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| Stir-frying the onions |
This week's French Fridays with Dorie challenge is for Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles. According to Dorie, it's fusion cuisine, but based on feedback from several of our fellow Doristas, we opted to leave out the pureed tomatoes. To keep the flavor, we tossed in a diced, seeded tomato instead.
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| Cellophane Noodles and Sesame Oil |
Food should smell and look appealing to stimulate our appetites. The shrimp smelled and tasted great, but we couldn't get past the look and texture of the noodles. These noodles were clear and sticky and reminded me of jellyfish tentacles.
We loved the Chinese Five Spice mix and we would like to try a variation of this with Lo Mein noodles instead.
Win some; lose some.
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| We saw this Coyote at the Paramount Studios Ranch in Agoura Hills on Sunday |
I'm making this for dinner tomorrow night and hadn't thought out the tomato feature- will have to think about that one! I found different noodles so hopefully will like those better! I really liked the sound of this recipe-hope we like it;-)
ReplyDeleteI've never tried cellophane noodles but I like your suggestion of using Lo Mein noodles!
ReplyDeleteLooks really delicious with those prawns.
ReplyDeleteI used a slightly different noodle - I think it was called a "bean vermicelli" and didn't mind those. The tomato shrimp concoction was an utter disaster (that's what I get for being one of the first ones to make it :-) )
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like this one is going to be a rough week all around...
Susan, the dish looks yummy. I know what your mean about the glass noodles. I like a few of them, but not a whole dish of them. I've seen them mixed in a rice dish and it helped to have the rice to cut their jellyness.
ReplyDeleteOh, Susan, I thought I was going to be the odd duck for REALLY not liking this concoction. I mean, Susan, who in the world has a dinner party with all the food being orange. That's a little much, in my opinion. I didn't have the same noodles as you but I liked my noodles fine before I messed them up with the sauce. Like you, I dug out all the shrimp, then took a tortilla and made a Shrimp Wrap. It was delicious. So I kinda went international this week: French to Asian to Latino/Mexican. I feel badly that on your first venture back, we served up this. Welcome back, however.
ReplyDeleteI passed. I decided to just have a cocktail instead. I think those who just skipped the tomato altogether ended up with something worthwhile... really want to know how this one got through D's recipe testers...
ReplyDeleteWell, you've given me a good laugh. This recipe is such a mistake! My Emy says that these noodles are never great in a stir fry unless you know what you're doing...they can practically melt. And with that excessive tomato ingredient...well the whole thing sounded really strange. I'm up for a new challenge, but I've made a few really nasty things with the group over time, and I've decided to use my head more often. This was one of those times. I'd like to say that your dish at least looks beautiful, but sorry...I like you anyway! I actually used rice cellophane noodles. You have to work fast and it's good my Tommy gave me instructions, of those would have failed! He told me not to make extras...just make new ones to use my leftovers...these noodles are quite fussy. But I do like your coyote!
ReplyDeleteLOL...jellyfish tentacles??? Definitely NOT appealing!
ReplyDeleteI think this dish would work better with a different Asian noodle..Still that the passion about cooking, some recipe ideas work, others not so much. I got to agree with Lizzy Do...jelly fish tentacles...not appealing (laugh).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your cooking journey with us.
Velva
Definitely a mixed bag on this one. I could have done without the noodles altogether (way too bland), and the tomato puree just didn't fit. I like the idea of just dicing up a tomato - that would keep it pretty fresh without overpowering everything else. Yours looks pretty good!
ReplyDeleteYes, thick rice noodles unsoaked and cooked al dente are delicious in this recipe. Dorie was really off about soaking them. Rice noodles turn to glue.
ReplyDeleteI think we should have left it at shrimp, onions and the spices and it would have been a great stir fry. The noodles were gross
ReplyDeleteand the mushrooms were not very impressive either. I love your description of the noodles. Have a great weekend.
I thought that the problem was the tomato puree, so I'm interested to see that even those who didn't use the puree didn't like the dish. I wonder what the version Dorie makes tastes like, because I can't imagine that mine would have won her over.
ReplyDeleteOh my ... I was happy to have Dorie give such a good description on how to cook the noodles! (You can read my post to get the whole story.) I really did like this dish although I made a few adjustments, the biggest one being the amount of tomato puree. That seems to be a theme this week!
ReplyDeleteYou summed it up perfectly: "Win some, lose some." This week, I feel like I lost. Sigh. I love your photo of the coyote.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely NOT a keeper. Was lovely - until I added the puree. Wish I had left it out and just thrown in a diced tomato like you.
ReplyDeleteI don't like cellophane noodles much either. I was one of the minority who used the tomato puree and liked it.
ReplyDeletethe noodles shouldn't have been sticky like that, washing them in water or putting more sesame oil on them would have helped that which would fix the texture for you a bit I think... these noodles are good in stews and stir fries so even if you dont try this again, you should give the noodles another shot in something else. Have you made the Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup in AMFT? It uses the same noodles.
ReplyDeleteSusan, it's so good to see you back with FFwD! Your dish looks so pretty, but I can see that the texture of the cellophane noodles might be off putting. I used a chinese noodle that looked more like spaghetti and we really liked the flavor and I really liked the Chinese Five Spice in this. What a great photo of the coyote!
ReplyDeleteTentacles! I'm glad I chose brown rice vermicelli instead...
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad that this dish didn't work out for so many of us. Everyone's shrimp looks so beautiful.
Your photo of the coyote is great - we see a lot of them even within city limits here.
Welcome back to FFWD!! Sorry I’m late in commenting, but I was out of town last weekend. This dish just didn’t do it for anyone! I did like the noodles…they seemed to work with my dish! I also enjoyed the Chinese 5 spice.
ReplyDeleteThe photo of the coyote is really wonderful! I have never seen one close up!