Salmon and Red Pepper Spring Rolls

Here is a great finger food dish that you can prepare ahead of time and just do the final cook in the oven before serving. Alternatively you can make bigger rolls for a lunch dish.

Ingredients

500g fresh boneless, skinless salmon fillet

4 tsp dukkah

Zest of a lemon

2 Tbsp chopped coriander

Flesh of one large roasted red pepper cut into 8 pieces

8 spring roll wrappers

Method

1  Cut salmon into batons about 10cm x 3cm.

2  Place one baton on the centre of each spring roll wrapper. Sprinkle with half a tsp dukkah, a little lemon zest and coriander, and top with a piece of roasted pepper.

3  Fold in ends and roll up like a fat cigar. Place on a plate and chill until ready to cook. Make 8 rolls.

4  Heat oil in frypan and brown rolls over medium heat for about 2 mins each side.

5  Transfer to a 200oC oven and bake for 5 mins until golden brown and crispy.

Serve with the following dipping sauce – 3Tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 1 Tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp grated ginger, and juice of half a lime all mixed together.

Annabel Langbein & Regal Salmon

I joined the 'Free Range Cook' last week at Nosh Foodmarket to see some dishes made with Regal Salmon.
Some creative, easy and delicious recipes were
demonstrated , including this Grilled Salmon with Lemongrass and Chilli.

Ingredients
900g boneless, skinless salmon fillets (can do whole or in portions)
2 tsp finely grated lemongrass
1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped (or finely grate zest of 2 limes)
2 Tbsp lime juice
1tsp finely grated fresh ginger
salt and ground black pepper

Method
1 Preheat oven to 250oC. Prepare salmon and place in a shallow baking dish.
2 Combine all other ingredients in a small bowl and pour over salmon.
3 Once oven is up to temperature, change heat setting to grill.
4 Grill salmon about 10cm from heat source until cooked through and golden (about 6-8mins) This method is called flash grilling.
5 Rest fish, just like you do meat but covering in tinfoil and then a tea towel for 15 minutes. This helps with finishing off the cooking process.
6 Serve on a bed of rocket. Spoon over the sauces from the pan and any left over marinade. Squeeze some lemon juice over and serve with some lemon cheeks.
7 This can be served warm or cold.

Delicious!

BBQ Chicken and lime leaf

We learnt how to cook this flavoursome chicken dish during our recent cooking class at the famous Morning Glory Cooking School in Hoi An, Vietnam.

BBQ chicken with mango salad

Ingredients
800g boneless chicken thighs, skin off
1/3 cup fresh turmeric or 1 Tbsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
1/2 tsp five spice
1 Tbsp sugar
1/3 cup lemongrass, pounded
4 kaffir lime leaves, sliced finely
2 Tbsp garlic, pounded
2 Tbsp shallots, pounded
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp fish sauce
8 wooden skewers soaked in water for an hour

Method
1 Cut thighs into 16 pieces. Place in a bowl. Add salt, sugar, black pepper and five spice and mix well.
2 Pound turmeric, add to chicken with garlic, shallots, lemongrass, chilli, lime leaves, sesame oil, and fish sauce. Mix well. You may like to wear plastic gloves to stop your hands turning yellow if using fresh turmeric.
3 Marinate for 30 minutes.
4 Thread 2 pieces onto each skewer. Grill 5-6 minutes on each side on a low heat.

Serves for as a main and is lovely accompanied with a mango salad.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscotti

Because of their dry texture, biscotti are traditionally served with a drink such as coffee or wine, into which they can be dunked. I like to serve it with the white chocolate creme brulee (see recipe in blog) that I also love to eat!

Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups flour (2 cups depending on the size of your eggs)
1 tsp baking powder
100g white chocolate, coarsely chopped
70g blanched almonds
100g dried cranberries

Method
1  Preheat oven to 175oC. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and thick.
2  Add sifted flour and baking powder, chocolate, almonds and cranberries and fold together to form a sticky dough. Divide mixture into two and turn out onto a lined baking tray.
3  Using wet hands, shape dough into two flat logs about 7cm x 20cm. Bake 25-30mins until lightly browned and firm.
4  Reduce oven to 150oC. Allow logs to cool at least 15 minutes then cut into 1cm-thick slices. (I like to cut mine thicker than this). Place on lined trays and bake for 15-20 mins until dry and crisp, turning over halfway through cooking. Cool on wire racks. Makes up to 35.

You can create your own biscotti flavours from this recipe using different chocolate, dried fruit and nuts, rum essence, or finely grated zest of an orange.

Holidaying in Vietnam

We have just returned from a fabulous 17 days in Vietnam. I will post the wonderful dishes we created in Hoi An during our cooking class later, but first I'd like to do a review of our trip.

View of pool from hotel room

There was a lot of searching the Internet and discussion with friends on where to go and how long to stay there. Unfortunately, we lost a day due to the volcano erupting in Chile which caused plane delays due to the ash cloud circumnavigating the southern hemisphere. We began our trip in the south - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon to the locals).We stayed at an amazing hotel - The Majestic Hotel. We chose it as it was not just another 5 star hotel, but one with history and character, and were not disappointed. By the way, we booked all of our hotels on Hotels.com.

Memorable moments of Ho Chi Minh City:
* Breakfast on the rooftop of the Majestic Hotel with the view of the River.
* Crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels
* Dinner with friends at Hoa Tuc Restaurant - the best food we had in the whole of Vietnam
* Trying to cross the road outside our hotel - and deciding not to!
* Sheltering in a torrential downpour in the old Post Office.

From Ho Chi Minh we flew to Danang and caught a taxi to Hoi An. The taxi took about 30-40 minutes and cost less than $20. We booked our flights from home on the Vietnam Airlines and they were really reasonable. We had heard so much about Hoi An and really were not disappointed. It has an old town that is closed off to cars. The place is famous for getting clothing made (which we did) and cooking classes (which we also did).

Memorable moments of Hoi An:
* Eating our first Vietnamese style Wonton's at Ms Ly's restaurant
* The wonderful photo opportunities in the old town and market
* Our bicycle tour into the countryside in 40degree heat - Heaven and Earth
* The fabulous half day cooking class (check out the Vietnamese food entries) at Morning glory
* Watching the world go by at the Mango House restaurant

After 5 days in Hoi An we took a tourist bus to Hue. In hindsight this 4 hour trip could have been more plesant if we had hired a driver as they were so cheap. But at $6 each we could hardly complain. Hue is a World Heritage site, and is famous for its Citadel.  But the best thing about our stay here was our hotel. A complete oasis away from the hustle and bustle and heat of Hue. To be honest, the township of Hue reminded me of Kuta Beach in Bali more than 10 years ago and that is not a compliment. Luckily, our hotel was situated 5km out of town, with free shuttles into town. With 40oC heat we were happy to have the beautiful pool, and after 10 days of travel and being tourists, we needed a bit of rest from all the sight-seeing. I so wish we had booked for longer!

Highlights of Hue
* The Citadel - a must visit
* The swimming pool in the stiffling heat
* The yoga class in the tranquil spa
* Hotel - Pilgrimage Village  - a complete bargain for a 5
star hotel.

Our favourite restaurant in Hue would have been La Carambole. This is owned by a Frenchman and his Vietnamese wife and serves both cuisines. The food was excellent and it was amazingly cheap.

 Moving on from Hue was a flight to Hanoi. After such tranquility I don't think we were prepared for the energy and pace of life of a population bigger than NZs total. We stayed in the Old Quarter which has a population density of over 50,000km2 - and you could tell!

Our hotel was Hanoi Elite Hotel - number 1 on Trip Advisor when we booked. at $50 a night it was a great deal, clean and comfortable for a very small hotel and the best part was the customer service. The staff could not have been more helpful and friendly. We booked out trip to Halong Bay through our hotel and were not disappointed with the Indochina Sails trip we took for two days and one night.

This trip was really a highlight of our trip and a great end to a wonderful 17 days.