Early September

Turnovers:

Store bought puff pastry

Brie cheese

Apple, cubed and cooked on the stove with some sugar until softened, set aside and cooled.

1 egg, whisked

2 Tbsp coarse sugar

Set the oven to 375 F

Remove the thawed dough from the fridge (thaw ahead of time by placing in the fridge overnight from the freezer)

Roll out and cut into squares.

Add a piece of brie cheese and a tsp of apple filling, fold over and seal.

Use a fork to press around the edges and poke holes in the top.

Work quickly so that the dough does not warm up, it should stay cool and place the already filled ones on a sheet pan and into the fridge if you're still working on the rest.

Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle sugar over top.

Bake for 12 minutes or so or until they are puffed and golden, you can broil them briefly.

Minty Dolma (stuffed grape leaves)

I love to make dolma, it is a favourite in our house... traditionally (in our kurdish culture) we make a big pot of assorted stuffed vegetables and include grape leaves. The rice stuffing also has meat, spices (just for flavour, not heat) and tomato paste but now since I'm begun making this simplified version with only garlic, fresh mint and olive oil ... and lemon juice of course.

It's a very simple and basic recipe and everyone loves it because it is an easy snack food and tastes great straight out of the fridge too.

I made a large pot here, using 1 and a 1/3 jar of leaves and close to 4 cups of rice, a big bunch of fresh mint and lots of garlic cloves. ... unfortunately I didn't have olive oil on hand this time so I opted for butter (melted it and mixed it with the rice) it had a nice flavour!

For the complete recipe you can refer to my other dolma posts here and here ... also here !

Normally the leaves are rather medium sized but this time I had almost a full jar of very large leaves which resulted in some super long dolmas if I didn't split the leaves. My mother tends to divide the leaves and make smaller ones but this time I thought I'd make thinner longer ones and it turned out quite nice, like a cigar, hehe.

Wonton soup

Some inspirational shots from making wonton.

Ingredients I use in my stock:

- Chicken broth

- Lemon grass

- Lime leaves

- Brown sugar (or palm sugar)

- Lime juice

- Fresh ginger (or thai ginger)
- Tomato for acidity

- Garlic

- Soy sauce

- Sesame oil

For garnish:

- Green onions

- Cilantro
- Sriracha sauce

- Chilli & garlic sauce

Wonton:

- Wonton wrappers

- Raw ground beef (seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, a drop of Worcestershire sauce)

Blend and form into tiny meatballs (this just makes it easier when filling)

- Water (for sealing wonton)

I hope you enjoy this photo sequence :)

There are many ways to fold wonton, my sister brings up the edges and forms a tight seal so it's like a little purse, and I like to make little triangles as you see in the first photo however sometimes they tear (usually if you have nails it's a difficult shape to make) so I went with a small flat purse design and even though it's a little hard to describe it worked well for me and I was comfortable making them.

With any leftover meatballs they freeze well and you can throw them into any other soup (I made a white bean and swiss chard soup using a tomato base and added some tiny pasta (almost like an italian wedding soup) and it was so delicious)

Also I added a few shots of my green onion "patch" because I saved the bottoms, soaked them in a glass of water for a day or two and then planted them, you can see the updated shot at the very bottom and now I can harvest them for use :)