Gluten Free Spring Rolls

I found myself in a bit of a dilemma recently. I've had cravings for those large fried Spring Rolls. I never eat them normally but pregnancy is changing that!

The problem with Spring Rolls however, is they are full of gluten. I am not friends with gluten, or rather, it is not friends with my body. It likes to make me feel irritable, sore in my ligaments and gives me piercing headaches. So my dilemma became the occasional torture session while eating Spring Rolls.

That was no fun, so I went in search of gluten free spring rolls I could make at home.

Served with a side of "bubble and squeak"

Oh yes, these were really delicious. Made with rice paper wrappers I avoided the gluten in regular pastry. These don't have the same texture as normal Spring Rolls, but the filling still gave me that tang I was craving.

This recipe doesn't use meat at all and still tasted great!


Onto the recipe.

1/2 head sugarloaf cabbage - shredded
2 carrots grated
1 onion finely diced
1 bunch fresh coriander chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
1 inch piece fresh ginger, finely grated
approx 1 cup vermecilli (rice noodles)
pinch ground white pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
2 tabs gluten free soy sauce
2 teas rice wine (check to make sure it's gluten free)
oil for frying
{1 pkt rice wrappers}

~ substitute apple cider vinegar if no rice wine~

Prep fresh ingredients

I like to cook my filling a day ahead, because it can take about 4 hours before frying those lovely morsels. Most of that is fridge time, because you need the wrappers to dry after rolling. They are very tacky otherwise.

I made my filling in a wok. Turn up the hotplate to high and drizzle wok with a little oil. Fry onion (stirring) until transparent and slightly caramelised, but not burnt. Keep adding oil if it starts sticking to the base. Add garlic and ginger and stir.

Caramelised onion, garlic and ginger

Next add  your shredded cabbage, carrots, and stir with tongs until cooked a little. Add your gluten free soy sauce, rice wine (or apple cider vinegar) and both types of pepper. When nearly ready, add chopped coriander and stir through.

 Adding fresh coriander

The last stage is to add your vermecilli (rice noodles) and you need to prepare them at least 10 minutes before hand. I cut my vegetables then put the kettle on to boil, so I could add the water to the vermecilli in a bowl. Strain water out when you're ready to use. Add the vermecilli to your cabbage and it should look like this...

Finished filling

Let cool then refrigerate for rolling in rice paper wrappers the next day. I found my rice papers in the local Woolworths, but I'm sure other supermarkets or Asian grocery stores would stock them also. I got about 20 wrappers in the packet, and it turned out to be plenty for three people, including leftovers for lunch the next day.

Products made with rice are generally gluten free

Time for the fun part! Get a bowl of warm to hot water (I used a big metal mixing bowl) and dunk a single wrapper into the water. Depending how hot it is, depends how long you leave it in the water. I found a quick dip on both sides is all I needed at first, but as the water cooled, it needed slightly longer. You then stretch the wrapper on a plate gently and fill with about a tablespoon of filling.

Fold up the end...

Then fold in both long sides of the wrapper...

Roll tightly until you have neat rolls and place on a clean plate. I had a larger plate filled, but these were the last three. You don't want your rolls touching one another because they're now going to be put in the fridge for a few hours (uncovered) to dry out a little.

When it comes to frying, use a frying pan and turn your heat up until oil is ready. I used olive oil. You then turn your heat down to medium, as rice wrappers are quick to cook. Use tongs to place rolls in the hot oil. Only fry about three at a time, because they'll wobble around at first and threaten to touch one another. Once they do touch, you're going to end up with a split wrapper when you try to turn them, and cabbage will go through your oil.

My first batch did this, but when I reduced the numbers down to three, it went amazingly well. And that's it! Best eaten fresh but still lovely the next day.

Ultrasound

So I went to my dating ultrasound yesterday. Nothing flash, but everything is happening as expected - perfect heart beat and development. Picture below:

Click to enlarge

Due date is expected around 31 May 2013, give or take. They say I'm presently 10 weeks and 6 days. So it's kind of real now. Our newest member of the family has officially made it to the blog.

Sarah joined us at the ultrasound, and Dave said it was the first time we got to see each other with the four of us. I didn't think of it like that. I was too busy trying to figure out the parts! No sexing done at this stage, so still a mystery.

In case you cannot make out the picture, the baby's head is the big round thing! They still look like a little tadpole, but they'll be growing pretty quickly. It's amazing how this whole process works.

$avvy meals

Ever had the problem of eating roast chicken one night, and whatever is left manages to find it's way to the back of the fridge? I'm always looking for ways to use leftover roast chicken, because it's so hard to pull off the meat once chilled.

I think I may have found the answer in soup! Chicken noodle would seem the most obvious choice, but I'm not a big noodle fan any more. I also had a large pumpkin I needed to use, so decided to make chicken-pumpkin soup instead.

Stockpot, frame and meat

I just placed the roast chicken frame in a stock pot and covered it (almost) with water. I also chucked in a couple of chopped shallots. I then boiled for about an hour which was plenty to get the flavour out. Do remember though, stock made from a roasted chicken frame won't be as subtle in flavour, as the marrow in the bone has already been cooked out.

Once you're satisfied with your stock though, take the frame out and set aside to cool. The meat will fall off and makes it so much easier to remove. Even though we ate most of the chicken the night before (breast, legs and wings) a remarkable amount of meat still came off the frame.

Soft chicken meat

Below is how much of the chicken frame was left after pulling the meat off. Not much, and not too smelly to put in the bin (wrapped in newspaper) either.

Stripped chicken frame

While the frame was on to boil, I cut and roasted the pumpkin in a moderate oven. It caramelises the flesh, and makes it sweeter. Once cooked, set aside the pumpkin to cool a little, then scoop out the flesh from the skin, and place in the cooked stock.

Yummy, dry roasted pumpkin

I also had those few remaining roast vegetables from the night before. They were placed in the stock too. Potatoes and pumpkin. I reckon if you had leftover swede or turnip, it would taste great too!

Leftover vegetables from the night before

I then used my Bamix (stick blender) to puree it together. I then put the chicken meat back in and added a can of corn kernels. Although I *loved* the chunky sweet-corn in my soup, both David and Sarah said they would prefer it softer. So maybe add a can of creamed corn instead, if you don't want chunky kernels.

The spices I used were cayenne pepper (gave it a subtle bight) cumin, salt and white pepper and a lovely splash of Worcestershire sauce too. You can also add cream to the mix if you want, but we tend to add it after serving.

The chicken stock makes this a very filling soup!

This is the finished soup, minus the cream as I hadn't poured it yet. It was so delicious! Being pregnant and having awful reactions to meat for some bizarre reason, I found this soup a lovely compromise. I seem to be able to eat small amounts of lean meat, but nothing with fat. Cooking out the bones gave me a great boost of much needed protein, without the nausea!

My chicken-pumpkin soup - I'm having another bowl for dinner tonight! Out of one roast chicken and some vegetables, I was able to feed a family of three, three hearty meals. I'm very happy with that. No more roast chicken, hiding in the back of the fridge from now on!

Caught in a moment

Has it been so long? Yes, it has. What has happened to the person who would blog about every little thing we did? I'm still here, but several things have changed. Don't know how to explain it without releasing a novel, so point form seems best:

- Projects are stalling due to funds and time available
- With the warmer weather approaching, I tend to stay inside a lot more
- Researching mini projects at the moment, but not much to write about
- I've taken a vow not to mention "ideas" until I'm well into implementing
- Since I'm pregnant now (surprise) many of our plans are changing

Without going into all the details, life has basically been turned on it's head and often when that happens, I find it better to repose. I gather more information and meditate on it slowly. It's difficult to write about, because it's still so up in the air. How can you talk about stuff you're still mulling over and may not even happen?

It's quite possibly the pregnancy hormones talking, or the plain and simple fact I've evolved since starting this blog. I don't know how to write about who I'm becoming, or where we are heading. Life in so many ways, feels amazing. Yet dreams are having to change which is sad. But good. Just kind of sad too.

If I sound conflicted, it's because I'm going through the process of deciding what matters. That's not easy. With no deadline to meet either,  it could take a while. I hope that makes sense?

Rather than continue the long run of silence, I thought to briefly outline our present reality. That's all I have to share, but thanks for taking the time to read.

Are you caught in a moment too?

Getting things done

Monday was a good day. No, it was a great day. I wish every day could be like Monday, but we just have to accept what each day brings. Why was Monday so great? Well the day was so warm and enticing, we decided to move a lot of things around the yard.

We started by collecting dirt which was dumped by the side of the road. There was so much dirt from clearing all the drains after the flood, the Council ran out of places to put it all. So they've dumped tonnes of dirt in a clearing, near one of our local streets. It's got a lovely collection of weeds growing on it now, but we take a trailer load of dirt every now and then - plus rocks we find for our drystone retaining wall. While we were there recently, we also found this...

Plant in the foreground is my propagated rosemary

It's a lovely old piece of wood. Could have been a telegraph pole for all we know, but it was very big and took a lot of creative thinking to get it into the trailer, then up a slope once we got home - to it's final resting place. Dave and I enjoyed the challenge and working together as a team.

Timeless

If it's going to end up in land fill, I can't see why it shouldn't find a useful place in our yard. I love the rusted nail (the size of a large bolt) or whatever that metal thing is. And I know the lizards will love the extra hiding space it will create for them.

We unloaded the trailer, full of soil, rocks and the log, stopped for some home made yoghurt for lunch, and then found ourselves starting another project. But first we had to build a plinth.

It begins

We hunted around the yard for some old bricks. I found the perfect amount in a neat pile, gathering moss, and some snails! There's a bit of Toowoomba history in those bricks, as they have "Toowoomba" stamped on the bottom. They were given to us by a friendly Toowoomba resident, but alas, we don't know the story behind them.

A splash of sand

Then I used the old fish tank sand, which has been sitting in a bucket for around 2 years. Sarah often plays with it, but I didn't need much, so I borrowed a little.

Fills the cracks nicely

Then I swept it into the grooves between the bricks, to ensure no weeds grew up between them. So our make-shift plinth was finished. All we had to do now was move a few rocks to get to what we wanted to put on it.

Welcome home

It's been a long time coming (about 5 years here) but we finally found a proper spot for our wedding day wishing well. It was built for us by some lovely relatives, for guests to put their cards in at our wedding. The two other houses we lived in prior, we never managed to find the right spot for it - and it only took 5 years to find the perfect place here.

Our daughter was chuffed to see it close to the back door, rather than down the back. She turned the handle as she had always done in the past. We spoke about what we were going to plant around it and possibly "in" it. The possibilities...

 Needs some TLC

But all that time spent unprotected outside, has left it's mark. You can see some kind of fungus or scale has developed underneath the eaves. And below we've lost some shingles that will either need replacing or be disguised.

The well was built around an old washing machine barrel

I'm all for looking rustic, but I also want the wood to last a bit longer. I've got some clear varnish specifically used for marine applications, which I think will be good protection for this old gal!

Not me - the wishing well. ;)

 Going up!

I would also like to say, no snails were harmed during the plinth construction. Although I'm sure some would say, that's a shame. I just couldn't knock them off. The foundation of our wishing well, had to share with the little things in life too. After all, it's the little things that make the big things worthwhile.

Looking through the arch which has a 3 year old luffa vine

We can see the wishing well from the back door and it's a reminder of how far we've come. Monday was the best day we've had in a while. Not because the other days aren't good enough, we just got in touch with what's important. Family, and getting things done together. It's not always possible, but when it is, we cherish those days.

Something new

I am blogging over here. It's a little blog about little things.

This is still my main blog, but I needed a place to embrace the small. :)

Tree disposal

When I talk about tree disposal, I'm really talking about consigning back to the ecology. This is not always an option when you have a monster of a tree and a small backyard - where it is possible though, look at how you can get the most out of your tree, by letting the nutrients decay on your property.

Pigeon peas

We had to remove 3 pigeon pea trees recently. The uncharacteristic wet weather in 2010 - 2011 had caused one to fall over. We could've gotten another few years out of these trees for their shade, nitrogen capturing ability and free mulch they drop with their leafs, but it was only a matter of time before they needed to go. They were, after all, approaching 4 years of age, when they tend to start deteriorating around 5 years.

We decided to use their remains to feed a new bed. It seemed fair, considering the trees spent their productive years, feeding and protecting the same patch of ground right underneath their canopy. A worthy legacy would be to build a new garden bed for a new generation of plants, right there. So one afternoon I set to work, breaking down the trees.

Twigs

Rather than cut the whole tree down, I started by breaking off branches, and then snapping off the twigs. They were easily dropped where I was going to build the bed. No need for barrows or walking, they were snapped and dropped.

Branches

This is how easy is was to snap large branches with my bare hands. No need for pruners here, or a lot of muscle. I really enjoyed the slow movement of breaking the tree down without the need for tools. I did use garden gloves though. I wouldn't be able to do this with healthy trees and new shoots.

Strategy

The trees even helped me break the larger branches into more manageable pieces. I used the body of another tree to brace the branch I wanted to snap. Because I wasn't rushing, I had the time to contemplate the easiest way to break the components up. This is why I prefer not to rush at a job with a machine, although machines have a useful place too. I did use an axe for the much larger pieces.

Trunks

The thicker branches (in this case the trunks) were piled on top of the smaller twigs. All that was left to deal with, were the stubs and extensive root system underground.

Trunk stub

Rather than disturb the ground by pulling the roots, they were left to hold the ground together. As they slowly rot under the soil, a host of living organisms will turn them into humus (I love a good work crew) and fill in the cavities left behind. The next job was adding more to the bed...

Building up the bed

I had some limes on the tree that weren't going to be used, along with some lemons growing fungus on them. So I went around the yard, looking for fallen fruit and placed it on the bed - along with some grass nearby. Then it was time to bring in some machinery.

Mulching the bed

Dave chanced upon a garden chipper/mulcher at a garage sale in the area. It was made in Germany and was priced within our budget. Although we've always wanted a chipper, we couldn't afford brand new. I'm glad we waited. And it works a treat too! Leaves and branches went into the chipper and medium sized mulch came out.

It was just a simple matter of moving the chipper when an area was sufficiently covered. Ensuring a pleasant afternoon in the garden, didn't become a trip to the hospital either, I used the recommended safety-gear of ear, eye, foot and hand protection.

 Finished bed

~ trees consigned back to the ecology ~

This job of tree removal took 2 afternoons of work. It was very enjoyable work at that, listening to the birds, taking coffee breaks and having chats with family. Now it's time to wait though. This bed will rest until Spring (another few months) and then we'll plant it up again - adding a shovel of compost in the planting holes.

Now if I didn't have the chipper, I could've easily laid the leaves and branches on the bed and covered it with a bale of lucerne, straw or sugar cane mulch. It would take longer to break down, but it's food for the soil, so exercise a bit of patience. If yo can wait for a seed to sprout and grow into a tree, you can wait for a tree to decay and form a new garden.

Late 2008

Speaking of seeds - this is when I first planted the above pigeon pea trees in 2008. I knew I had a picture somewhere in my old posts, and found it here. I had fears they wouldn't survive. I wrote:

"My pigeon peas on the other hand, haven't been a great success. I've sewn 8 seeds in total, and so far only 4 have come up. Of those, only 2 plants have survived and one looks as if it's going to shrivel up soon. I've found better success planting direct, than planting in a seedling tray"

Worry not, Chris, for not only did they survive, they lived a productive life propagating seedlings naturally, and showing you the importance of patience *wink*! Nature is pretty good at growing stuff - I, on the other hand, still had a lot to learn.

Tree removal though, doesn't have to mean a bonfire or a trip to the tip. Some times, maybe? But it can also mean new life for new things to grow.  What I enjoyed most about this exercise, was realising how easy it was to conserve energy. I didn't have to use my pruners at all, I swung the axe very little, my barrow wheels were spared the burden of transport and the mulcher featured at the very end, was re-purposed from one local household, to our own.

The most energy used, was obtained from a seed, the sun, rain and the microbiology of the soil. That's why I love working with nature - if I let it, it will do most of the work. The biggest investment I had to make, was patience.