Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Further Adventures with Kiki

In my house, I don't limit my adventures to just culinary escapades. I also like to include the occasional curious libation. This weekend's adventure:
While searching for my summer roll wrappers (which I did find something that seems to be working, but no I haven't gotten those pictures yet)

HP: It was like Cream Soda & Peanut Butter in the blender. I was fascinated by its frothiness
The Girl: It's thick
The Girl's new beau: Uhh, it is ok
The Boy: I didn't agree to this. I'm not going to try it. You guys go ahead.
Kiki: It's not bad. Kind of like a peanut butter ripple milkshake, but not quite. Come on Boy, don't you want to try just a taste?
The Boy: NO! I'm going outside.

And there you have it. Your first on the street soft drink review, for the next time you find yourself in an odd little Jamaican-Hispanic-Oriental-Fresh Fish-We've Got Plants Market and you are in the mood for something thick and Peanut Buttery.

My wrap rut is continuing. I thought it was just a phase, but I believe that I have turned the corner into rut. If it's edible, wrap it:

I made a few summer rolls, but I never had a chance to take a picture. I thought I got a picture of the wrapper, but my camera card occasionally decides that it doesn't want to be read, so as far as I know I don't have a photo. Yet. The package has about 30 (I think) of these little wedge shaped wrap things, so I still have time. I'm not sure about the pictures though, they need a lot of attention.

I had to trim back the grape vines. Again. They were into the neighbor's yard and over the hedge so my clippers and I had a date. But, the grape leaves are still fairly young and thusly fairly tender, so I blanched a few of those bad boys and filled them up and grilled them.
The filling is Goat Cheese (like that surprises anyone) sun-dried tomatoes, random fresh herbs from the garden, a little chopped garlic and some chopped toasted walnuts. Form that into a log, wrap it up, oil her up, chill for a short time and roll them onto the grill. The recipe says that you unwrap the grape leaves and smear the cheese on little toast points or something like that. The kids prefer to pop them in their mouth as is, in one bite. If your leaves are blanched to the point of being very tender, (go past the pretty bright green stage into the canned green bean color and your fine) and you coat them in olive oil there is an earthy, yummy-grapey taste to them.

The final "wrap of the week" was the Father's Day fish tacos. HP & the kids spent about a year trying to convince me that fish tacos were good. (They just didn't sound right) Now they have regular appearances on our table. Sometimes we use grilled fish and sometimes we do beer-batter fried fish. Beer Batter is simple and crunchy and really very simple. How simple?
  • 1 12-oz can of beer. use a decent one, we use Lager
  • 1 1/2 cups of AP flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix. Have some beer for yourself. Dip your fish in and fry it up. We used tilapia cut into small fish tenders. Sunday's fillings were:
  • Mango-black bean salsa
  • Guacamole
  • Fresh greens, with little flowers in it from the farmer's market
  • Chipotle-Ancho "Aioli" (ok, it's just a sauce I make with mayo & sour cream, but the girl hates mayo, so we don't tell her that is a major ingredient. She loves this)
  • cheese. just the regular Mexi-mix. no goat cheese, I swear. We usually use Queso Fresco or Queso blanco, but the ethnic Price-Rite closed right before I got there and the Giant didn't have any. (rrrrrr)
It is a fill & wrap your own deal, so all I need to do is prep. HP does the salsa & guac. He does them both really well, so why should I mess with it.

I think on Friday night, I'm going to make this. Just because it isn't a wrap. And it tastes really good!

3 garnishes:

Sarah Louise June 17, 2008 at 10:52 PM  

why do I come over here to be tormented by your culinary wiles? It all sounds so good...there should be a button on my computer where I can press it and the stuff you cook comes out...wait, is it this one?

Nope. I'll just have to come to R-town one of these days.

Anonymous,  June 18, 2008 at 11:20 AM  

I'm not sure I would have tried the drink either...you are adventurous. It sounds strangely strange. Your grape leaves, oh man I'm jealous.

KitchenKiki June 19, 2008 at 9:18 PM  

SL- You are welcome anytime! But I'll try to work on the emailable versions of my food.

NP- I love my grape arbor, its a joy to enjoy.

  © Blogger template Blogger Theme II by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP