lets go shopping

Bells and whistles or is that whistles and bells? I have found that I do not have enough bells and whistles on my blog so now and then I start a series that I only do one of, I am not too good at repetition. Remember I was going to do the 'outtakes' series and the 'this and that' series and the 'whatever other dumb name I came up with' series - remember? Well this is no different.



This one is a 'lets go shopping' a series about food shopping.



Signs, signs every where there's signs. Now thats a dog I'd like to meet. Damn it does everything.



Oh yeah, I am guest blogging again, and I am doing it here. Shrimp and scallop "carpaccio" with szechuan buttons..if you think it looks good try and imagine how good it tasted! Go check out my post to see what I said about Szechuan buttons.

Carpaccio of Scallop and Shrimp with Sechuan Buttons

Perparation

Thinly sliced:
radish
fennel
shrimp – lightly steamed
scallops – raw
szechuan buttons (really small pieces of a button to a button and a half per serving)

For the salad:
mandarin orange
fennel fronds
mesclun
lime
salt/pepper
olive oil

Assemble supremes of mandarin, fennel fronds, mixed greens with the thinly sliced items on a plate and drizzle with olive oil and a small squeeze of lime and salt and pepper.

I am submiting this to Beet&Squash for Battle Fennel!



Never say NY does not have rules. You can plainly see that I didnt even get all the way through the series before I got distracted and lost my steam.



This is one fine steak!

more voting

Please vote for my olives. I am taking the most simplistic approach to my entries - trying the "any one can do it" method and these olives exemplify that.

make me a winner

Please vote for my pear bites!

vamp up the vamped

You know whats good? The banana leaf tamales were good. You know whats better? These fried spring rolls that's what!



I took the same ground turkey meat that I used for the tamales, remember there was a small ton of it, and I rolled it up in some spring roll wrappers and was good to go. The spring roll skins were soaked and rolled with the delicious spiced turkey and fried till they screamed.



The dipping sauce I got out of an old Gourmet magazine from 2004 and it went something like this: (I added scallion because I wanted to)

For nuoc cham dipping sauce

• 5 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce (preferably from Phu Quoc)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 fresh Thai chiles (2 to 3 inches; preferably red; including seeds), thinly sliced crosswise
  

Oddly enough I had all of this stuff on hand so it wasnt an issue - I need to check my fish sauces I have a couple and I didnt even notice if any of them are from Phu Quoc - funny if they are. I enjoyed this way more than the tamales and I know why - I eat tamales all the time.



The chile and the turkey and the fried rice wrapper and the killer dipping sauce will make you wanna slap your mama and call the pope catholic! Think I'm kidding? I dare you to make these. I am submitting this to the 5 Star Foodie Makeover Challenge - that makes two! This is also going to GourmetUnbound for its inaugural event.

red to remember

We have all been impacted by this in one way or another and if you havent been then you have more reason to participate, World Aids Day is today! I heard about it over at Sippity Sup and he was relaying the message from Spinach Tiger and now you have heard it from me. While I am not cooking red I am sporting red for all the world to see.



Raspberry soy smoothie made even better with grenadine (thats pomegranate to the uninitiated). I will shamelessly steal a line from Greg at Sippity Sup - you can make this "its so easy!"