I first learned to make this bad boy at a little neighborhood pizza joint in Minneapolis called Casalenda’s. It was one of those things that was not on the menu, but if you were knew what to ask for, you just might get one. It makes for a great appetizer when sliced thin or a fantastic sandwich when cut into larger pieces. You can use any variation of meats and cheeses that you like. I like to serve a tomato-based sauce on the side like our Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce.

Ingredients:

• Pizza Dough, See recipe here (I used half of this dough recipe)
• 1 egg, for egg wash
• Cheese – I am using Buffalo Mozzarella, Parmesan and Cheddar Cheese .
• Thin sliced meats – I am using Pancetta, Salami, Ham and Coppa.
• Butter
• Garlic Powder
• Poppy Seeds

Roll the dough out flat in the shape of a large rectangle. Brush with a thin layer of melted butter and lightly sprinkle the garlic powder on it. Lay the meats and cheeses over the entire dough in one thin layer. In the picture below, I will be rolling from left to right so I kept the cheeses mostly to the left so they will be in the center; this helps prevent the cheese from spewing out in the middle of baking.

Gently roll the dough up and tuck in each side underneath itself.

Place the Stromboli on a baking sheet seam side down. Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle poppy seeds on it. Cut a few slits across it and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

One of the things I love about fall is making spring rolls. We fry them out in the garage to avoid the greasy, smelly mess they can leave in their wake. Here in Wisconsin, it is too hot and humid in the summer and way too cold in the winter, so we stock up in the fall and spring and make them by the boatload. When I first started making these, I was very confused. Are they made with raw pork? What is with the wrappers–are they rice paper wrappers? What kind of noodles do I need in them? How do I deal with Asian ingredients, when the directions are not in English? I consulted various websites, but unfortunately today none of the links work anymore. What you will find here is a combination of some of those recipes with my own ideas, tricks and tweaks to create the ultimate spring roll guide. Well, maybe ultimate is going a little too far, but I hope to take some of the confusion and disasters away that I faced when beginning to make them.

Tips:

1. If you are making the full 150 that this recipe calls for, try and spread the tasks out across 2 days. Do the shopping and sauces one day and the rolling and frying the next day. The frying alone takes 3.5 hours. This ends up being an all day event so make sure you have the time and try to con your friends and family into helping you.
2. It is very important to make sure that all of the ingredients get evenly mixed. Instead of mixing everything together at the same time, I have found that it is better to slowly incorporate each ingredient into the mixture.
3. Do not roll the spring rolls too far in advance. If the wrappers get too moist, they will not fry properly and start to break open and brown too quickly. The salt will start to draw out moisture from the filling and make the wrappers too soggy to work with.
4. These freeze and reheat wonderfully if done correctly. See tips for freezing at the end.

Makes approximately 150 Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

• 14 ounces Bean Thread Noodles
• 150 frozen Spring Roll Wrappers
• Dried Shitake Mushrooms
• Dried Wood Ear Mushrooms or Black Fungus Mushrooms
• 2 pounds Shallots
• 5 pounds Carrots
• 5 pounds raw Ground Pork
• 4 cups Cilantro (2 cups chopped and packed)
• 8 teaspoons Soy Sauce
• 8 teaspoons Kosher Salt
• 3 teaspoons fresh Cracked Black Pepper
• Corn Starch
• Peanut Oil for frying

A few Notes on some of the ingredients:

• Wrappers: Make sure that you use the frozen spring roll wrappers, not the thicker wonton / egg roll style wrappers. I have used Banh Trang (rice paper), but they do not fry up as well and turn out much more greasy. These frozen spring roll wrappers are light and flaky and have a pastry-like quality.
• Noodles: I have made these spring rolls with both rice vermicelli and bean thread noodles (they are also called bean vermicelli, cellophane noodles or glass noodles). I prefer the transparent bean thread noodles.
• Dried Mushrooms: Scared of something called dried black fungus? Awww… it’s okay, they won’t bite! They are actually quite mild in flavor. With the small amount called for in this recipe along with chopping them up very fine, you won’t even know they are there. They do add a nice flavor to the spring roll so I recommend you at least try them this way.
• Oil for frying: I prefer to use peanut oil. I find that the spring rolls come out very crispy and not oily. Peanut oil also has a very neutral flavor so you do not taste the oil.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and let the mushrooms soak off of the heat for 30 minutes. I used about 1/2 of each of the 2.5 ounce bags shown above.

While the mushrooms are re-hydrating, peel and grate the carrots, and finely mince the shallots.

For the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and soak the noodles off of the heat also, but only for 3 – 5 minutes or until done. Rinse them under cold water so they are completely cooled off, and let them drain for about 5 minutes — do not let them clump together. Drain and finely mince the mushrooms.

Throughout this mixing step, slowly add 3 teaspoons of fresh cracked pepper, 6 teaspoons of soy sauce and 6 teaspoons of kosher salt. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the shallots, carrots, cilantro and 1 and 1/2 cups of the mushrooms together. When the veggies have been mixed together, roughly chop the noodles and work them into the mixture.

Combine the pork with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper.

Throughly combine the meat and veggie mixture.

On to the wrapping. Remember how I mentioned that you need to con family and friends into helping? Well, the wrapping is done by Kris, so she’ll take over the instructions for it.

Make sure that you have thawed out the spring roll wrappers 30 minutes prior to use. I also pull each one apart to make for quicker wrapping. Once you are ready to begin, mix together corn starch with water in a bowl (I don’t really measure, just dump a little corn starch into the bowl and add water and stir). The corn starch will be your glue. Have the meat and veggie mixture in front of you. Put a wrapper onto your work surface, and place about a tablespoon of the meat and veggie mixture onto the wrapper as shown below. Fold the bottom over the mixture, and then put the corn starch mixture all along the remaining three edges (I find it easiest to use my fingers – much quicker than using a spoon). Fold over each side, then roll the wrapper up.

Before you get busy with rolling and frying, STOP! Do a test run of 2 or 3 rolls. Make sure they get thoroughly cooked at your planned time and temperature. I normally fry 5 rolls for 7 minutes at 375 degrees, but you may need to adjust this. You also need to make sure that the seasoning is correct and adjust it accordingly as needed. This is important! Don’t go making 150 under-seasoned and undercooked spring rolls!

A couple of sauces to serve this with:

• Spicy Sweet and Soy Dipping Sauce
• Sweet and Sour Sauce

Tips for freezing and reheating:

1. When the spring rolls have cooled off to room temperature, lay them out, one layer deep on a sheet pan and freeze them for 3 – 24 hours.
2. When they are completely frozen solid, seal them with a vacuum food sealer. By sealing them frozen, we avoid squishing and crushing them.
3. You can place them completely frozen in an non-preheated oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees or thawed in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees.

I am still amazed at the wonderful treasures we can find at our Farmer’s Market! Today, we scored a pint of the elusive ground cherry. What are those I asked? The vendor gave us a sample and went on to explain that it was something that her grandfather had always grown on the farm. These sweet little packages look like tiny tomatillos, but when the papery husk comes off they are yellow when ripe and are not sticky to the touch like a tomatillo is. The texture is like a small cherry tomato, but the taste is sweet and complex with hints of melon, tomato and strawberry. We kept on eating them trying to put a finger on what they reminded us of, and before we knew it we had burned though half of our stash. The vendor told us that they had used them in pies and jams, but I wanted to capture this unique flavor without cooking them.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pint of Ground Cherries, each one halved
• 1/4 Red Onion, diced
• 1/4 jalapeno, diced
• Cilantro, chopped
• Red Bell Pepper, diced
• Very *small* squeeze Lime Juice
• Roughly a teaspoon or two Extra Virgin Olive oil
• Very *small* pinch Salt

Mix everything together and let sit for 30 minutes so the flavors can come together. Do not overdue it with the salt or lime; the small amount of salt is only needed to draw out liquid from the cherries so they can macerate with the olive oil and lime juice.

This is a very simple yet tasty thing to make. The combination of sweet, salty and spicy really works well together.
Ingredients

• Prosciutto
• Mango
• jalapenos
• Provolone Cheese

Carefully lay out a slice of prosciutto without ripping or tearing it. Put some provolone, mango and a couple of jalapeno slices at the end of the prosciutto and roll it up tight. If your prosciutto is long enough, you may be able to get two rolled out of one slice.

They may seem a little fragile now, but when they get on the grill the cheese will start to melt and hold them together well. Grill each side for 3 – 5 minutes.

Meena over at hooked on heat posted this recipe a couple of weeks back and we gave it a try. She notes: “ALTERNATIVELY, you can avoid deep frying by simply grilling the marinated chicken on a hot grill till tender and done.”

I marinated them for a full day. The yogurt and lemon did their magic and they came out very tender. As soon I set them down on the table, a little hand reached up from depths of the kitchen floor and snatched one!
You can get the full recipe here.

A few notes and tips:

• Make sure you soak the grape leaves in water for at least 15 minutes otherwise they may be very salty. I kept them in water while i was rolling them. This also makes sure they stay moist.
• Try not to let the grape leaves get to dry before grilling them so they don’t burn and crumble.
• Don’t over cook the rice. I like to cook mine with a little bit of butter as this helps keep the grains separate. Fluff the rice a few times so it cools off nicely. You don’t want a big clump of glutinous rice.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Dried Cherries (unsweetened), chopped
• 1 small red Onion , minced
• 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, Finley chopped
• 1 cup diced [tag]Tomatoes[tag]
• 1-2 cloves of Garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese.
• 1 teaspoon Kosher [tag]Salt[tag]
• 1 pound of Ground Pork.
• 3 cups cooked Jasmine Rice, room temp
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• Lemon Zest, from one lemon.
• 30 Brined Grape leaves, rinsed

Mix everything but the pork , grape leaves and half of the salt in a large mixing bowl. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning. If you want to go meatless you can skip the next step with the pork. Some kalamata olives would be great instead.

Combine the other half of the salt with the pork separately and mix the pork and the rice stuffing together. This just ensures that everything gets evenly seasoned.

Lay a grape leave flat and place a log of the stuffing on it. To roll it up, fold the back over first and then fold each side over.

Now just roll it up tight.

Place the stuffed grape leaves on the top rack of your grill with the seam side down. Cook them this way at ~400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cooked all the way through. There is raw pork in there so make sure it is completely cooked.

Flip them half way through the total cooking time.

You can serve them with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil and touch of lemon juice over the top. I have also added some finely diced red pepper and fresh parsley.

Ingredients:

• About 12 Cherry Tomatoes
• 1 ripe Peach
• 1 slice of a Red Onion
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• Pinch of Kosher Salt
• 1 Serrano Pepper
• 1 tablespoon of Fresh Cilantro
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for brushing

Brush the tomatoes and peach with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place them all on a hot grill.

Never mind the picture of corn in there, that’s another story, but I did slip some in the salsa and it was great!

The peach will need to come off first after about five minutes.

The tomatoes and onions will come off after ten minutes of total grilling time. Give them all a nice charring. The times I give you are just an approximation, so go by what the food looks like, not your stop watch.

Blitz all of the ingredients in the food processor.

All done!

Ingredients:

• Tomatillos, about a dozen
• Anaheim Pepper
• jalapeno
• Onion
• Roasted Garlic
• Cilantro
• Juice of one Lime
• Salt to taste

If you have never used tomatillos, they have a papery husk on the outside. When you peel it off their skin is sticky until washed.

You need need to peel the tomatillos and rinse them with water with the peppers.

Coat the tomatillos, peppers & onions with olive oil. I normally just pour a little olive oil in a plastic bag with the veggies and shake it up and dump them out on the grill.

It’s okay to pretty much char them because you want that. The onions should be taken off the grill first since they have high sugar content and will burn quickly.

Peal the skin off of the anaheim pepper; it should slip right off. If you can’t get it all that’s okay, since a little charred skin adds nice flavor.

Whiz all of the ingredients in a food processor.

All Done!

Ingredients:
1 Avocado
2 spoonfuls of Fresh Tomato Salsa
Kosher Salt

Remove the outer skin and the seed of the avocado.

Mash the avacado with a fork, mix in the fresh salsa and season to taste with salt.

Ingredients:
8 Tomatoes
1/4 Red Onion
1 bunch Cilantro
1 Serrano Pepper
1 Lime
Salt
Sugar

The Ingredients….

Add the tomatoes to a food processor and blend until somewhat smooth. Place puréed tomatoes in a sieve or colander.

Squeeze out excess liquid. This step will prevent the salsa from becoming soupy when we add the lime juice.

Add the red onion, serrano and cilantro to the food processor and give it a whirl.

Pour the contents of the food processor into a bowl, and add pureéd tomatoes in as well. Add lime juice, then salt and sugar to taste. Mix by hand.

This will come to its full flavor when it has had time to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Ingredients:

• Bread (a nice crusty Loaf)
• Tomatoes cut into 1/2 inch slices
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Fresh Basil
• Kosher Salt

Start with ½ cup of balsamic vinegar and reduce it down to 1/8 cup. It should be thick like syrup. Set aside to cool.

Brush the tomatoes and bread with the olive oil and season with kosher salt. The tomatoes should rest with the oil and salt for about 30 minutes before grilling.

Start to grill the tomatoes first. They should take about 10 -15 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is.

You want to get the tomatoes nice and charred.

The bread should take about 5 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is.

To finish this off, cut the grilled tomatoes in half and lay them on the grilled bread. Top with some fresh basil and a drizzle of the balsamic syrup.

Ingredients:

• 4 – 6 Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Softened Butter
• Kosher Salt
• Thinly sliced Prosciutto
• Finely chopped Parsley
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Fresh cracked Pepper

Lay a sheet of heavy aluminum foil out on a flat work surface; liberally coat the bottom with butter–do not skimp out on this step or the potatoes will stick. If you want to make sure the potatoes won’t stick to the foil, in addition to the butter, spray the foil with some Pam or brush with olive oil.
Slice the potatoes on a mandolin so they are about 1/8 of an inch thick, and lay them out as shown so they overlap a bit. Add a layer of the prosciutto, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Since the parmesan and prosciutto are somewhat salty, go light on the salt.

Add another layer of potatoes, filling , then top it off with another layer of potatoes. Brush the top with olive oil.

Liberally coat another sheet of aluminum foil with butter and cover the whole thing with the butter side down making a flat pouch. Place on indirect heat and cook for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Place the pouch directly on the grill and grill in the pouch for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, carefully open the pouch and slide the whole thing out directly onto the grate. Grill this way until brown and crispy flipping one time to get each side crispy.

Ingredients:

• 1 unripe (green) Plantain
• Olive oil
• Kosher Salt

First, take the peel off of the plantain. You will most likely not be able to peel it like a banana. Cut off each end, and use a sharp knife to cut off the peel part of the entire length of the plantain.

Cut the pealed plantain into 1 inch pieces, oil them, and place on a hot grill.

Give each side about 3 – 4 minutes with a quarter turn in the middle. We want to form a crispy crust on each side.

When they are nice and brown on each side, take them off the grill and flatten them with a glass or mallet (something with a smooth, flat surface).

Re-coat with olive oil and place them back on the grill until they are golden and crisp.

Hit them with salt and garnish with chopped cilantro.

Ingredients:

• Fresh Mozzarella, such as buffalo
• Cherry tomatoes
• French Bread, cut into chunks
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Place the bread, tomatoes and cheese onto the skewers and brush them with olive oil.

Place the skewers directly on a hot grill. Grill until the bread has started to toast and the cheese has started to melt, roughly 1 to 2 minutes.

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