Ingredients:

• One envelope of dry ranch dressing mix (Hidden Valley or the store version are fine)
• One sixteen ounce tub of cream cheese (any brand, low-fat or not)

Let the cream cheese soften for about an hour at room temperature. Place in a medium mixing bowl. Add the dry ranch dressing mix and blend with a fork until well blended. Spread into a shallow bowl using a spatula. Refrigerate until serving. Garnish with cracked black pepper.

photo by Colin MacMillan / Nathan Ham Photography

For this appetizer, you may want to make a stop at Mabuhay Asian and Oriental Food Mart (4014 Huntoon, next to Skinny’s) to pick up the majority of your items. They’ve got a lot of rare ingredients and fresh produce in stock and they’re locally-owned. Plus, they’re just very, very nice people who will hold your baby for you while you shop. Or my baby, anyway. So.

Spring Rolls:

• one package Spring Roll wrappers
• juice of one lime
• zucchini or cucumber (your choice)
• 1 medium carrot
• romaine lettuce
• cilantro
• glass noodles or bean sprouts (again, your choice)

Peanut sauce:

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/4 cup tamarind juice
• 2 TB soy sauce
• 2 TB white vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp sambal oelek – What is this, you say? Here’s a picture:

Make Spring Rolls:

Julienne or thinly slice the carrots, lettuce and zucchini. Cook glass noodles according to package directions. Chop cilantro and halve the lime so it’s handy to squeeze a sprinkle on your creation. Then, get yourself a nice, clean, spacious spot on the counter and make all your ingredients readily available. Fill a frying pan or wide flat container with water and soak a spring roll wrapper, one at a time, for about 10 seconds on each side until it’s soft but still slightly firm. Put the wrapper on a flat surface and put a few pinches of each ingredient in the top third of the wrapper, you know, burrito-style. Don’t overfill it or the skin-like wrapper will break. Sprinkle some lime juice over the top of the lettuce, cilantro, carrot, zucchini and noodles, and then wrap it up. You know, burrito-style. Do this over and over again until you have a beautiful pile of spring rolls (they get nicer looking by the third or fourth one) and then pat them gently, like you would a sleeping baby. Cause they’re so damn cute.

courtesy seattlest.com

Make peanut sauce:

Put onion, garlic and sambal oelek in a food processor or blender and process until relatively smooth. Put the mixture into a saucepan and add peanut butter, tamarind juice, soy sauce, vinegar and water. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to low and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes, adding a touch more water here and there if you think it needs thinning.

[ January 2011 | Leah Sewell ]

]]> http://www.seveneightfive.com/local-flavor/food-recipes/spring-rolls/feed/ 0 http://www.seveneightfive.com/local-flavor/food-recipes/kerris-famous-guac-chips/ http://www.seveneightfive.com/local-flavor/food-recipes/kerris-famous-guac-chips/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 06:47:17 +0000 rio http://www.seveneightfive.com/?p=2787 Kerri might want to rethink her status as life of the party when she shows up with this. The guacamole and home-fried chips will surely steal her limelight!

Guacamole:

Ingredients:

• 4 – 5 medium avocados (Check for ripeness; a ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed.)
• 2 packages of Guacamole seasoning (You can find these below the avocados in the produce section of most grocery stores.  Both Concord Farms & McCormick are good, feel free to mix and match them. Kerri likes to get one hot, one regular. Ice & Olives also carries guacamole mix.)
• 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• Ground pepper and salt to your liking (Kerri likes to use sea salt for fuller flavor with less salt.)
• Add chopped onions or cilantro if you like.

Mash avocados with a fork in large bowl to desired consistency.  Add the packages of seasoning and garlic.  Fold in diced tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Squeeze 1/2 the lime into the mixture – but save the rest just in case you want a little extra kick.  Put in fridge for 30 minutes (you really must do this so the flavors marry each other).  Taste test – add more garlic, salt & pepper or lime juice to your liking.  Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Kerri’s chips

Kerri forgets to buy chips, but like any savvy seveneightfive foodie, she’s always stocked up on flour tortillas. This makes it easy to make your own chips, which just says, “Love.”

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut up several flour tortillas into 8 wedges (a pizza cutter makes this real easy).  Spray a cooking sheet with Pam and lay the wedges so they don’t touch each other. (You may have to do this in batches.) Bake for seven minutes. Use tongs to flip each wedge. Bake another 5 minutes. Take them out just when they start to turn brown; they will keep crisping up and browning after you remove them from the oven.  Spray just the topside with Pam again and sprinkle with salt (Kerrice is still partial to sea salt here).  Cool the chips and eat with Guac – Oh so good.

The lovely Erin Wynkoop submitted this elegant but easy recipe for your Super Bowl party. This will go nicely for those who may insist on drinking wine instead of beer, and with the pinky finger sticking out, no less.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
• 1-3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 12oz can diced tomatoes, Italian-style, drained
• 3/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
• French baguette

2 parts Stoli Vanilla Vodka
1 part Bailey’s
1 part Godiva White Choc Liquere
1 part Kahlua

Shake with crushed ice.

You can drizzle the inside of glass with a thin stream of chocolate and/or use a powdered cocoa/sugar mix for a rimmer. Yum!

Get all your mixers, steamwear, party trays, unique appetizers, dip mixes and more at Ice & Olives. SE 29th and Croco Rd. 785.215.8460. www.iceandolives.com

In 2003, we were hosting our first New Year’s Eve party and I remembered the “crab puffs.” They were served warm and I needed another hot appetizer.

I thought our group of friends, giddy and tipsy, would be the perfect guinea pigs. They were an unequivocal hit.

People ate them up as fast as I could pull them from the oven. And now they are a party staple. Really, people expect them. I’m not sure what would happen if they didn’t make an appearance.

I’ve changed the name to Crab Bites, but I’ve seen them referred to as Crabbies, Crab Puffs and a few friends call them Crack. If your mother entertained in the seventies or eighties, she may have made these. I’m always a little hesitant to share the recipe when asked, because frankly, they are a little ghettotastic. Processed cheese, butter, canned crabmeat, English muffins and copious amounts of salt don’t exactly scream gourmet.
But they truly are delicious. I hope you try them!

• 4 oz. jar of Kraft Old-English Cheddar Cheese (you may have to ask someone where these little glass jars are in your grocery store)
• 1 can crab meat (drained)
• 6 English muffins (give or take)
• 2 T. mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup butter (softened)
• 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
• 1/2 tsp. garlic salt

Mix all together and spread on English muffin, broil until golden, cut with pizza cutter into 4-6 pieces OR I usually cut into bite size triangles first, then smear it on and broil….I find it easier than cutting them when they are hot.

Also, I usually bake at 350 or so for 5 minutes and then broil until it looks how I like. And I haven’t tried it yet, but these apparently freeze well. Spread on the muffins, freeze and bake straight from the freezer.