Rice Paper En Croute

En Croute refers to a food wrapped into pastry dough and baked. In place of pastry dough I used rice paper and here is what come out of it.

Blog's Category: DK Challenges

Rice Paper En Croute: chicken vs mushroom

Intro

It's again this time in a month when The Daring Kitchen challenges are have to be posted. En Croute was the subject for this month's challenge. En croute refers to something being wrapped in a pastry dough and baked. This "something" can be a fish, meat cut or vegetables. Classic en croute style dishes are Salmon En Croute and Beef Wellington.
I have cooked salmon en croute before so I decided to go for something different but simple. My requirements to the dish have narrowed down to:
- using rice paper, resting on my shelf for already too long. Though I have a filling that this stuff has no expiration date (very convenient!)
- it has to be simple (lack of time! .. again!)
- it has to be relatively low calory en croute ;)

What is it

Chicken Tenders Rice Paper En Croute - whole, seasoned chicken tenders, wrapped in rice paper, basted with olive oil, sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked in a oven.

Shitake Rice Paper En Croute - same idea as above but with shitake mushrooms instead of chicken.

Taste Description

Chicken Tenders Rice Paper En Croute - chicken come out wonderfuly juicy and flavorful. Boosted with garlic aroma and red pepper's heat, these rolls have remarkable texture - buttery underneath and chewy and crunchy on top with a very moist piece of chicken inside. Delightful...

Shitake Rice Paper En Croute  - shitake inside has the same sweet-&-salty taste and flavor as my japanese style shiitake (as they are pre-cooked almost the same way). While shitake has its own deliciousness, they fit perfectly into the half-soft, half chewy and crunchy rice paper wrapping.

How to Serve

Along with some side, it can be a great main course. Although the best fit for it, probably, as warm or or even cold appetizer (I enjoyed them next day too, right from a fridge - good stuff :)

Chicken Tenders Rice Paper En Croute 

 

 

• 12 chicken tenders
• 1 tbs red pepper flakes (medium spiciness)
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• about 1/3 tsp salt
• 12 rice paper sheets
• 2 tbs sesame seeds
• flavorless olive oil

- Pat dry chicken tenders, rub garlic, pepper and salt onto them.

- Fill large shallow plate or bowl with warm tap water and working one sheet at a time, submerge rice paper sheet into a water for 1-2 minutes. Then transfer it on another plate or chopping board. Meanwhile, place next dry rice paper sheet into a water. Place chicken tender on the edge of re-hydrated rice paper sheet (tuck skinny half of tender underneath to shape it as rectangle) and roll it into parsels (see pictures below).Continue with a rest of chicken and rice paper.
 
- Keep rolls on a separate plate under the wet paper towel to prevent them from drying out.

- Preheat oven to 410F.

- Transfer all rolls onto baking sheet, greased with olive oil.

- Baste roll tops and sides with an olive oil. Generously sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Enjoy hot or cold!

Shitake Rice Paper En Croute

 

• 24 fresh shitake mushrooms
• 1/3 cup light soy sauce
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 12 rice paper sheets
• 2 tbs sesame seeds
• flavorless olive oil for basting

- Cut off stems of shitake mushrooms and pre-cook shitakes by throwing first five ingredients onto a skillet and simmering, covered, for about 10-15 minutes, stirring ocasionally. Take off lid and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes until almost all liquid evaporates. Transfer to a plate to cool down.

- Fill large shallow plate or bowl with a warm tap water and, working one sheet at a time, submerge rice paper sheet into a water for 1-2 minutes. Then transfer it on another plate or chopping board. Meanwhile, place next dry rice paper sheet into a water. Place 2 shitake mushrooms on the edge of the first re-hydrated rice paper sheet and roll it into parsels (see pictures below). Continue with a rest of mushrooms and rice paper.

- Keep rolls on a separate plate under wet paper towel to prevent them from drying out.

- Preheat oven to 410F.

- Transfer all rolls onto baking sheet, greased with olive oil.

- Baste roll tops and sides with olive oil. Generously sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Enjoy hot or cold!

 

Some Notes

- Basting with an olive oil - a must, it will make rice paper softer though still on a chewy side. Rice paper, left without moisture or oil can quickly become inedible :).

- Any combination of seasoning can be used for chicken or for shitake. The combination I described above works for me as it simple, easily accesible (from my shelf :)!) and very flavorful. Work around your preferences - although I take any responsibility off me then :))))).

- I always buy my Red Pepper Flakes in Asian store in a large bags - it's Korean style red pepper flakes called gochugaru. Its spiciness is even, tolerable and it gives nice orange-red hue to a dish contrary to common red pepper flakes mostly consisting of whole pepper seeds which have no more than spotty "burning" fire and brings no flavor nor color to a dish.

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IN PICTURES

This is rice paper how it sold at Asian stores. Mine was all broken on one side from tossing around on a shelf (my fault!).

 

Submerge rice paper completely (here it's shown in a process of diving in :))

..tuck tender's tail under...

..nice and easy..

..for a touch of beauty, place whole parsley leaf before finishing roling up. I didn't do this this time but if you cook for guests - feed their eyes too!

If rolls appear to stick to each other - drop a spoon of water to separate them.

Basting - the must.

..they just come out of oven. They will never get much tan there - as soon as sesame seeds are nice and golden - take them out of oven!

Chewy and juicy...

 

I do not bother myself by preheating a skillet...

.. I never throw away these beautiful seeds left on a baking sheet. I enjoy my sesame seeds to much to do that ;)

 

I wish computer screen could pass a flavor of these..

 

Blog-checking lines: Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!