1.25.2013

Shrimp with Cellophane Noodles (French Fridays with Dorie)

We somehow don't have the time to participate in French Fridays with Dorie as often as we would like. But this week's recipe, Shrimp with Cellophane Noodles (page 322), seemed pretty easy, and so we made it last night. Basically, it involved preparing Asian noodles (we used rice vermicelli), then cooking shrimp with onions and garlic and spices (cayenne, five spice, white pepper) in a wok, then adding tomato puree (which we couldn't find so we used an immersion blender on some crushed tomatoes and added that). For a little fun, we even made garlic chips (thin slices of garlic "fried" in a little olive oil), as suggested, for a garnish.



Now, we love Dorie Greenspan, love her recipes, love her book Around My French Table (from which this recipe comes, and around which French Fridays revolve). But as for this recipe, it was just sort of weird. It tasted like an oddly sweet shrimp spaghetti that seemed neither Italian, Asian or French. After we ate it, we actually felt bad that we had treated those beautiful shrimp in such a way. We won't be making that mistake again.




 

17 comments:

Cher Rockwell said...

Yes, I think many people will share your sentiment this week.
Those shrimp are lovely, though :-)

Elaine said...

We didn't care for this one either mostly because of the tomato puree. I thought it might taste better with a difference tomato base, but it sounds like that is not the case. Your prep photos are great!

Sara said...

Weird really is a good way to describe this dish. It was just so confusing. I had no idea what was going on. Your presentation looks great, though!

Susan said...

I totally agree. Even though we left out the tomato puree, this didn't come together for us.

Diane Balch said...

Oh, so sad that your beautiful shrimp went into such an awful dish... But truly try it again without the tomato... sprinkle a little chili sauce it is delicious.

Tammy said...

Seems I'm in the minority of those who liked this dish. I used way less tomato puree and different mushrooms, and I liked the sweet/spicy spice mix. Sorry you were disappointed!

Cakelaw said...

I think most people had the same experience this week. I'm the weirdo who didn't mind it.

Betsy said...

Sorry you had to subject your shrimp to this one. Not a favorite at our house either...

Margaret said...

I was very glad I only used 1/2 the amount of shrimp. What a waste of good seafood. Ah, well.....

Anonymous said...

at least the shrimp were good right?

Anonymous said...

Wonderful plating in the last photo!

Teresa said...

It does seem a shame to use such beautiful shrimp for this recipe. I'm glad I saw the P&Q discussion and skipped the tomato.

Kendra Haden said...

I have to admit this dish seems out of place in Dorie's book! But I am one of the few who liked it. Your cellophane noodles look good, mine didn't look that pretty :-)

Unknown said...

Your shrimp look nice and I also felt bad treating them this way. Next time no tomato sauce.

Kathleen said...

Seems like a lot of us had the same feeling about this dish! As a cook, we have the prerogative to change the recipe to our tastes, no?

Mary Hirsch said...

We all felt the pain of throwing expensive shrimp into that red puddle of puree. I still cannot figure out how that recipe passed the test testers. I removed the shrimp and turned them into a tortilla wrap. That was good but I certainly didn't enjoy the "method" I used to get there! I am enjoying all your Posts and have signed up to receive them. Welcome back. I hope that you will keep participating in FFWD.

Kathy said...

Such beautiful fresh shrimp…too bad the rest of the dish didn’t work! I left out the tomato puree…just didn’t sound like it would go with the Chinese 5 spice.