Category: Appetizer

Summer Rolls with Spicy Dipping Sauce

I couldn’t imagine  going through summer without posting the ultimate light and healthy dish – summer rolls. To be honest, I have no idea why they are called “summer” rolls. I think it’s because they are lighter than their wonton cousins, but I could be wrong.

Unlike classic eggrolls, which are usually fried and heavy, summer rolls are made with rice paper rounds and don’t require any cooking. If you’ve never worked with rice paper before. don’t be intimidated, it’s really super easy.

The great thing about summer rolls is that they can be filled with anything – fruit, veggies, or your protein of choice. Fish and tofu work wonderfully in these rice paper roll-ups, but grilled chicken and veggies are my faves. I once watched Giada de Laurentiis make a fruity version on the Food Network. She filled the rounds with pad Thai noodles, strawberries, mango and almonds and prepared a honey-mint dipping sauce to go on the side. She served them after a yoga lesson as the perfect post-workout treat.

For me, making a dish like this doesn’t really require a recipe. I look into my fridge and put together whatever scraps I can find. In this case, I had leftover marinated chicken breasts, so I threw them on my grill pan for a quick sear. I found some nappa cabbage, shredded carrots, scallions and edamame, and put them all together for a fabulous combo. Feel free to do the same (grab whatever you can find in your fridge) or follow my recipe below.

Oh, and the dipping sauce? Let me just say this — it’s awesome.

Rice Paper Rolls

6 rice paper wrappers
2 pieces grilled chicken, sliced
1/4 head nappa cabbage, thinly sliced
1 carrot, shredded
1 cup edamame
2 scallions, ends trimmed, thinly sliced lengthwise

Method:

Prepare all your fillings on a tray, so they are ready to go once your rice paper has softened. Fill a shallow bowl with warm water and slide the rice paper wrappers inside for 10-15 seconds, until soft and pliable. Remove gently from the water and place on a cutting board. Place filling in the center of the wrapper, and roll the bottom portion of the rice paper around the filling. Fold the sides over, and continue rolling to form rolls. Cut summer rolls in half and serve with dipping sauce

Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
Zest of 1/2 lime
Juice of 1 lime
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sriracha
salt, to taste

Method:

Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk to combine. Serve with summer rolls.

1 year ago: roasted beet salsa
2 years ago: gefilte fish patties in tomato sauce

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The Modern Menu Review & Giveaway

While this cookbook may have been published back in March, it’s never too late to bring a fabulous collection of kosher, innovative recipes to your attention.

At first look, The Modern Menu is exactly what it appears to be – modern. The food is laid out perfectly sleek and contemporary, without any over the top garnishes or plating. It simply speaks for itself, and I love that.

Unlike traditional cookbooks, Kim Kushner brings her own style and pizzazz, arranging the cookbook by how the dishes make you feel – from vibrant and indulgent to gutsy and clever. “To my mind,” says Kim, “Less is more, simple is always best, and food should look as good as it tastes and taste as good as it looks.” A healthy philosophy and outlook that should be the motto of every cook in the kitchen.

Browsing through the cookbook, I can’t help but be inspired by Kim’s clean and simple dishes that are so fresh and appealing. I find myself wanting to bookmark every single page. While Kim emphasizes healthy from-scratch ingredients, her Middle Eastern inspired recipes are possible for the novice chef with a well-stocked pantry.  Her dishes remain light, but the flavors seem anything but. Kushner does not shy away from herbs and spices, adding surprising notes to every dish.

I look forward to trying many of The Modern Menu Cookbook recipes including the kohlrabi cabbage salad with maple lemon dressing, crunchy curry cauliflower with tahini and pomegranate, crispy miso marinated chicken, jalapeno and tomato chutney, chicken with pumpkin, figs and honey, tequila london broil with mango chutney, black sesame crusted char, sticky beef ribs, fig and pecan biscotti, plum crumb cake with star anise and individual halvah, gelato and sorbet towers.

If I could critique anything about this wonderful cookbook, it would be to say that some of the recipes require ingredients that may be hard to find. In addition, while I love Kim’s concept for arranging the book’s chapters, it’s slightly difficult to follow the sections when they are categorized this way.

Busy In Brooklyn is giving away a free copy of The Modern Menu.

To enter the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment with your favorite light & healthy summer food/recipe.
2. Like Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook.

Winner will be chosen at random on August 2nd, 2013.

Spinach, Haricots Vert & Avocado Salad with Honey Dressing
Reprinted with permission from The Modern Menu by Kim Kushner
Gefen Publishing

Crunchy, salty, sweet, and sharp—this salad has it all! The dressing contributes texture with sunflower and sesame seeds as well as sweetness and tang with honey and cider vinegar. All in all, a unique and delicious concoction.

8 cups baby spinach
Handful haricots verts, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into small cubes
1 white peach, skin on, pitted and cut into very thin slices
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup honey
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup salted shelled sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Place the spinach, haricots verts, avocado, and peach in a large bowl or on a large platter.

Combine the sugar, honey, vegetable oil, vinegar, mustard, garlic, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake to thoroughly combine. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat all over.

Serves 6 to 8

Baby Lamb Chops with Pesto Croute
Reprinted with permission from The Modern Menu by Kim Kushner
Gefen Publishing

This recipe calls for frenched lamb chops, which are chops with the meat cut away from the end of the rib so that part of the bone is exposed. Frenching the chop makes it cleaner and let’s call it fancier, almost like a lamb lollipop, if you will! Your butcher can do this with the quick swipe of a knife; asking him or her to do this makes fast work of this simple-to-prepare dish. Croute simply means “crust” in French. Fancy.

1 handful fresh basil, washed and dried well
½ handful cilantro, washed and dried well
3 garlic cloves, peeled
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
¼ cup unseasoned dried bread crumbs, plus more for sprinkling
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 baby lamb chops, frenched

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a food processor, combine the basil, cilantro, and garlic. Pulse until coarsely chopped. Add the olive oil and pine nuts and process until the mixture forms a paste, about 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the bread crumbs, and season with salt and pepper.

Season both sides of the lamb chops with salt and pepper. Prepare a grill or set a grill pan over high heat. Sear the lamb chops on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a baking sheet.

Place a spoonful of pesto in the center of each chop, then spread it evenly over the surface. Sprinkle with additional bread crumbs and drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the crust is golden and crisp and the lamb is pink inside, about 10 minutes. Serve warm.

Serves 6

Related posts: cookbook reviews

Grilled Corn with Za’atar Garlic Butter


If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may have noticed that I am part of a group of kosher food bloggers called the Kosher Connection. Each month, we are challenged to put our own twist on a link-up theme. Over the past year, we’ve had:

KOSHERCONNECTION July 2012: frozen desserts
August 2012: grilling
September 2012: honey
October 2012: root vegetables
November 2012: stuffing
December 2012: Chinese food
January 2013: miniatures
February 2013: home-made gifts
March 2013: Passover desserts
April 2013: The Best Thing I Ever Ate
May 2013: croutons
June 2013: cold soups

This month, we celebrate our one year anniversary as a group with a fun link-up – The Great Blog Swap. Each member of the Kosher Connection was issued a fellow KC member’s blog and challenged to create a recipe inspired by one on their site. My secret target blog is This American Bite.

This American Bite is a personal blog dedicated to whole food cooking with a passion for vegetarian and BBQ. Living in the Midwest with his wife an two children, Yosef Silver began This American Bite to share his passion for healthy kosher food. As a resident of Kansas City, Yosef brings his fresh approach to BBQ and has previously been a judge at the Annual Kosher BBQ Festival. This year, he plans to compete with his team, The Epicurean Bite. We wish him the best of luck!

Many of Yosef’s recipes are inspired by Middle Eastern cuisine, and za’atar is a spice you will find in a lot of his recipes. One such recipe is garlic, za’atar and olive oil stovetop popcorn.As an ode to Yosef’s Kansas City living, I decided to do a twist on his recipe by grilling fresh corn and smothering it in garlic & za’atar compound butter. I never imagined that the corn would come out so incredibly delicious. I have to say that it was literally one of the best things I have ever eaten! Garlic & za’atar compound butter is my new favorite combination, thanks to This American Bite!

First up, we’ve got the grilled corn. I couldn’t imagine doing a This American Bite blog swap without paying homage to his passion for barbecuing. I’m not exactly a BBQ aficionado, and on the day of my photo shoot, the weather here in Brooklyn topped off at 102 degrees. I wasn’t, shall we say, enthusiastic, about sweating over a hot grill. My reluctance turned to exuberance as soon as I took a bite out of the moist, barbecued corn. Grilling the corn in their husks keeps it deliciously moist while still imparting a smokey flavor.

Grilled Corn

Fresh corn in their husks
olive oil or compound butter

Method:

Remove the outer husks from the corn. Carefully peel back the remaining husks and remove the silk around the corn. Wrap the husks back around the corn and soak in water for 15 minutes. Remove the corn from the water and peel the husks back to grease the corn. Brush with olive oil or softened butter and close the husks up as tightly as possible.

Grease the grill with an oiled rag and set the heat to medium. Grill for approximately 30 minutes, rotating the corn every 5-10 minutes.

As I wrote in a recent post, I’m not that big on butter. Compound butter, is another story though. Who can resist a creamy flavored spread on top of warm crusty bread? Compound butter is simply butter mixed with other ingredients to create a flavorful spread. It can be sweet (strawberry butter is popularly served over pancakes) or savory (maitre D’hotel butter mixed with fresh parsley and lemon is a culinary favorite). I’ve tried quite a few flavors of compound butter in the past, and this za’atar and garlic version is by far, the best one I’ve ever had.

If you’re not familiar with za’atar, it’s a mixed herb and spice blend popular in the Middle East. Za’atar is primarily made up of sumac, thyme, oregano, sesame seeds and salt. The spice blend is widely available in supermarkets, but you can also find it on amazon.

Za’atar & Garlic Compound Butter

1/2 cup butter, softened (see note)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp za’atar
kosher salt, to taste

Method:

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix to combine. Place the butter in the center of a sheet of parchment paper and roll it up tightly. Twist the sides of the parchment paper to create a log of butter. Freeze or refrigerate until ready to use.

NOTE: For pareve, you may substitute with margarine. I prefer Smart Balance Light trans-fat-free butter spread.

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Now that I’ve shared my “This American Bite” inspired recipe, lets get back to where we started – The Kosher Connection Anniversary. Aside from the great roundup of recipes in the link-up below, we’re also celebrating with a spectacular giveaway! The KC is giving away 2 Emile Henry products – a Bread Cloche valued at $130 and a 4.2 qt Dutch Oven valued at $170! Use the Rafflecopter below to win- you can enter up to 23 ways! Two winners will be chosen at random.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The contest winners will be contacted via email. They will have 48 hours to respond before other winners are chosen. This contest is open to United States residents over the age of 18


Watermelon Corn Salsa

When summer comes around, I love to take inspiration from the amazing fresh seasonal produce to create light and healthy dishes. The juicy melons and brightly flavored veggies work wonderfully to create sweet and crunchy salsas, tangy chutneys and colorful salads.

Using bright and sweet farm fresh produce requires little preparation. I usually dress my salads minimally with olive oil and citrus, allowing the fresh flavors to speak for themselves. This watermelon corn salsa is a great example. I’ve made it with both raw and cooked corn – each is equally delicious.

For the recipe, head on over to The Nosher Blog!

If you’re looking to experience the joy of picking your own farm fresh produce at a U-Pick farm, check out my review of Kelder’s Farm.

Other great farm-fresh salad recipes:

Roasted beet salsa
Snap pea, corn & red currant salad

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3 Ways with Duck Sauce Chicken

Recently, I was given the opportunity to develop some recipes for the Joy of Kosher Gold’s Pure Foods Campaign. Being a huge fan of many of Gold’s products, I was right on board. While Gold’s is mostly known for their horseradish, they actually produce a wide variety of products including their fantastic wasabi sauce, bbq sauce, and my favorite, their amazing collection of duck sauces.

Since Gold’s duck sauce plays such a huge part in my recipes, I decided to do 3 ways with 3 different types of chicken, and 3 different types of Gold’s duck sauce. Fun, right? Gold’s actually makes 4 varieties of duck sauce including sweet & sour, spicy garlic, snappy ginger and hot & spicy. My husband is not a fan of spicy foods, so I knew just which ones to choose.

In the following post, you’ll find recipes for:

>Chicken wings, using snappy ginger duck sauce
>Chicken breasts, using sweet & sour duck sauce
>Whole chicken quarters, using spicy garlic duck sauce

I hope you enjoy my 3 ways with chicken and 3 different duck sauce varieties. Check out more Gold’s recipes on Joy of Kosher.

STICKY GINGER CHICKEN WINGS

For my first recipe, I decided to do a sticky ginger chicken wing recipe. This makes use of Gold’s delicious Polynesian style ginger duck sauce and brightens up the flavors with fresh ginger, garlic and soy sauce. If you’ve never tried fine shreds of fresh ginger in a sauce, you’re in for a huge surprise. Finely julienned threads of ginger, practically melt into the sauce, giving it a bright and refreshing finish.


First, I sear the chicken wings in sesame oil with a light ginger-scented coating. I saute some finely julienne fresh ginger and minced garlic, adding snappy ginger duck sauce, chicken stock and soy sauce, to create a delicious sticky coating. I bake the chicken wings with the ginger glaze until crisped around the edges. These chicken wings make for the perfect appetizer at your next dinner party!


For the complete Sticky Ginger Chicken Wings recipe using Gold’s Polynesian-style snappy ginger duck sauce, visit this post on the Joy of Kosher website.

SWEET & SOUR PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

For my next recipe, I decided to do a take on a classic Chinese dish – sweet and sour chicken. Growing up, my mom would often fry up shnitzel for dinner, always serving it alongside a bowl of Gold’s sweet & sour duck sauce for dipping. When I got older, and started eating out, I was shocked to find that all people did not eat their shnitzel that way! As an ode to my childhood, I prepared this dish shnitzel style, instead of in little nuggets. It saves you on frying (and calories!)

I started off this recipe with classic Chinese takeout food in mind, and I couldn’t believe just how close it came to the real thing. This dish tastes like a perfect cross between sesame and sweet & sour chicken. I started off sauteing some onion, pepper and pineapple chunks until tender. I fried up the shnitzel in a crispy tempura batter, and prepared a sauce with Gold’s Cantonese-style sweet & sour duck sauce, ketchup, brown sugar and pineapple juice.


For the complete Sweet & Sour Pineapple Shnitzel recipe using Gold’s Cantonese-style sweet & sour duck sauce, visit this post on the Joy of Kosher website.

SPICY GARLIC CHICKEN

Finally, for our last recipe, I’m bringing up a not-so-old recipe for spicy garlic chicken using Gold’s Oriental-style spicy garlic duck sauce. This recipe went viral on Pinterest (4500+ repins), when a famous Pinterest user repinned the recipe here. It has become my blog’s most popular recipe, and you’ll see why when you revisit the recipe here.

What is your favorite recipe using Gold’s duck sauce? Share it with me in the comments below!