Shrimp and Chives Dumplings

After a week of failed recipes, I finally found one that worked! Rasa Malaysia never fails me and if you give her recipes a try, she won't fail you either!

The dumplings came out perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. And they were so cute! Like little bite-sized packages destined for a one way trip to my mouth.

Bon appetit!

p.s. Trying out the new iPhone blogger app so I'm keeping this post short.

Shrimp and Chive Dumplings
Recipe courtesy of: Rasa Malaysia http://rasamalaysia.com/shrimp-and-chive-dumplings

Ingredients:
12 oz. peeled and deveined shrimps (medium to big size)
1 oz. chives (cut into very short pieces)
1 teaspoon egg white
1/2 teaspoon tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
3 dashes white pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon oil
Wonton skin
Some cooking oil for pan-frying

Soy-Vinegar Dipping Sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar

Method:
Clean and rinse the shrimps with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels. Mix the soy-vinegar dipping sauce and set aside.

Cut the shrimps into small pieces (about 3-4 pieces per shrimp), add chives and mix well. Marinate the filling with the rest of the ingredients for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Lay a wonton skin on a flat surface. Dab your index finger with some water and trace it along the four outer edges of the wonton skin. Add a teaspoon of the filling and fold the wonton skin towards the middle. Dab some water to the wonton skin to seal tight. The dumplings should look somewhat round. Repeat the same until the filling is used up.

Heat up a pan on medium to low heat and add some oil. Transfer all dumplings into the pan and cover it with its lid. Pan-fry the dumplings on one site until golden brown and then turn over to pan-fry the other site. (Add more oil to the pan if required.) Repeat to make sure that both sites are equally done. Dish out and serve immediately with soy-vinegar dipping sauce.

Indian Mee Goreng

I liked Rasa Malaysia's Roasted Crab & Garlic Noodles recipe so much that I decided to give another of her recipes a whirl. I had extra packages of the chow mein noodles left over from the Garlic Noodles recipe. I originally planned to make a simple Chow Mein, but that's boring. Who actually makes Chow Mein with Chow Mein noodles when you can make Indian Mee Goreng?

The name of the dish is misleading as it's not an Indian dish. I've only ever had Indian Mee Goreng at Malaysian restaurants, never at an Indian restaurant. Caught the footnote on the Rasa Malaysia site and ahah! "Indian Mee Goreng is Malaysian dish. Created by Mamak (Indian-Muslim in Malaysia), it cannot be found in India."

I followed the recipe for Indian Mee Goreng almost exactly, the only difference is I doubled it since I had friends over for dinner and added in shrimp. I did also find that I had way too many potatoes leftover! The recipe calls for one potato so I threw in two. I could've easily made do with just one. But this actually turned out to be a great thing! See below for what happens the next day.

Another hiccup was trying to figure out how to clean the squid. Just a warning, they look nothing like the beautiful, golden calamari rings you get at restaurants. I bought fresh squid, the kind that come in whole pieces and have eyes and guts and everything! Nasty little buggas! But nothing compares to having to kill a crab so I just rolled up my sleeves, pulled the head out of the body, squeezed the mucus looking stuff out of the body, pulled out the weird plastic looking skeleton and then skinned it so that it transformed into the beautiful white, silky calamari that I knew and loved.

All of those gory details were quickly forgotten after I tasted the Indian Mee Goreng. Not exactly how I remembered it from restaurants but still very flavorful! Something interesting happens when the noodles are mixed in with the egg and potatoes, adds a very interesting texture. And this dish has a definite kick!

The next day...
Since I had almost a whole boiled potato leftover, I decided to throw a few of the other left over ingredients together for a very scrumptious brunch! I turned the potatoes into hashbrowns, threw in some sunny side up eggs, and topped it with some garlic shrimp. Yummy!

Mustard Prawns

I went to the V. Sattui winery in Napa this weekend and had the most delicious Mustard Prawns from their deli section. In my drunken state, I forgot to take note of the ingredients in the dish. A quick google search fixed that and I was able to replicate the dish almost exactly! I had this over orzo pasta and it was molto bene!

Adapted from this recipe

Mustard Prawns

36 raw shrimp, peeled & deveined

Boiling water

Salt to taste

1 lemon slice

2 sprigs parsley

1 bay leaf

5 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tablespoon whole grain Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3/4 cup olive oil

Place the shrimp in a saucepan and cover them with boiling water.
Add salt, lemon slice, parsley, bay leaf and thyme.
Bring to a boil and cook four to six minutes, depending on the size of the shrimp.
Drain and chill.
Place the mustard in a bowl and add lemon juice.
Beat with a wire whisk, adding the oil a little at a time.
Add salt to taste
Pour over the shrimp and marinate one or two hours.

Garden Update

After 3.5 months, all I got was 5 measly tomatoes. And only 2 were edible! Yes, I know the photo is upside down. No, I don't care.

thanksgiving

thanksgiving menu:

• Butternut Squash Soup
• Roasted Butternut Squash with Mixed Greens
  
• Portuguese Duck Rice
• Sauteed Brussel Sprouts
• Roast Chicken with Fingerling Potatoes
• Honey-baked Ham
  
• Stuffing & Gravy
• Black Pepper Tri-tip
• Ketchup Shrimp
• Mashed Potatoes
• Tuna Avocado Cups
  
• Shrimp & Red Snapper Ceviche

that's right, we had stuffing without a turkey to stuff it with however we did have a mish mash of dishes from all over the world. with fond memories of my recent trip to cancun, i chose an appetizer that originated from our southern neighbor, ceviche.

ceviche is a dish that consists of raw fish marinated in citric acids (usually lime) until the flesh is cooked. for the skeptics, i encourage you to chop up some raw white fish and let it sit in lime juice. the flesh of the fish turns from translucent to solid white right before your eyes.

i was a skeptic so i made a raw version (red snapper) and a cooked version (shrimp). lessons learned from my 8 hour ordeal:

• pay the extra money for peeled & deveined shrimp. it is NOT fun!
• when deseeding serano peppers, the gas from the pepper disperses into the air. i now know how pepper spray can get into your eyes, mouth, and nose and burn you to the point of unconsciousness. i discovered that if you deseed the peppers in a bowl of water, the gas can not escape from the water. (thank you mr. kanu! i did have a reason to use chemistry!)
• to keep avocados from browning, leave the avocado seed in the same container, this will slow down oxidation

Pictures and recipes from my thanksgiving contributions:

Traditional Ceviche
(Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse) 

Shrimp Ceviche
(Recipe courtesy of Anthony Lamas, Jicama Grill, Louisville, KY)

Lemon Tuna Avocado Snack

(Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart)

I take no credit for this spread, it was delicious!