Amuse Bouche: Apple Peanut Canapé

A moniker in my name for a city
A phrase with me will make you cherished
I am so good for you in my utter simplicity
In Medical dictionary the fact so furnished

I am so famous in the world of bytes
Known for many aspects of usage
I am fat and rotund and make crunchy bites
My fame known from many religious traditions – right from the old age

Am, I forbidden? Or mystical ?
or the eternal giver of Youth
I consists of five internal carpels
Am good for good health of your mouth

I am as basic a fruit as you can think of
Or as hard if you don’t try enough
If You eat me on a day to day basis
Then you don’t have worry about anything – be it cold or dry cough

Answer to Open Sesame 2: The Apple

Ever since my high school days when I meddled, a little, into French, I was captivated by their food and , of course , mon Paris:)). After marriage, in the US, I have eaten a few fine French meals, each of which I can recall accurately…..when and where, I ate what. It’s a different matter that my choice is quite limited being a vegetarian:). A restaurant ,rather, a Creperie which is a big favorite near Detroit is Josephine. Excellent food and that is where I came across the term ‘Amuse Bouche’ .

Amuse Bouche (French: amuse mouth) is/are small one bite morsels served before the first course. In restaurants, it is the signature dish of the chef, and which is not charged for. I can still recollect the cucumber slice served with a creamy topping with minty undertones served at Josephine. That was sheer  perfection:). Amuse bouche is different from hors d’œuvre, in that it is only one or two bites. . Amuse Bouche is something that will leave you feeling “Aw, I wish the chef had sent me a couple more slurp, slurp, slurp:) ” . So, this home chef, that is me, tried my hand at amuse bouche too. Keeping the same tradition at home also, I prepared only 3 bites, one for each.

A canapé or canape (French for couch and known in Italy as tartina) is a small, prepared and usually decorative food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite. Source: Wikipedia. It is in general salty but I think mine fits the bill too. Yes the name was learnt at Josephine as well:).

I chose a tart, firm, granny smith apple.I love eating apples just the way they are WITH the peal:). So, I created this for Open Sesame 2. This is a very simple and elegant way of enjoying the fruit. Guess what, the husband, after eating my apple peanut canapé said ” I could have eaten a couple more” and Aaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee was smiling cheek to cheek:).

The Recipe: (4 servings:)

• Lite cream 1 Tbsp.
• Chunky Peanut butter 1 Tbsp.
• Sugar 3/4 tsp.
• Butter half a pinch
• Honey 1 tsp.
• Lemon juice 2 drops
• saffron a pinch

Whisk together lite cream, peanut butter and sugar till it blends well and gets a little airy. In a separate cup, first mix the tiny speck of butter with saffron. Add honey and lemon juice and whip. Even this small amount can be whipped:).

To assemble, cut the apple longitudinally into 4 thin slices, so that you avoid the seed portion completely. Spread approximately 2 tsps. of the cream and peanut butter mixture on top of  the apple slice. Top it with 3 drops of the honey mixture and swirl ever so slightly, with a sharp edge, like an end of a fork.

Voila………here it is

It can be prepared and refrigerated. Just make sure it covered airtight so that the apple doesn’t oxidize.

Tingle your taste buds with Apple Peanut Canapé

This is my simple entry for Open Sesame -2 hosted by Siri and Dhivya . Don’t make a lot, just make a little, leaving people asking for more;)

I would like to send this to Sweetnick’s ARF/5-A-Day a day too as it has the antioxidant rich granny smith apple.

Baked Rice Wrapper Rolls with Peanut Wasabi Sauce

Baked Rice Wrapper Rolls with Peanut Wasabi Sauce

No, I have not told you the entire recipe in the title:). More to it;) , I am telling you…..you will have to read the whole post for the recipe. OK, on to the topic, fresh spring roll wrappers are widely available at Oriental stores. These are predominantly Vietnamese & Thai, I believe. These use the rice based wrapper (Banh Trang: Vietnamese) and it is served fresh and generally not fried. There is a tapioca variety as well and well! I ended up with one which had both rice and tapioca starch:). So these rice wrappers do not need a lot of cooking , just slip in hot water and they are ready. 2 good recipes I found for them are Vegetarian and with shrimp. BUT, in our house, the husband is not particularly fond of the fresh ones.

So, now I had rice wrappers AND Wasabi paste ( about to expire in August, cause I got it at Thanksgiving;) ) and I had to make something before all of this went waste…………I KNOW. Then Kay announced Think Spice, think Wasabi event, brainchild of Sunita. I knew I was going to make something sooner than later. My first stint with wasabi were the wasabi peas which I fell in love with. Then I first used them in these won tons…………of course mine were filled with Tofu and the Husband’s were imitation crabmeat.

I have not had the courage to make sushi yet……..looking forward to some great ideas at the Think spice event. So, to make full use of the stock in my pantry, I baked the rice wrapper rolls and made a sauce with wasabi.They turned out deliciously crunchy , heavenly with the peanut wasabi sauce.

The Recipe:

For the Rice Wrapper Rolls:

• Rice wrappers 25 sheets
• Nutrela granules 1 cup, soaked in salted water and drained
• Garlic 2 cloves minced
• Ginger 1″ piece minced
• Green beans 1/2 cup french cut or julienned
• Carrot 1 cut lengthwise matchsticks
• Red bell pepper 1 julienned
• Napa cabbage 1/4 cup sliced thin
• Cilantro/ coriander leaves 1/4 cup
• Oil 2 tsp.
• Soya sauce 1 Tbsp.
• Rice Wine Vinegar 1 Tbsp.
• Black pepper powder 1 tsp.
• Salt to taste

For the Wasabi Peanut Sauce:

• Garlic 2 cloves minced
• Peanut butter 2 Tbsp.
• Soya Sauce 3 Tbsp.
• Sugar 1 tsp.
• Wasabi 2 tsp.
• Sambal Oelek/ red chili paste 1 tsp.
• Water 2 Tbsp.

Since I made this recipe up, the vegetables can be varied as per one’s liking.  Heat the oil in a wok and add ginger and garlic. Saute for 30 seconds and then add the carrot, green beans and bell pepper. Saute further for a couple of minutes and then add cabbage. Stir fry further for a minute and then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Preheat the oven to  400 degrees F.

Heat 2 cups of water in  pan and put off the heat. When the water temperature becomes tolerable, dip each rice wrapper in it , turn and dip the side you were holding and spread it on a plate.

Then put  about 1 Tbsp of filling and fold and roll as shown below.

Spray a little oil on aluminum foil and place the rolls on them. Spray some oil on the rolls as well and they all go in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes and then broil for another 2-3 minutes. When they are crisp all over , take them out of the oven.

Mix all the sauce ingredients and the peanut wasabi sauce is ready. Tastes great with the rolls. In fact, the sauce is so good, tastes great on plain rice noodles or even boiled eggs.

This recipe is on its way to Sangeeth for the eat healthy….. protein rich event as well. Rice vermicelli could also be used in  the rolls but I chose nutrela cause it’s full of protein and delicious too.