Red Cabbage Salad with Peanut Chicken

Red cabbage with its antioxidants and crunch makes a great salad on its own or in combination with crisp lettuce and carrots. Here, Red Cabbage is the main item, topped with peanutty chicken for a filling meal. Prepare the red cabbage salad a day ahead and let it develop flavor before enjoying.

The dressing is what makes this salad interesting for me - easy to remember because it is just a teaspoon of each; and even though it looks like there are a lot of ingredients, it comes together easily. Plus, of course, a well-stocked set of staple condiments and herbs and spices and oils and vinegars come in handy...

Sweet-Spicy Chili Dressing:
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sambal oelek
1 tsp stone-ground brown mustard
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp blue agave nectar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp crushed dry red chilies (optional)

Combine the dressing ingredients and toss with shredded red cabbage. About half medium red cabbage, approximately about 3 packed cups of shredded cabbage, drenched with the dressing yield from the above makes it perfect for me. As always, use as much or as little dressing as preferred.

Peanut chicken is a favorite salad topper, much like curried chicken or grilled lemon chicken. Simply pan cook a couple of marinated chicken tenders, cut them up, and toss with peanut sauce.

Peanut Sauce:
1 Tbsp peanut butter
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp sambal oelek (less if preferred)

2 tsp agave nectar
1 tsp light low-sodium soy sauce
water as needed to make the sauce to desired consistency

Fresh Spring Rolls with Rutabaga, Turnip, Zucchini filling

Thanks to a wide array of ready-made wrappers, making spring rolls seems like something my 4 year-old sous chef can handle easily these days. Wonderful as an afternoon snack washed down with green tea, or as an appetizer, spring rolls have become a staple at home, nothing to be excited about.

Some weekends, I just make a big batch in the morning, along with dipping sauces, and arrange it on the table like hors d'oeuvres to be munched on and off as we go about our business. On such days, typically, we end up not having any major meals as the spring rolls turn out very satisfying.

As I was sorting through my posts, I realized I haven't shared a recipe for fresh spring rolls, just a version of deep fried and pan-fried spring rolls.

As always, the filling changes each time depending on vegetables of the season, my mood, availability etc. This particular version is D's favorite, thanks to the rather unconventional filling.

Ingredients
For the filling:
1 rutabaga, grated
1 turnip, grated
2 medium carrots, grated
1 zucchini, grated
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
½ medium onion, sliced thin
3-4 cloves of garlic sliced thin
2 Tbsp grated ginger
2 Tbsp kecap manis
1 Tbsp sambal oelek
1 Tbsp coconut vinegar (or seasoned rice vinegar)
1 Tbsp sesame oil or canola oil
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Dry rice paper (Vietnamese), reconstituted/moistened with damp cloth, for wrappers

Preparation

1. Filling: heat the oil in a pan, add the grated ginger and sliced garlic, sauté a bit and then add the onion, sauté some more; then add the rest of the veggies, seasonings, cover and cook till slightly soft but not mushy; finish off cooking without the lid; allow to cool
2. Add the filling into each soft fresh spring roll wrapper, roll per package directions or like a burrito
3. Serve with home-made peanut sauce and (canned) plum sauce

Gado Gado with Peanut Dressing

Peanut sauce/dressing is something I tend to over-indulge on. Served warm with satay or spring rolls, dressed on mesclun greens or Gado Gado Indonesian salad, peanut sauce always seems to bring a certain satisfaction hard to describe...

For the Gado Gado salad, simply blanch or steam favorite vegetables to crisp-tender - I went with some green beans from my garden, some red potatoes, cauliflower, onions; add some fresh raw vegetables like cucumbers, carrots and crisp Romaine lettuce; I added some slices of Asian pear from our garden for a crisp tart-sweet crunch. Hard boiled eggs cut into wedges, bean sprouts... Arrange them all in a plate, drizzle some peanut sauce and enjoy!

Ingredients:
3-4 generous tablespoonful of chunky peanut butter
2 Tbsp nam prik pow
1 Tbsp kecap manis
½ cup boiling hot water

Stir all the above ingredients together to make a thick dipping sauce. Add more hot water for a thinner version. Garnish with sliced chilies.

Kecap manis, when I discovered it about 5 or 6 years ago, became an instant favorite and a staple in my kitchen. It is wonderfully thick, dark, sweet soy; not salty; good marinade...