Today we planned meals for the rest of staff week. We weren't sure exactly what would be available grocery-wise, and had a few "this if you can, that if you can't" entries in the grocery list, so were happy to learn that we had the option of doing our own grocery run so that we could see for ourselves what's available in our neighborhood.
Monday dinner was an asian-themed one, starting from the fact that we were ready to cook straight from the pantry again (but were happier to get special ingredients first).
Quantities were good, but we could've handled more lettuce rolls (maybe 2.5 per person? more? with lettuce instead of rice paper, leftovers should keep well).
Lettuce Spring Rolls
inspired by Vietnamese rice-paper-wrapped fresh spring rolls. We didn't find any rice paper on our trip, so tried wrapping with lettuce instead, which worked well. We served them with a last-minute sweet-and-spicy sauce (half and half hot water and vinegar, a nub of chopped ginger, a few drops each of chili oil and sesame oil, and a few spoonfuls of sugar), and a diluted version of the peanut sauce from the pad thai.
Quick-Pickled Vegetables for Spring Rolls
1/4 of a huge jicama
2 big carrots
1 big cucumber
^ Julienne these (or at least cut them into chunky sticks) and put them in a big, non-meltable bowl.
1 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp dill (would halve next time)
2 cloves garlic, crushed (hopefully retrieved rather than served)
^ Boil these, stir to dissolve sugar, then pour over veggies. Refrigerate for anywhere between 3 hours and 2 days.
Spring Rolls
quick-pickled veggies (above)
fresh mint leaves (1-2 per roll)
medium cocktail shrimp from freezer (2 per roll, make some without)
fresh chopped cilantro and basil
anything else fresh and tasty for inside
big lettuce leaves for wrapping (we used a mix of greens someone else bought for sandwiches)
toothpicks for spearing together
^ Lay out the ingredients. Take a lettuce leaf, snapping off any really strong/non-bendy stalk part. Lay a small handful of pickled veg down the middle of the leaf, then top with shrimp (if any) and herbs. Fold in one edge, then roll the whole thing up and use toothpicks to secure. I needed 2 toothpicks per roll.
Pad Thai
The ingredients were invented, and the peanut sauce was adapated from a few sources. The final product was tasty, but a little stuck-together in the texture department. We learned that pasta dishes should be prepared in less-than-massive quantities, maybe 8-10 servings at a time.
1 small yellow onion, diced
2+ cloves garlic diced
^ Saute in a big pan until onion wilts.
3 cups chopped button mushrooms
1 julienned carrot1/4 red cabbage, chopped
1/4 green cabbage, chopped
1/2 bag mung bean sprouts
^ Add to saute in this order, at your discretion for timing.
2 boxes flat rice noodles, boiled and drained per box instructions
Peanut sauce
^ Stir these into the pan, keeping heat on.
1 cup chopped roasted peanuts
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
^ Stir most of these in, reserving a little for garnish.
Edamame
We expected these to be in their shells, but they were naked. We boiled one big bag (1 lb?) for about 10 minutes, drained, and tossed with salt and a little lemon.
Watermelon Sorbet
from Leite's Culinaria. We skipped the mint and doubled the recipe. We froze it uncovered in two big aluminum baking dishes. I scraped it up once as it was starting to freeze (maybe 1.5 hours?) and again when I was serving dinner. It was tasty! We had about 25% more than we needed.
Almond Shortbread Cookies
I was worried this dinner would be too light, so I wanted to serve something rich/buttery at dessert. These cookies from allrecipes were a big hit. I made the dough into two logs, refrigerated, and then took inch-thick cuts from the log, and pressed them flat against a cookie sheet using a glass dipped in sugar, then jammed a whole almond on top. I only had time to press out half of them, so there will be an encore soon.
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