Rock and Rolls purple rain – Rouleaux aux blettes et chèvre, sauce aux tomates anciennes

chardrolls8web

chardrolls3web

purplepepperwebI consider those to be Mediterranean tapas, actually tapas don’t have to be Spanish, or do they? …a small bite can be a tapas in my opinion.  I am not too familiar with Spanish traditions but it seems like it. When I went to Madrid, what they called tapas were basically small portions of all different things.

One of my greatest pleasure is to entertain, so appetizers, hors d’oeuvres and small bites are my favorites. Those are so perfect because they are not too time consuming (a little but not too much) and taste delicious. You could also use filo dough instead of those egg roll wrappers, it would be a great substitute but I didn’t have any.

Purple being the color of the moment, anytime I got asked “what is your favorite color?”, I realized that it all depends on my mood. I had the red craziness phase last month, now it’s the purple. I buy anything purple, I got myself a pair of purple corduroy pants, purple scarf, t-shirt, etc.., and I have been wearing my purple pants for over a week, without an ounce of weariness.

Obviously as soon as I saw this purple pepper I bought it, I have never used purple peppers before, I fall in love with its color, not really knowing what to do with it. When a fruit of vegetable is too pretty, I usually don’t eat it, I just look at it, so I didn’t want to do the same thing with this beauty.

As pretty as this pepper is from the outside, the inside is shockingly ugly, it’s the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pepper. As soon as it’s broiled, the skin turns brownish and its pulp whitish. So, if you buy a purple pepper, don’t expect a purple pulp, just buy it for its color while uncooked, not for its taste. This pepper has nothing to do with the regular red or green bell pepper and has somehow a flavorless side to it. I am glad I bought one, so now I know I will not buy it again! It’s just pretty, but when dealing with food, pretty isn’t enough!

As for the chards, I only used the leafy part, not the stem. The French throw away the leaves and make gratins out of the stems. Italians do the opposite, my mom always made those as a side dish everything combined stem and leaves. I think it’s a shame to throw away the stems, but they’re not really used in these rolls, so you can sauté them with garlic and serve them as a side dish.

Ingredients for 8 rolls

For the rolls

  • 2 bunches chards
  • 8 tsp goat cheese
  • 1/2 red bell pepper
  • 8 wrappers
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • chili oil
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • Szechuan pepper
  • salt

For the dipping sauce

  • 3 yellow heirloom tomatoes, seedless and diced
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 sprig fresh oregano
  • 1 tsp butter
  • vegetable bouillon
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

Wash chards, remove the stems, and place in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain well, squeeze extra liquid and chop them. In a pan, heat olive oil and add garlic, stir well to get the flavors out, then add chards and sauté them quickly. Add salt and stir. Set aside and let it cool.

Broil pepper under broiler. When the skin is charred, remove from broiler and let it cool. Peel and remove seeds. Cut in long strips.

Using a large egg roll wrap, place chards in the middle, add one bell pepper strip, pepper, red bell pepper, goat cheese and chili oil. Continue the wrapping process. From about 10 cm rolls.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and place rolls. Let them brown evenly all around. Cut them in half and serve with dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce

Peel tomatoes and remove seeds and dice them finely. In a pot, melt butter, add garlic and oregano sprig. Stir for a few minutes to get the fllavors out. Add tomatoes, bouillon, salt and pepper. Reduce the tomato until it thickens. Remove oregano sprig and let it cool.