Tag: Oriental

Grocery Shopping – Ingredients for Oriental Recipes

Oriental market Main Pic

Believe it or not, it’s so easy shopping for ingredients for Oriental recipes.  I’d dare say, it’s even fun.  You get so much culture in such a little place and sometimes its just really nice to get out of my comfort zone only to realize it can be just as comfortable somewhere else.

The folks at this 1st Oriental Market are amazing people.  They’re so eager to help with all your needs.  And I find that this is common just about anywhere I go when it comes to foreign food.  People like to share their experiences and culture.  I find that it isn’t any different here and the owner, Earl and his wife, make it a real pleasant experience.

Most Oriental Cooking, these days, is very simplified because almost all of the guess work has already been cut out for you.  I don’t have to make every individual sauce that is used to combine with other sauces to make one great recipe.  For example: when a recipe calls for Hoisin Sauce, you don’t have to make you’re own Hoisin Sauce from scratch(which would require several other ingredients), you just crack open a bottle.  And what about Plum Sauce… could you imagine having to make that beforehand too?  Both of these ingredients are in my Chinese Barbecue Sauce recipe, which only has 5 or 6 ingredients: Hoisin, Plum Sauce, Ketchup, Sugar, 5 spice powder etc., and that makes it really simple just buying each one of those premade bottles.  But, could you imagine having to make all of those ingredients as well?  You’d be making ingredients for your ingredients.

That being said, I would just like you to understand and realize that you don’t have to learn translations of ingredients you’ve probably never heard of in the first place.  Because, most of the basic ingredients I show you in this video are very versatile to most of the popular Americanized Oriental recipes that you’re likely familiar with anyway.

So get familiar with the few I show you now and I’ll introduce more as we go and you’ll be a pro before you know it!

Rice Noodle Spring Rolls

Rice Noodle Spring Rolls

So what’s the difference between an Egg Roll and a Spring Roll and why do people confuse Summer Rolls with Spring Rolls?  Well, I think the main thing to look at is that they are all rolled in a wrapper with vegetables and they are all fried.  Except for the Summer Roll, which is a Korean Roll many confuse for the Spring Roll but Spring Rolls are fried!  The easiest way to remember is this: Egg Rolls are bigger, Spring Rolls are small and Summer Rolls are soft and see through.  The best part is, you can put anything you want in any of them.  Sure there’s a few traditions but you literally could go breakfast burrito in any one of these rolls if you really wanted to.

Rice Noodle Spring Roll Ingredients:Kikkoman-Tempura-Dipping-Sauce1

1 qt boiling water
2 Rice noodles
1 Nori Sheet
Cilantro, freshly chopped
1 Garlic Clove, chopped
2 tbsp Cooking Oil
8 oz Ground Pork, cooked
Salt and Pepper too taste
2 tbsp Tempura Dipping Sauce (1 part ea. Soy, Sugar, Water, White Vinegar)
1 pkg Spring Roll Wrappers
1/4 cup Water for wetting Wrappers
Oil for Frying

Boil water and Poor over Rice Noodle in a separate bowl.  Let it sit for 5 minutes then strain and add 1 tbsp cooking oil to prevent sticking.  Cut Nori into fours then stack and cut with scissors into shoe string slices.  Chop Cilantro and Garlic.  Cook pork with 1 tbsp of cooking oil and add garlic half way through cooking and salt and pepper to taste.  Combine the Rice Noodle with cut Nori, Cilantro, Pork and Tempura Dipping Sauce and mix thoroughly.  Add 2 to 3 tbsp of the mixed Rice Noodle Ingredients to the center of 1 Spring Roll Wrapper.  Starting with the back corner, fold over the top and tuck the ingredients back so they are snug.  Fold the left and right sides in at 90 degree angles and roll forward half way.  Wet the last corner with a finger dab of water in an envelope fashion, then complete the rolling and apply light pressure in the center of the roll to ensure it won’t come apart in the fryer.  Fry at 350 degrees for approximately 3 minutes.  Let them cool on Paper towels before serving with Sweet and Sour or Orange Chili Sauce.