Rhubarb Vanilla Sauce & Fruit Spring Rolls

Rhubarb season is in full force at my house. My rhubarb plant is HUGE and I have a couple rhubarb dishes to share. This sauce worked great as a dip for fruit spring rolls. A nice tart and sweet touch, yum! It would also be delicious on pancakes and ice cream.

Rhubarb Vanilla Sauce

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

2/3 C sugar

1/4 C water

1 vanilla bean (optional)

3 C sliced rhubarb

In a saucepan stir the sugar, water, and seeds from the vanilla bean. Bring it to a boil then add the rhubarb. Bring again to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft. You can stir/mash the mixture at this point to get the rhubarb into smaller pieces. Serve warm or cooled, I opted for cooled with the spring rolls.

If you want to thicken it up a bit add about 2 t of rice flour at the end and incorporate well.

Makes about 2 C of sauce.

These fruit spring rolls are easy to whip together and are a nice light lunch or appetizer. My family aren't big fans of the rice wrapper texture. I know! They're crazy!

You can find spring roll wrappers at Oak Street Natural Market and at Rosauer's in the Asian aisle of the regular grocery section. I'm sure you can find them in other places but those are the ones I know of for sure.

Fruit Spring Rolls

20 rice wrappers (spring roll wrappers)

2 bananas, chopped

10 or so strawberries, chopped

1.5 C blueberries

Mix the chopped fruit and blueberries in a bowl and set aside. Wet a papertowel (wring out any water, you just want it damp) and place on your counter top, this will work as your surface to place the rice wrappers on. If you are making these a couple hours ahead of when you'll serve them then wet another papertowel and place on a cookie sheet. If you will be serving them right away just have your serving plate nearby.

Fill a cookie sheet with sides with warm water and place 1 rice wrapper in the water. Let it sit for about 30 seconds, you want it to become soft and pliable. Be careful not to let it sit too long because it will dissolve and fall apart. Trial and error is needed here.

Once your wrapper is pliable place it on your damp paper towel and then put another wrapper in the warm water. Put about 1/4 C of the fruit mixture toward one end of the wrapper. Fold the end of the wrapper over the fruit then fold in the sides. Roll and squeeze the filling to the end of the wrapper. Place on the serving plate or damp papertowel on the cookie sheet and repeat until all of the filling is used up. If you aren't using them right away place another damp papertowel on top of the rolls and place in the refrigerator.

This is a great way to enjoy the lightness of summer.

Sorry for the spacing issues, Blogger is NOT cooperating!

Gluten Free Coconut Shrimp

I was on a fried food kick last week and I found myself making coconut shrimp, it was so worth the calories. This was a new recipe for me and I was really happy with it, the only change I would make is using fresh shrimp instead of frozen but when I walked through Costco the line for the fresh fish was too long and my patience was running low.

Beer Battered Coconut Shrimp (adapted from All Recipes)

1 egg
½ C Gluten Free Mama’s Coconut Flour (or use any GF flour you have)
2/3 C GF beer (I used Bard’s)
1 ½ t baking powder
¼ C GFM’s Coconut Flour
2 C flaked coconut (I used Bob’s Red Mill Shredded Coconut & it worked wonderfully)
24 shrimp
Oil for frying

In a bowl combine the egg, ½ C flour, beer, and baking powder. Put ¼ C flour in a large plastic zip bag and put the coconut in its own bowl. Add the shrimp to the plastic bag and shake to fully coat the shrimp with the flour. This was so much easier than dipping each one separately. Shake off any excess flour then dip each shrimp in the beer batter allowing excess batter to drip off. Coat the shrimp in the coconut then place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a skillet to 350F, I just put enough oil in the bottom to cover the pan but not to submerge the shrimp. Fry the shrimp in 2-3 batches. Cook on one side for 2-3 minutes then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes or until browned. Place the shrimp on paper towels to drain the excess grease.

Marmalade Dipping Sauce (from All Recipes)

½ C orange marmalade
¼ C Dijon prepared mustard
¼ C honey or agave nectar
¼ t hot sauce

Mix the four ingredients in a small bowl and serve alongside the coconut shrimp.

Hubby and I both liked the shrimp a lot and I used the leftovers chopped up in quesadillas last night. I loved it but it was a bit too coconutty for Hubby. I’m not a huge marmalade fan but the dipping sauce was still good. I think next time I’ll play around with plum instead of marmalade.

If you're wondering what the vegetables are on the plate it's steamed radishes and rutabaga.

S'Better Chicken Fingers & Honey Mustard

Some nights when I don’t have the desire to cook or just don’t have any time I really miss being able to grab something quick to eat or to call the hubby and ask him to grab something on the way home. I have found something to help me out on these nights and it doesn’t hurt that they are delicious. S’Better makes Chicken Strips you can find at Oak Street Natural Market and they are worth every penny. One box feeds us with a few left over for hubby to take to lunch the next day. The quality of chicken used is great and my fear of finding a chicken tendon in it so far has not happened. I have some weird food issues, it’s just who I am. We all like the taste and texture of these, just like gluten filled chicken strips, and my son happily eats them and will also ask for more.

Because we avoid HFCS I’ve been having a hard time finding condiments and have decided to start making a lot of my own. Honey mustard is one of my favorite dressings/dipping sauces and I found this lovely recipe at allrecipes.com submitted by Mary Ann Benzon.

Honey Mustard Dressing

¼ C mayonnaise*
1 T prepared mustard
1 T honey**
½ T lemon juice

In a small bowl whisk together all of the ingredients. Store covered in the refrigerator.

*A lot of mayonnaise has HFCS so be sure to read the label, I use Hain’s Safflower Mayonnaise.
**You can substitute Agave nectar for the honey, it tastes just as great but is more runny.