an assembling station on your table consisting of 2 large ceramic plates with lips, a cutting board or clean wooden surface and a pair of chopsticks. Using plates larger then your rice paper will make things easier later on.
2. In a small saucepan, boil the water while cooking the meat.
3. Mix the ground pork, salt, dried cilantro and lime juice in a medium skillet and cook until the pork is crumbly.
4. Add the bean sprouts and coleslaw and mix it all up.
5. Let it cook for about 2-3 minutes and then move the entire skillet to your assembling station.
6. Pour out ¼ of the boiled water into one of the plates. Add enough cold water so that the water is hot to the touch but will not scald you. Repeat this process as the water gets cold while you are assembling. Boil more water if needed.
7. Place 1 rice paper wrapper into the plate and let it sit submerged for about 30 seconds. If it doesn't fit all at once, hold one side submerged in the water until it gets pliable and then submerge the other side.
8. Place the chopsticks near the bottom of your cutting board. Lay the now pliable rice paper wrapper on the cutting board with just a little bit resting on top of the chopstick.
9. Using a large spoon, scoop the pork mixture onto the rice paper and form it into a half in wide log about half an inch from the bottom and sides.
10. Using the raised portion at the chopsticks, fold the sides of the rice paper in over the pork mixture. Then fold the bottom lip over the pork and begin rolling it like a burrito towards the top of the wrapper.
11. Place the finished rolls into the other large plate. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Tomato Broth Soup

It’s Autumn now. That means the days of the sun ripened tomatoes straight from the garden are behind us. With a forecast of unbearably cold temps accompanied by a lot of rain, I was forced to pick the last few unripe tomatoes left on the vines just barely starting to get a rosy complexion. I brought them inside and placed them near the stove where the warm temperatures will help them finish ripening. Essentially what I’ll end up with is the equivalent of a tasteless supermarket tomato.

Luckily for me, these non-vine ripened tomatoes are perfect for my Tomato Broth Soup. Here’s what you’ll need and how to make it.

2-3 Tomatoes, quartered
2 slices of fresh Ginger
1 Egg
½ Tbsp Salt
½ Tbsp Oil
1 Tbsp Sugar (optional)

1. Put all the ingredients except for the egg into a medium sized pot and fill the pot about 2 inches from the top with water (the more water, the more soup).

2. Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer for 20 minutes. The tomatoes should be very soft but still hold their shape.
3. Increase the heat and crack the egg into the soup.
4. Whisk the egg into the soup until it comes back to a boil. The egg should become broken up and look similar to egg drop soup.
5. Remove from heat and serve in bowls.

As a final side note: You can add meat to this soup as well. Traditional Tomato and Beef Soup is made by adding raw slices of beef to the soup after whisking in the egg and then bringing back to a boil.

Chinese Pepper Sauce

There's a really big difference between Chinese pepper sauces and American hot sauce. Although both can usually be used interchangeably, pepper sauce is noticeably chunkier in texture and will not contain vinegar.

After harvesting the last of the Chinese Five Color Peppers from garden for the season, we decided to make out own pepper sauce at home. By now all the peppers had ripened to a bright red.

We went out and bought some green chilies to added contrast to our red chilies. We gathered all the ingredients and chopped everything up into nice even pieces. Here's most of the ingredients clockwise from the top: Green Chilies, Chinese Fried Black Beans, Chopped Garlic, Red Chilies. There was approximately equal portions of each.

Next we filled a wok with about 1 cup of vegetable oil and heated it just until a piece of garlic thrown in would start to sizzle. We threw everything in and mixed it well. The delicious aroma quickly filled the kitchen.

After letting it fry up for about 5 minutes, we poured in a jar of Soy Bean Paste and mixed it all up. We let everything cool off and packed it into glass jars with wide mouths. I think some of them used to be salsa jars.

Crabbing in Long Island

I took my mother and brother out for an evening of crabbing off the pier at Captree State Park in Long Island, NY. We got on the road around 5:00pm and watched as the sun started setting quickly along the side of the road. By the time we arrived at the pier, it was completely dark out and the wind began howling. The current was so strong we had to move a few times in order to find calmer water so that our crab traps would reach the bottom. We managed to get about 5 blueclaw crabs and a handful of what the other fishermen called ladycrabs.