Avocado Spring Rolls and Green (Tea) Bubble Tea

I bought two avocados from Tan-A-Supermarket ( the local Asian grocer) thinking that I would use them up in TLAT'S but the boy says that he is tired of them (I know, GASP!) so what to do...We came up with this recipe and I realize that this is not a new idea, so here is our version of it.

Avocado Spring Rolls

1/2-1 avocado cut in half, then into thin strips
6-12 rice paper wrappers (however many you want to make)
one mango, cored and peeled, cut into thin strips or pineapple chunks or mandarin oranges
1 "flat" rice vermicelli, cooked for 3 minutes in boiling water (don't cook any longer than this or they will be overdone)
spring onion tops
bean sprouts
shredded Napa cabbage (I forgot to use this)
cilantro or mint
sesame seeds
honey or agave nectar
ground ginger
Sriracha

Mix the honey, ginger and Sriracha to make a sauce to your tastes. Soak the rice paper one or two at a time and place on cutting board. Start with avocado, adding fruit of choice, spring onion, mint or cilantro, bean sprouts, Napa cabbage then rice vermicelli. Roll up bean burrito style. Repeat. I get my husband to do this ;) When the rolls have all been "packaged" drizzle with the honey mixture and sprinkle with seeds.

 

I think that I remember saying in a previous post that I had happened upon some Green Tea Boba Milk Powder (Greenmax brand) and Green Tea Pearls at Tan-A. I boiled up the pearls and made some sugar syrup today. BTW, watch what links you click when (or if) you look up Greenmax, I got a terrible spyware attack on this computer because of a link I clicked in connection to that search.

Here is the recipe that I used for the sugar syrup

Sugar Syrup

1 cup EACH brown sugar and white sugar
2 cups water
Mix sugars and the water in a medium saucepan. Cook at medium to high heat. Once the sugar water boils remove from heat immediately. Let cool and refrigerate leftovers.

How to cook green tea

4 regular bags per quart of tea
Place tea bags in water, bring to the point that small bubbles are coming to the surface over medium to medium high heat. Let cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat immediately. Place a layer of ice at the bottom of a heat proof storage container, pour tea over this. Rinse out tea bags with additional cold water. Chill.

How to cook the Pearls

I thought that I would mention this because my bag of pearls actually says that it cooks in 5 minutes. Well that is and isn't true at the same time. What I did was place 8 cups water and 1 cup pearls in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil. Once the pearls float to the top (and this may take a bit of time) turn heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Then take the pearls off the heat. They are not done yet. Cover your pot with the lid for about 20 minutes. They should be chewy but not hard. Cover with sugar syrup or sweetener of choice.

Green Tea Bubble Tea
2 tbsp. Green Tea Boba Milk Tea Mix
2 tbsp. cooked pearls
sugar syrup to taste
2 tbsp. Non-Dairy Creamer
1&1/2 cups chilled green tea

Blend the creamer and milk powder together in a small bowl to combine. Place all into your blender (except pearls, add those to  your finished drink). Blend until smooth. I tried to make an icy version but my dying blender BROKE. Sadness..... :*( 
I made mine with a stick blender. In any case, the above drink is awesome. Highly recommended. If you can find the Green Tea Pearls, get them. You can really taste a faint green tea taste and I like them better than the plain ones. Chris actually thought that they were peas, LOL.

Thai Tea and BBQ Tofu Vermicelli

I love Vietnamese food. Heart healthy, cheap and so very easy to make. Hit up the local Asian Grocer for the very best deals on fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs, tofu, soy milk, sauces, spices, noodles, bamboo steamers, kitchen items, rice, candy, snacks (ooh Wasabi Peas) meat (if you are a meat eater), mock meat, tea, etc. All kinds of goodies there. I even got some Boba Milk Tea powder (green tea, and they also had black tea) there (more about that in upcoming posts) and Green Tea flavored Boba Pearls. But I digress, back to the foods at hand.

The BBQ tofu vermicelli bowl is what I get when I go to Pho. It is exactly what it sounds like, noodles and BBQ'd tofu. It has shredded romaine lettuce, bean sprouts and thinly sliced cucumber matchsticks as a salad in the middle of the noodle bowl (I threw in some carrots for extra crunch and color, maybe that is why I forgot the cucumber, oops). To serve it comes with Peanut Sauce. To me this recipe tastes better than the sauce that I get from Pho. Please do not overcook your rice vermicelli. It only needs to cook 3 minutes once it hits the boiling water. That's all, and if you cook it longer it will get chewy and not taste good. For that beautiful tofu, all I did was brush it with hoisin sauce on both sides and grill on my George Foreman grill. Here is the recipe that I used to make the Thai Tea it is the cold Thai Tea,Cha Yen. It is subtle and delicious. I made mine with skim milk and fat free sweetened condensed milk. I may add additional spices such as cinnamon to the next batch. You won't believe the beautiful color of this tea. I actually got a huge packet of Thai Tea from the Asian grocer ( Tan-A-Supermarket for those of you that live here in Richmond, VA and yes that is an old Rite-Aid building) for about $3.00. I will have a picture of that for you soon. I would love to go to Thailand and drink it right out of the bag...yes they really serve it to you like that....

Took a picture for you before I drizzled it with Sriracha,  Hoisin Sauce and Peanut Sauce and I forgot my cucumbers and my Pho bowl is currently holding watercress. I am pleased, although I would have liked the tofu to be a bit crispier.

Little Wieners to love.....

Smokey Little Wieners and the people who love them on the next Geraldo....LOL, just kidding. Seriously though, these cocktail wienies rock. When I found this recipe for Little Wieners, I knew I had to try it. It is a recipe for "cocktail wieners" or "Lil' Smokies". I finally made it today, and it was fairly simple to make. I also made the BBQ sauce to go with the little wienies which was very hot and spicy, Chris loved these recipes and he kept saying how hot the sauce was but he kept coming back for more ;P I think that I will cut back on some of the heat of this BBQ sauce the next time that I make it. The most tedious part of the recipe is actually rolling the little wieners up, candy style, in aluminum foil. I love that the seitan is steamed in this recipe and the texture is better than most homemade seitans that I have made. I know that I will make this recipe again, and make the other seitan goodies listed on the website, including the brats. I don't think that I will be buying any pre-made wienies anymore. While I worked on these recipes, I helped Chris make some spring rolls and I made some Vietnamese Peanut Dipping Sauce which IMO is so much better tasting than the sauce you get at Pho. We used bean sprouts, napa cabbage, shredded carrots, green onion, rice vermicelli, mint and cilantro in our spring rolls however use what you like. More on those in posts later on this week including photos.

Saucy spicy goodness.