Cabbage and kelp wraps

This week, I have been doing a lot of grocery shopping, picking up things like preserves, sauces, and seasonings, along with meats and veggies. The fridge is filled with goodies. Today, of all days, I have a day by myself. So I decided to cook out something new for my husband, to thank him for his love to me.

Recipe: veggie wrap (3 cabbage wraps and 2 kelp wraps)


Ingredients:
- 3 large leaves of kappa cabbage
- 1 slice of kelp, about 12"x6"
- 5 oz chicken tender (98% fat free), about 2 pieces
- 1 small carrot, very finely sliced to strips
- 1/3 cup rice noodle
- 2 tablespoons (TB) dried dark mushrooms
- 1/4 teaspoon (tp) sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 TB oil
- 2 tp oil (for marinating chicken)
- 2 tp sesame oil (for marinating chicken)
- 1/4 tp cornstarch (for marinating chicken)


For sauce:
- 1 tp hoisin sauce
- 2 tp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tp penang curry paste
- 1 TP water


Procedure:

1. Soak rice noodle in water for 10 minutes. Then cook in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
   
2. Soak dried mushrooms in water for 15 minutes. Then cook in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
   
3. Cut chicken tender into long strips. Mix well with sugar, salt, sesame oil, oil and cornstarch to marinate for 15 minutes. Heat frying pan on medium to med-high heat. spread chicken evenly on pan and let fry on both sides until each side is white. Then add carrot and let fry until chicken is lightly yellow. Side aside.
   
4. Soak kelp in water for 30 minutes to remove salt. Cut out a few 12" long thin strips. Then cut remaining to 5 2.5"x4" rectangular sheets.
   
5. For each kappa cabbage leaf, trim off the thick white stem, and save the green part. If there are some thick white veins on the green part of the leaf, then cut a few strips on the white, perpendicularly to the flow of the vein. Boil a pan of water. Dip one leaf in hot water for 20 seconds or until it has mildly softened. Shake of water. Spread on a large plate. Put one sheet of kelp on the trimmed side of the cabbage leaf. Add small bunch of chicken, carrot, noodle and mushroom on the kelp. Fold two sides, and roll towards the green end of the cabbage leaf. If the leaf has been properly softened, then it still looks raw, but has softened. When the leaf is fully folded up, use a strip of kelp to tie up the wrap.
   
6. For each sheet of kelp, add small bunch of chicken, carrot, noodle and mushroom. Tie up with a strip of kelp, then stuff some chicken on top for decoration.
   
7. Turn oven to 250F. Put kelp wraps and cabbage wraps in a tray. Let heat in oven for 20 minutes or until top is dry. Then take out. The baking cooks the cabbage without turning it soggy.
   

To prepare the sauce: mix hoisin sauce, soy sauce and penang curry paste with 1 TB water on low heat. (Or set it in oven in a sauce dish along with wraps for 20 minutes). Spread sauce on veggie wrap and serve.