Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles.
This Asian style recipe makes a quick and easy lunch or supper. Like all stir-fried dishes, have all the ingredients prepared before you start to cook. The list of ingredients is relatively short and somewhat surprising as it includes not only Chinese tree ear mushrooms, cellophane noodles, sesame oil, five-spice powder, onion, garlic, prawns (or shrimp), some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper but also quite a large quantity of tomato purée. After pondering this recipe for a while, I decided that I would take a few liberties with this recipe.
The first task at hand was choosing the noodles to use. Asian noodles can be made from wheat flour, mung bean flour, buckwheat flour, potato flour or rice flour. Chinese egg noodles, for example, are made with wheat flour and can be used in soups, stir-fries or in sauces for dishes using shredded meats, prawns or vegetables. Mung bean flour is used to make thin bean cellophane noodles, also called bean thread noodles, they are thin translucent noodles, available dried and packaged in bundles.
To prepare my noodles, I poured some boiling water over the noodles in a large heat-proof bowl and let them sit until they had softened, about 6 minutes, then drained and set aside while I prepared the rest of the dish.
Onto the next step, namely the actual stir-fry. I decided to substitute the tree ear mushrooms with baby portabellas and the onion with scallions. I also added freshly grated ginger and julienned carrots for color and taste. The two cups of tomato purée were substituted with two tablespoons of Sriracha sauce. But before I started to prepare the actual stir-fry, I made two omelettes and julienned them to use as garnish. Delicious.
I also placed some lime wedges and some more spicy sauce on the table..
To serve, I divided the drained noodles between individual shallow bowls and ladled over the aromatic stir-fry with the prawns and served the final dish straightaway. I believe, chicken or scallops would a great alternative to the prawns. Overall, I changed this recipe quite substantially to suit our tastes but we loved the stir-fry with the delicious prawns…
…and really liked the addition of the julienned omelettes…
And for dessert, we had some delicious buttery Sesame Coconut Shortbread Cookies (a recipe that I have made numerous times before)…
…and some wonderful fresh lychees …
…and some delicate green tea.
To see how the other Doristas prepared the Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles please click here.
I just love the Asian dolls watching over your meal. I think you did the right thing in taking many liberties to adapt this dish for your family's taste. Honestly, I did not care for it as Dorie wrote it. Your version sounds much more appealing. I definitely won't be making Dorie's version again, but I might try yours. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteBetsy, thanks so much for the wonderful comment. I must say that there are sooo many fantastic Asian blogs with breataking photography out thre, that I was a bit intimidated and went for some real fun "Kitsch" on my blog post - and, most importantly, the girls loved it!
DeleteI like your adaptations, too. I used very little tomato puree and it seemed OK ... along with the lemon squeeze I gave it! Thanks for the instruction on all the noodles. I love cellophane noodles, but tend to get overwhelmed at my grocery store with all the varieties and many of them only have Asian languages on the packaging!
ReplyDeleteTammy, there are certaily so many Asian noodles on the market - I simply could nor cope anymore, so I went ahead and ordered a wonderful book on Asian noodles and try to be genned up on the type of noodles I would like to buy before I hit the stores.
DeleteI love the adaptations here. It seems much more like a Chinese dish, and it sounds like everything would go together really well. And it looks absolutely gorgeous! Definitely something I would order in a restaurant. The omelet garnish, in particular, is pure genius!
ReplyDeleteSara, thanks so much for the lovely comment! I saw a cook the other day prepare an omelette in a wok and was fascinated by the idea, so I felt that using it for garnish would be tasty and help me practice my "wok onmelette skills" a bit. It is so simple, I cannot believe that I had never tried it before and it was very well received too.
Deletelove your photographs this week! :) the dish looks great but we all took some artistic license in re-working this one to make it perfect for ourselves! :)
ReplyDeleteAlice, thank you! I really agree with you - this recipe seems to have been like a canvas for most of us! I am glad that I adjusted the recipe to our taste and I do not think that Dorie would mind. After all, I made two of the French Apple Tarts and two Marie-Hélène´s Apple Cakes this week and did not change a thing about the recipes!
DeleteWOW!!! Yours is a dish I would love to try! You really went the extra mile and made a beautiful meal that really works with the ingredient list plus your smart changes. Hubby would love your lychees (and everything else)! So perfectly presented and put together so well. I'm really impressed with how to made this challenge your own...and how you made it work! (My Tommy's mom makes the julienned omelettes when she comes to our house and makes pad Thai for us...delicious. I can imagine this was a delicious addition.)
ReplyDeleteKrissy, what a wonderful comment- thanks so much! I just did not want to prepare something for my family that I knew they would not really appreciate, so many changes were made but I am glad that I did. In the end, everyone was happy. Fresh lychees are readily available right now and I had not baked cookies in a while, so I pulled out my tried and true recipe for these shortbread cookies!
DeleteSince I don´t like shrimp I would be glad to stop for green tea and those shortbread cookies! Your changes in the recipe appear to have worked really well, given that it wasn´t very well liked as is in the book. Have a great weekend Andrea!
ReplyDeletePaula, I actully went organic with the prawns, after some searching I found really nice and fresh organic ones (will never one othert ones again) and it certainly made a difference in taste (apart from the quality) but I am sure that tofu would be really nice in this dish as well or even chicken. But lovely green tea and cookies are indeed hard to beat!
DeleteAndrea! What a feast! I love your styling for these dishes. The omelette garnish is a lovely touch too. Fab photos as always. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
ReplyDeleteHester, thanks so much for your kind comment! Always enjoy hearing from you - I just felt that I needed to have a bit of fun with the Asian theme of this recipe! A bit of color is always welcome at this time of year too!
DeleteI like your additions and substitutions, especially the ginger and the spicy saice. I didn't mind this at all, but I am in the minority.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gaye, I think I add ginger to just about every Asian dish I prepare - it is always readily available at the market, it is so delicious and very healthy too. I even add a afew slices to my tea and mineral water all the time.
DeleteThat whole feast looks scrumptious, I love everything about it. Lovely photos too.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend.
Thank you, Nana - this recipe was not really prepared that close to the original but deviating from the original was a good thing this time!
DeleteWonderful adaptation, Andrea! I really like your decision to make omelettes for the topping. The whole meal sounds perfect.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, thank you so much - I really liked the version you prepared, it looked delicious!
DeleteThis looks really delicious and I love all of your accessories in the photos - very cute.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amy, these Asian dolls were fun to photograph and with all that snow (and sleet) outside, a little bit of color felt really good!
DeleteI'm all for quick and easy. This really looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteKristin, thanky you, like you, I am always on the lookout for healthy, quick dishes to prepare for dinner/lunch.
DeleteOh, what an absolutely gorgeous presentation, Andrea! Your photos are just so inspiring. You made a wise choice to take liberties with this recipe and I wish I had. John had the right idea with taking off the puree and using tabasco sauce. :) Your dish looks so pretty - light, colorful and looks healthy. What a great job!
ReplyDeleteElaine, thanks for the lovely comment - usually I do not take that many liberties with Dore´s recipes but I just could not bring myself to douse these lovely (rather expensive) organic shrimp and veggies and noodles with all that tomato purée.
DeleteYour "changed up version" is just lovely and I am sure it was a winner. The dolls and dishes in your pictures are adorable.
ReplyDeleteCher, thanks for the comment - I thing "changed version" were the words of this week´s FFwD - but for most of us that seems to have been the right choice. Many more delicious recipes to come.
DeleteI love the Asian dolls! How fun. Great photos and a nice adaptation!
ReplyDeleteRenee, thank you for the lovely comment - this was a fun Friday for us!
DeleteThat looks so wonderful. I so wish I had not used the tomato puree or at least not all of it. LOVE your table setting!! Adorable. If I try this again it will be without the puree!!
ReplyDeleteMargaret, you are right, tomato purée did not sound too appealing in this dish and the quantity listed in the original recipe was a little surprising, to say the least.
DeleteAww! How did you get the Japanese dolls?! :D You made me smile as soon as I scrolled down and saw the whole figures! I love how you adapted the recipe and it looks so delicious. The details for Asian themes (with tea, chopsticks, lychee, sesame) look all great! What a happy and delicious post (especially for me)!!!
ReplyDeleteNami, I was so intimidated about taking these pictures - knowing all you fantastic and utterly amazing photography of Asian food, all I could think of was going a completely different route, the "Kitsch" route...I hope it turned out allright...By the way, I found these cute Japanese dolls at at store in the Netherlands that is packed to the ceiling with somewhat ourageously colorful Asian toys.
DeleteYour Shrimp and cellophane noodles look wonderful! I also took many liberties with this dish! Andrea, your photos are beautiful…and I love your asian dolls! Lovely post!
ReplyDeleteKathy, thanks so much for the lovely comment - this was indeed on eof those recipes that called for some serious adaptations.
DeleteIt certainly sounds like you made the right decision to prepare this dish to suit your family's taste. I've never seen so many of your group comment on the original recipe. Your whole meal sounds delicious and you certainly made it shine with your lovely photos. Karen
ReplyDeleteKaren, yes, you are right, there was a lot of discussion about the "orignal recipe" from Dorie which, oddly enough, listed "two cups of tomato purée" as one of the starring ingredients of this French-Asian stir-fry. Most of the Doristas did not use it at all(including myself)or rather sparingly.
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