‘woman reclining’ by sierra pardus, the most magical child on earth…

so it seems that just when i am finally back to blogging, i am also steering clear of the kitchen, living on somewhat plain fare. one of these days soon i will again balance this whole blogging, cooking and eating thing but right now i am focused primarily on the FRET which is not conducive to creativity in the kitchen, at least for me.

but regardless of any of that, in order to post i needed photographs to inspire me so the first order of business was to get a new camera as my old SLR had moved out. and then suddenly a beautiful nikon D40 landed so graciously in my hands. and i am growing to love it more every day, learning how to use it properly while coming to terms with the fact that it’s hard to focus on anything, when everything else is blurry…

i’ve decided that somehow this sculptural primary colored figure of a woman represents me, except i don’t really ever wear hats. and she is oh so painfully thin – and well, if nothing else, at least i’m on my way back down… but still she is me, reflecting on how she managed to get herself onto that hard surface in the first place and wondering what now to do… but dear readers, please know one very important detail about her, one that may be hard to discern being that her face is quite flushed. she is flashing a blazing smile. because she remains hopeful with an open heart…

and maybe she holds out hope because one of the best parts of life is that it’s full of all kinds of surprises. and as unlikely as this small one might sound, let me tell you about a cracker from vietnam…

we were shopping at a local global market when these were spotted right next to the rice paper wrappers, and for $1.79 or thereabouts, we decided to bring them home and see what they might be. the ingredients read: rice flour, black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, onion, sesame oil, dried shrimp, salt, water, MSG, and sugar. they came with no directions or suggestions so first we tried to soak them as one might do with rice paper – but to no avail. so next they were popped into the oven and in just a few minutes, they became food.

the one on the left is uncooked, the one on the right is…

today when i baked one in my small convection oven, you could actually hear it expand. but you had to listen very carefully – just as one desperately needs to do in order to grow themselves… it was like hearing food stretch after waking up from a good long sleep. the heat transformed this curious disc  – and quickly, into something quite nice. there was a spice factor that i couldn’t quite figure out based on the ingredient list but nevertheless, MSG and all, they are damn good.

the tiny dried shrimp almost appear as if in suspended animation

along with a day filled with butterflies, hummingbirds, fawns and four point bucks, this was just another example of the beauty that surrounds us…

back in the days of no car and a 12 lb puppy (also known as early march ’09), i was home watching martha stewart. which honestly, i hardly ever do. but let’s face it, she gets the best guests. chef after chef they make the pilgrimage to the martha from a wide array of great restaurants, shooting the breeze with the quintessential homemaker – who is perhaps the worst interviewer/conversationalist on tv – while they cook up rather remarkable food. and i am here to tell you, it can totally draw you into the martha vortex. you, meaning me. or us – if you’d like to join in.

anyway i was younger then – and it was raining. and on that day the shows theme was ‘atlanta’, which although only a 4 hour drive from nashville, is one i rarely take. but i hear the atlanta restaurant scene is damn fine, which then naturally conjures up all kinds of longing. envy. gluttonous thoughts. you name a deadly sin and i’ve conjured it.

so, the chef from ‘repast‘ was on martha, doing an interesting version of crab cakes. and i just happened to have a pound of jumbo lump meat sitting in my refrigerator along with nearly every other ingredient – except the lemongrass and the raw shrimp which were easy purchases.

mostly easy because chris picked them up on his way over. i literally willed the ingredients to my door.

cooking with chris is truly wonderful because for the most part he does everything. and i like that in a sous chef. plus he’s way better with a knife than i will ever be. and he also cleans up really nicely. and i mean – my kitchen.

crab cakes tend to be bound with varying amounts of breadcrumbs and i loved the fact that these are held together with a shrimp mousse. but what initially sparked my interest was quite simply that the overall ingredient list screams huge flavor burst. and i am nothing if not a fan of the flavor burst. actually perhaps i am a slave to the flavor burst.  i’ll need to contemplate which of those rings more true and i’ll be sure to report back.

1 cup heavy cream (i used half and half)
1-inch piece lemongrass, crushed
1-inch piece ginger, crushed
1 star anise
1 dried birdseye chile, crushed
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon Tabasco
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 pound fresh medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large egg
1 pound jumbo lump crab meat, picked
zest of 2 lemons
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon canola oil

come on… does that not sound just lovely? but listen, i had to lean it down a bit by making a different dairy decision. half and half is about as much fat as i can bear. i think using cream would be the way to go if only i lived in an alternate universe and wanted that fattier mouthfeel – but not for me. not that day. maybe not ever. although it could happen. tomorrow. because the flesh, it is weak in the face of fat grams…

so then:

place cream, lemongrass, ginger, star anise, and chile in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. remove from heat and let cool; strain, discarding solids. stir in fish sauce and tabasco; set aside.

heat sesame oil and olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. add scallions and cook until soft, 1 to 2 minutes. remove from heat; let cool.

place shrimp and egg in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. with the machine running, slowly add cream mixture; process until well combined.
In a large bowl, mix together crabmeat, lemon zest, and cooled scallions. gently fold in shrimp mixture.

line a baking sheet with parchment paper (i used a silpat) and sprinkle with cornmeal. place a 1-inch high round cutter about 2 1/2-inches in diameter on baking sheet. fill cutter with crabmeat mixture, packing down slightly. repeat process until all crabmeat has been used, about 8 times. transfer to refrigerator to chill, 6 to 8 hours.

preheat oven to 350 degrees. heat butter and canola oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. place crab cakes, cornmeal-side down in skillet and cook until golden, about 2 minutes. turn crab cakes and transfer skillet to oven (i never did this) until cornmeal side is golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. serve immediately with butter sauce.

and we’re talking yuzu caper butter sauce. ok, so i am down with a little butter sauce. afterall, it’s just a. little. butter sauce. but no. chef joe truex’s recipe is using well over a pound of butter for 4 people. after using a cup of heavy cream in the cakes. sorry chef. no can do. so we improvised and used about 1/3 of that, cut into some yuzu juice, capers and shallots. and it was more than plenty. crazy freakin’ chefs… they are trying to kill us. i swear… so unnecessary.

all in all it was a good dish although i’m not running to make it again. the shrimp mousse was a fine idea and good for future reference. it would translate well to any number of seafood related cakes or stuffings. i suppose my biggest issue was that i didn’t pick up much of the spice infusion flavoring in the finished product, and that was somewhat disappointing. so next time i’d hit it a bit harder to get the flavors more pronounced.

but it was different. and interesting. and it brought me and martha closer together and quite frankly, we needed that.

and well, chris cleaned up so very nicely. it was almost like it never happened…

merle, my loved and adored burmese kitty: february 1, 1994 – december 25, 2008

happy new year. it’s been so seemingly long now since i’ve written that i barely know where to begin except to say that i’ve thought of you. often. like every time i cooked or ate i’d think – i’m a food blogger and i should be telling somebody something about this. and then i’d go watch a movie.

but first of all, thanks for supporting ‘menu for hope V‘ and for bidding on the mullet roe from ‘rk’s black hammock smokehouse’. the total worldwide effort raised over $60k which will make a real difference in the lives of so many african children. or it could buy me the bmw i’ve had my eye on. you decide. anyway, i hope that a ceF reader wins the mullet roe because then you’ll finally understand just what i’ve been going on and on about regarding this esoteric florida delicacy.

and please note that i truly believe that you are all more than worthy of this amazing foodstuff and i can assure you that if i were empress there’d be mullet roe sacs for each and every one of you. because that it the kind of empress i would be. and if being empress were an electable position, smoked mullet roe and bottarga would be my platform, and my campaign slogan would be "smoke fish eggs, not your enemy" or "more sacs, less tax". granted, the concept needs tons of work. but i would totally be there for you in this way.

and thanksgiving in december was finally celebrated on ny’s eve. and after i read through every suggestion that you left in the comments, we took it all to heart and as many of you suggested, opted for sheer simplicity. we kept the food close to the ground with few ingredients. i roasted 2 chickens using the infallible zuni café method of salting smaller sized birds and covering loosely in the fridge for 2 or 3 days, then hitting them with a very high heat for about 50 minutes. the result – crisp skin and moist meat every time. i baked a simple cornbread using olive oil and made the stuffing using that and chicken sausage, red onions, garlic, celery, sage and veal stock. i also caramelized some brussels sprouts in a heavy skillet and hit them with a balsamic glaze and then roasted some sweet potatoes in nothing more than olive oil and salt. the cranberry sauce had fresh orange zest along with the juice, just a bit of brown sugar and a cinnamon stick.

at dinner, santos toasted to his beautiful wife rudrani, recognizing the auspicious evening and upcoming year with an excellent bottle of tattinger’s and we ate our dinner with a bottle of cotes du rhone. we felt grateful to not only be alive – but together, looking forward to the best year of our lives, if only because it is the one we will be living.

and being the exciting people that we are, cary and i were in bed at 11:30pm and flicked on the tv to watch all the festivities in nyc and do the whole pretend countdown (we’re on central time) and DID ANYONE ELSE SEE DICK CLARK AND GET FREAKED THE HELL OUT? it was, shall we say, NOT GOOD. it wasn’t the slurring due to the stroke it was "the face". he looked like he had died 2 days before and was embalmed, then put in full make-up and propped up in a chair. NOT GOOD. we both got the willies and quickly changed the channel. so much for going out with grace… i think much of america collectively gasped when they saw him. it kind of broke my heart.

and there was actually some food worth mentioning that happened to get cooked and then photographed in my kitchen during the tail end of ’08. so i thought i’d purge what was left in my files and hit you with it all at once in the name of starting fresh and not being wasteful.

this first dish, which i’ve now made perhaps 4x and have neglected to mention it to you, dear readers, is a smashing thing to eat. it’s a total wow and you need to make this one soon. grilled haloumi with caramelized fennel. oh. my.

just grill the fennel in some olive oil until it caramelizes, toss it with chopped italian parsley and spritz with lemon. then top it with the grilled halloumi. it is so much better than you might imagine it to be. so even if you are sitting there thinking, "no – i get it. that would be excellent", then you go and make it and it’s like crazy good and everyone thinks you are a brilliant cook and talks about you for days on end. i saw this dish on an australian blog called souvlaki for the soul. besides his beautiful food, the guy is a serious photographer. anyway, you heard it here second. now go make this.

jennifer? i told you i was going to make this and i did. and then i bought the book because ‘sunday suppers at lucques‘ by suzanne goin is most definitely a must own. and romesco is a must have in your repertoire. it works with nearly everything and although i’ve no recollection what fish this was, it was an excellent accompaniment to the romesco along with steamed broccoli.

romesco sauce
from ‘sunday suppers at lucques’ by suzanne goin

5 ancho chiles
2 T raw almonds
2T blanched hazelnuts
1 ¼ c extra virgin olive oil
1 slice country bread, about 1 inch thick
1/3 cup canned san marzano tomatoes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 T chopped flat leaf parsley
½ lemon for juicing
kosher salt

preheat the oven to 375. soak the chiles in hot water for about 15 minutes, then seed and stem them. spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast them for 8-10 minutes. remove from the oven and set aside. fry the bread in a bit of the olive oil, then let it cool and cut into cubes. return the pan to the stove, heat the chiles for about 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes. cook them until they break down and the juices are reduced, then turn off the heat and set aside.

pulse the nuts, bread and garlic in a food processor, then add the chile and tomato mixture and pulse again to combine. pour in more olive oil while the machine is running until you have the texture you want. taste for seasoning, then stir in the lemon juice and parsley.

ok. i know. not beautiful. but i am so incredibly proud of what’s going on in that bowl you just couldn’t know. you see, peter and heather are constantly cooking all these amazing asian dishes filled with mysterious ingredients to the point where i personally find it to be borderline between annoying and inferiority complex causing. my problem? i’d say so. but a few weeks ago i whipped up this little number using only what i had on hand. undoubtedly a red bell pepper would have come in handy along with some bamboo shoots or something else with color but it tasted pretty damn good and it contained the following, in no particular order:

white miso
mirin
shoyu
raw chicken breast
a chopped shallot
frozen peas
sriracha sauce
fresh rice noodles – sold refrigerated in the vacuum sealed bag
gochujang
sesame oil
my poultry stock

never to be duplicated, but again, it was a proud moment – especially since there is no chinese food in nashville worthy of buying unless you count ‘pf changs’. sad but true.

presenting, farinata – a thin chickpea pancake/pizza like thing that’s pretty popular in liguria. i saw farinata mentioned somewhere and then i found this recipe on the food & wine website – and well it’s very much my kind of food. yes yes, i scorched the top a bit with my broiler but really it was no big deal – just a very surface ring of black. you basically mix garbanzo flour and water and let it sit for a couple of hours. then you preheat the oven to 500f, skim any foam off the batter and add salt, rosemary (i think i used sage) and olive oil. then heat a cast iron skillet in the oven for 10 minutes, add some olive oil to the pan, add the batter and bake. again, i made the mistake of deciding to brown the top a bit more and i took my eye off the oven…

but there were no complaints and it went fast…

this was from the ‘king arthur flour whole grain baking‘ book. i’m pretty sure this recipe called for peaches but i loaded it up with 3 pears being that i had just bought a huge box of them to support a friends daughter school choir. great idea… so much better than gift wrapping or magazines. anyway, i lowered the amount of sugar the recipe called for and well, cary ate the entire loaf in one day.

vegetables on brown basmati rice. exciting, i know. please try and contain yourselves. but for the record we’ve got brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, garlic, broccoli and some lovely briney olives lightly sauteed in olive oil and finished with a balsamic glaze. and i must tell you, it was quite delicious. and since i took a picture of it, i felt the need to share. because not only am i needy that way, but also because the rice had the perfect bite and the vegetables were cooked to that crisp but not overdone finish. i got lucky on this one. it was a moment in time where all the planets aligned just so, and the vegetable gods smiled down upon me. and i was grateful and appreciative and all those things that the vegetable gods expect one to be.

scarlett runners from rancho gordo dusted with espelette. there’s some pan fried tilapia back there with a spicy green olive tapenade on top. but the beans and the espelette were seriously good. and even more seriously basque.

but regarding the espelette… like if ever you were to get some? think eggs. scrambled, deviled, fried or perhaps just one orange egg yolk sitting atop a small mound of sheeps milk ricotta mixed with a bit of orange zest, sprinkled with this extraordinary pepper and then tucked carefully between 2 sheets of thin pasta…. yes. think that.

so dear readers, for the record – my personal ‘o9 resolution is to lean down both physically and financially. and i’m heading in that direction, yes i am. and there’ll be more on that later.

and although i may be 4 days late, allow me to raise my virtual glass to you. here’s to a kinder, gentler new year…

buddha wants you to know that even though ‘life is suffering’, drink acai

and you probably think i made that up, right?  "not just a berry, a lifestyle…" but no dear readers, it’s the actual motto from the acai roots company.  i definitely would have been so berry much more clever.

and do you see that glass being lovingly cradled by the buddha?  it contains pure potent purple goodness. what you’re looking at is an acai pulp berry smoothie that will allegedly, among other things - improve your sex drive.  it’s one of the most powerful and nutritious foods known to man, and widely acknowledged as one of the richest anti-oxidants available.  i could go on about the high levels of omega 3 and 6 as well as the amino acids, not to mention all the fiber… but i’ll leave the thorough research in your capable hands.  bottom line is that DR. OZ gives it the big thumbs up.  need i say more? 

i’ve also seen it in the drink section of ’whole foods’, being touted as the superfood to end all superfoods.  it’s as though they’re screaming the accolades of this brazilian berry across the globe.  Drink. This. NOW.

so last week, before i left for LA my friend angela gave me a big frozen container of acai pulp - the creme de la creme of acai.  blended with a banana, fresh blueberries and some ice cubes, it became a really nice spring breakfast for a few days running.

please excuse the fact that i breathed while taking this photograph without a tripod…

so, while i’m on the west coast not eating anything worth mentioning, the memory of this smoothie is actually pretty damn appealing. i plan on ordering a few containers and seeing if i notice… well, anything…

but ummm, do you think that just a little side of bacon would affect the ‘sex life’ perk?

or more accurately, peanut butter noodles. but the dish is still much better known as "noodles in sesame sauce" and usually ‘cold’, at that.  at least in nyc where i lived on it for the better part of my early 20′s. and even though i’ve seen a few versions that use roasted tahini, the peanut butter version just works so well on every level that it’s what i do, because it is quite frankly – an absolute and total winner. and everybody loves a winner… yessiree.

anyway, this dish had been on my mind since i saw it over at smitten kitchen and then recently again at kalyn’s, where she used whole wheat noodles. i think the earthiness of the ww pasta lends itself perfectly to this dish.  my version is an adaption of both of those, leaning more towards the ‘gourmet’ recipe from june 2002

peanut sesame noodles
adapted from gourmet, june 2002

i totally blanked on the sesame seeds, which is too bad because i have the black ones sitting right in my kitchen and they’re both a great looking garnish and tasty.  so try to use your imagination, ok? 

1/2 cup smooth organic peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar or honey or agave
1 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce – or to taste

1 lb whole wheat thin spaghetti
1 orange or red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 cucumber, seeded and cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 cup of snow peas
4 scallions, thinly sliced
chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 lb of shrimp or chicken or beef or pork belly! or tofu

mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a strong blender, set aside
put water on to boil for noodles
slice the cucumbers and bell peppers into long thin strips
slice the scallions and chop the cilantro

if you’re using shrimp, skewer and grill.  if you’re using another protein, i trust that you will figure it all out just fine…

one minute before the pasta is ready, throw the snow peas into the pasta water.
drain and toss with the sauce, serve immediately garnished with the vegetables and make it all look pretty,
  

because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough and doggone it people like you…

i make pad thai about every 6 weeks or so.  my last batch was documented here.  i take this ritual pretty seriously and i like to think that my version is by far the best and most authentic in town, which really under the circumstances of where i live is no huge accomplishment.

but tonight i had a very special request.  and pad thai it was going to be.  so luckily, and in keeping with ‘eating down the house‘ all i needed to pick up was cilantro, green onions, bean sprouts and a lime.  everything else was here… except the noodles.  i was running low.  so in the midst of an unusually demanding day where a trip to the international market would have been near impossible, i got a package of noodles from angela, my best friend who lives in the hood.  i did a quick drive-by between appointments and we did a hand-off worthy of a marathon relay race. 

i’m used to soaking my noodles for about 20/30 minutes in room temperature water so i didn’t bother to read the package.  i assumed that all rice sticks were created equal.  but this brand called for soaking in boiling water for 6 minutes… 

so my pad thai was al dente.  to say the very least. 

was i happy about this?  nooooo…  am i willing to let go of the fact that i totally screwed up?  um, yeah.  i guess.  between you and me, secretly i kinda liked it although this particular pad thai making event was just so not about me and my strangeness.

but the flavors were spot on.  tamarind, fish sauce, chili sauce, palm sugar, dried shrimp, salted dried radish, shallots, garlic, peanuts, peanut oil, eggs, bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro and lime.  and the best shrimp i know to buy around these parts.  take all of that and you’d be hard pressed to go too far wrong.

for dessert it was dulce de leche on a spoon with a shot of espresso. 

because you’ve just gotta keep ‘em guessing…

i want to thank luisa from ‘the wednesday chef’ for posting her scrambled eggs with shrimp dinner.  her dinner wasn’t pretty.  nope, not even a little.  and she knew it but was real about the situation on the plate including the fact that it tasted really good.  because the truth is that life isn’t always pretty, right?  and in the case of food – who cares?  ok, let me rephrase… who cares all the time?  we’re home.  we’re hungry.  and we’re out of parsley.  parsley does tend to help a bit.  it’s the lipstick of food…

last night i threw dinner together quickly.  i started with 4 of my 9 csa cucumbers.  they were peeled and sliced and tossed with green onions, chili flakes, white vinegar and turbinado sugar.  i had leftover steak from the night before and decided to use all my japanese eggplants and 1 of my 4 butternut squash.  so this one dinner alone used up a bunch of produce which was excellent!

the eggplants got sliced and grilled on my stove with minimal olive oil.  the squash was simply peeled and steamed.  cary did a thin cut on the steak – and all of it got sauced with an on the fly mix of white miso, turbinado sugar, mirin and a 2 year shoyu (aka soy sauce).  lucky for all of us i had some black sesame seeds to sprinkle around.  but hey, still kinda not so pretty…

but good?  very.

cary loves pad thai.  a lot.  he loves pad thai so much that i can sometimes even bribe him with the promise of this dinner.  i’ve found that it is good to have a dish this adored in your relationship arsenal, especially when dealing with certain yard-work hating men.

so early on in our relationship and before my blogging days, i set out to find and make THE pad thai recipe of a (my) lifetime.  it took me about a month or so of googling, talking to friends, eating pad thai out and about (mostly terrible with the exception of ‘basil’s‘) and visiting the international markets here in town.  finally, armed with some knowledge, i was dangerous enough to take my frankensteinesque version to the kitchen.

and it was surprisingly spot on.  i was amazed.  no, delighted.  even mildly amused.  there i was – a middle-aged woman of jewish heritage kickin some pad thai ass. 

now, as noted i’m not thai.  i’ve never been to thailand.  i am an expert on nothing in particular.  so if you want to make pad thai with ketchup and peanut butter and that works for you, i’m totally fine with that.  in the cosmic light of all things, it matters not one bit.  at least not to me. although there are those that seem to feel a bit more passionate on the subject… which i totally get.  like in the case of cannoli cream.  like when can grand marnier ever substitute for candied citron or orange peel?  don’t even get me started… 

but i digress…

so people - if you want to taste something really really good and are willing to procure the proper ingredients and do what in all fairness is somewhat easy prep work, i urge you to give this pad thai a serious whirl.  i should imagine you will be quite pleased with yourself. the simple key to success is to have your mise en place – in place.  then it’s a total cinch.

for some reason, i’ve been remiss in making this for my guy.  it’s been probably 6 months since i broke out the ol’ seasoned to perfection wok. 

Pad Thai by CY

import foods  <—  good, reliable and reasonable source

1. palm sugar – 2 pieces (or about 1/4 cup of sugar – brown also works fine)
2. tamarind concentrate – 3 T
3. fish sauce – 3 T
4. chili sauce – 1 T (the kind with the rooster on the bottle)
5. shallot – 2 chopped fine
6. garlic – 5/6 cloves – chopped finely
7. salted radish – 1 each finely diced
8. dried shrimp – ¼ cup – soaked in boiled water for 10 minutes, then very very finely diced
9. rice sticks – 8 oz – soaked until desired tenderness (soft but firm)
10. thai ground chili pepper – to taste
11. shrimp – about 10 jumbo shrimp – peeled and veined with tails left on (tiger shrimp are amazing)
12. peanuts – ½ cup unsalted roasted – crushed (make sure they’re fresh and have peanut flavor)
13. peanut oil – about 7 or 8 T (don’t bother skimping here – it’s just not worth it)
14. eggs – 2
15. bean sprouts – 2 cups
16. cilantro – to taste
17. green onion – sliced
18. fresh lime wedges

*please note that I haven’t bothered with tofu or chicken – seems pointless to us here at the ranch but please, feel free

1. mix first 4 ingredients until sugar is dissolved – microwave helps
2. cook shrimp until pink – separately in any pan or use the wok – set aside
3. add about 2 T oil to hot wok – then add shallots and garlic
4. after about 30 seconds add crushed dried shrimp and salted radish
5. after about another 30 seconds or so – add 3 T oil and then add noodles
6. combine noodles with mixture in pan – moving noodles until they cook to the right consistency
7. move noodles to one side of pan – tilt the wok slightly and add 2 T oil - then add two beaten eggs – swirl around – let set up – mix with noodles
8. then add sauce and combine, adding bean sprouts and about ¾ of peanut’s
mix well in wok

turn out onto platter or bowl – add the shrimp, green onion, cilantro, rest of the peanuts, and ground chili pepper.  lime wedges for everyone. 

my version tonight didn’t exactly follow the ‘proper’ order but it was close enough.  i didn’t add the beansprouts until after i threw the shrimp back in the wok – and the shrimp really didn’t need to go back in the wok – and the peanuts never made the wok but got mixed in after it all hit the serving bowl.  really it had been too long and i wasn’t reading my own directions.  but it worked.  and it was great. 

this should keep the pad thai jones at bay for a few weeks…

for the salad i use finely chopped napa cabbage, torn spinach leaves, green onions, julienned red bell peppers and carrots, mung beans, fresh basil, mint and black sesame seeds – although the regular tan ones will do fine…

but it’s the dressing/sauce that will truly floor you. just throw the following into your blender:

juice of at least 2 limes
a bunch of cilantro
olive oil
fresh peeled garlic and ginger – a lot
honey
soy sauce (i use something called nama shoyu and really like it)
a jalepeno or habenero pepper

let the dressing soak into the salad for at least an hour before serving to soften the cabbage. i served it with grilled shrimp on top.

this dish is absolutely beautiful and you’ll impress all your friends.