On the way to the Union Square farmers market yesterday I was met with a downpour of torrential rain. Rather than wait in the steamy subway station I decided to make a run for the Barnes & Noble at the north end of the square. By the time I made it across the street to the bookstore, there was water dripping off my shorts. I threw a furtive glace at the stocky security guard by the entrance and made a bee line for the escalators, leaving a trail of water in my wake.
Upstairs, I hunkered down in the cooking magazine section and started flipping through the rack of cooking magazines. Regular readers know I rarely cook out of cookbooks. This also applies to magazines, which I don’t subscribe to since they have a tendency to wind up in an unread pile in my shoebox of an apartment. Still, I do occasionally enjoy flipping through them since they have more photos than words.
This recipe was inspired by a photo in this month’s Gourmet Magazine. I didn’t actually read much more than the caption and all I can recall is something about “forest wraps” with Romaine Lettuce and Bulgar. After the rain subsided, I went back out to the market and happened upon an amazing looking head of Romaine Lettuce that was still covered with spatters of earth.
I’ve gone on before about the virtues of cooked lettuce (here and here), but using blanched lettuce as a wrapper had never occurred to me until I saw the pic in Gourmet.
I can’t really think of any other dish that makes for an accurate comparison to this one. It’s somewhere between Dolmades, and Vietnamese spring rolls, but has a combo of flavours and textures unlike anything I’ve ever had. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out and gave it about a 20% chance for success. But part of what I enjoy so much about cooking is experimenting, and this turned out to be a great success.
These rolls make for a great light meal while having a lot more substance than a salad. The smokey buckwheat and sweet smoked trout come together with the creamy boiled egg to make a delicious crumbly filling. The steamed lettuce leaf holds it all together, adding its own green vegetal flavour and crunch. The rolls are finished with some minty yogurt sauce and pine nuts that add a creamy tangy bite and freshness to it all.
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