The blackberry bushes growing along the fence of my apartment complex are overflowing with ripe berries, so I froze half of the ones I picked, intending to keep them for use in smoothies and/or berry pies/crumbles in the fall. But when craving a cold dessert on a hot evening, I decided to try making a sorbet out of them. It was absolutely delicious!
Don't get stuck on salads with just lettuce. When making salads, let your imagination go wild. Use whatever ingredients you have and which strike your fancy! The more colorful, the better!
Upon returning to Berkeley after spending 3 months away, I was unable to buy everything I needed to fully restock my apartment, so what was originally intended to be Szechuan Green Beans turned into this. I was quite pleased with the outcome.
This can be used in any recipe instead of vanilla extract. White sugar provides the most neutral taste, but I prefer it with brown sugar (it's so good that I always eat a pinch on its own while baking...).
Though known as an appetizer, we most often eat them for lunch. If you plan to serve them as a main dish, plan on using one time this recipe per adult, so that they get 4 rolls each. Also, we prefer them stuffed with only tofu and vegetables, so we omitted the rice noodles that typically are part of the stuffing.
The secret of this basic bread dough is that flour is added to the liquids, rather than the other way round, which is what most regular bread recipes call for. Adding flour into the liquid allows the gluten and fibers to absorb more water, and as a result you get a more pliable dough and a moister, less crumbly bread. In other words, your bread tastes better! We learned this technique through Patricia Wells' excellent book At Home in Provence. In our house we use freshly ground spelt flour, but any good quality bread flour will work. Be creative and try to add other grains than wheat or spelt. Just keep wheat or spelt to 50% or more to provide gluten which makes your bread springy.