I’m not entirely sure I should be claiming to have made this week’s recipe, but I’m certainly not alone in this. Once again, our Problems & Questions thread was very busy and this week’s subject was tomato purée. Those who’d made the recipe early felt the purée overwhelmed what might otherwise have been a perfectly good stirfry. Those of us, not naming any names here (particularly mine), who tend to do things a little last-minute mostly decided to reduce the amount of tomato or eliminate it altogether.
I eliminated it and didn’t really have to tweak the rest of the flavours at all. Next time, I might squeeze some lime juice over the stirfry just before serving, but I was quite happy with tonight’s results. I did play with the recipe in other ways – substituting a mix of fresh wild mushrooms for the dried tree ear mushrooms and brown rice vermicelli for the cellophane noodles, but the seasonings in the original recipe were quite well-balanced, so I stuck with them. The five-spice powder was especially good with the shrimp and sesame-soaked noodles. If you’d like to see a delicious-sounding adaptation of this dish, here’s Patty’s version.
I’m not sure what it is about this month’s recipes, but our Dorista discussions have really taken off. Perhaps it’s because we’re getting close to the halfway mark of our project, or perhaps it’s just because January was chosen as the month to get a few challenging dishes out of the way. I suspect that it’s also because we’re becoming so intimately familiar with the style of cooking in this book that we’re going to see ever more creative riffs on each week’s recipe. I’m looking forward to it.
You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles
One Wet Foot 
Teresa – I like that the rough experiences of a few can stave off or mitigate issues for the rest. I do think this dish had potential sans puree…
Now, I’ve made the Brussels sprouts and squash a few times already, so I am feeling waaaayyyy better about next week 🙂
I think it’s great that the P&Q boards were so busy this month. I hope it keeps up. Though I usually don’t benefit from them because I am one of those making the recipe early. The simple fact is that if I don’t make the recipe the weekend before, it will not get done. In fact, I bought the ingredients for the brussels sprouts & squash today so that we can make them tomorrow night.
Though I didn’t make this for this week, I had made it several months ago, and I agree that the tomato paste was too overwhelming. It never occurred to me to just leave it out, so thanks for that suggestion. I’ll give it a go another time.
Really? The half way mark? One of the best things about always being so late with my dish is that I get the benefit of everyone having already made it. But this time its no benefit at all since I doubt I will.
I really enjoyed the P&Q conversations this month; it’s always nice to hear what everybody is thinking and doing. Especially with this one! I liked it, but I still think it’s a weird dish as it’s written. But it’s nice that it’s so easily adapted. Yours looks fantastic!
Teresa, your “Shrimp & Brown Rice Vermicelli” dish looks absolutely delicious and it does sound very healthy – I like the fact that you also left out the dried mushrooms (which I can never be able to find in a satisfactory quality it seems) and substiuted them with fresh mushrooms and the brown rice vermicell are much better than the cellophane noodles too. Wonderful stir-fry, especailly without all that tomato purée!
Have a great weekend!
I think your shrimp dish looks absolutely delicious too! Thanks for mentioning my version which we enjoyed for dinner, next time I make it I’m adding snow peas for a little crunch and some green! We don’t eat a lot of shrimp so this recipe pushed me out of my box a bit which is one of the things we like about cooking with this group;-) Have a wonderful weekend;-)
Aw now see THIS looks amazing. I shouldn’t have been so fast off the mark (but I always make the recipes so far in advance I feel it’s always going to be me on P&Q talking about my failures!!). I wanna make your dish tomorrow for dinner! And I LOVE how the community is really starting to come together!
This recipe certainly sparked some definite dislikes this week, even more than the chicken liver gateau. I didn’t mind this dish, but I am in the minority.
Yum yum yum – now I’m hungry! Looks great.
I need to start checking the P’s and Q’s before I make the dish…but I did think the tomatoes were out of place! LOVE the look of your tomato-less dish, and adding more mushrooms sounds perfect to me!
PS…I totally agree about how our group has evolved…I can’t believe we’re halfway through!
I’m sure we would have enjoyed your version much better!
Beautiful job, Teresa! I think I would have preferred it with no sauce and just tossed in the oil with the seasonings. I really did like the chinese five spice and the cayenne in this one.
Your version looks like a big improvement on the original. Thanks to Mary for making sure the P&Q goes up. Now if I could just remember to check before I start on the dish… I’m glad that your dinner was delicious!
Your dish looks perfect. This will not be a repeat for us but I’m glad I tried it anyway. I
learned all about the mushrooms and cellophane noodles which is something I would not
have ever considered. Have a great weekend.
Well done! Very smart to leave out the tomato sauce. Wish we had done the same!
Oh, My!! But that looks delicious. I so wish I had left out the the puree!!!!
Definitely looks good without the tomato – and with the mushrooms substitution. Those tree ears were weird!!!
Teresa, I also left out the tomato puree after reading everyone else’s results. My results were pretty good…at least it was edible! I don’t think I’ll be making this again anytime soon!
Your version looks delicious! I may have to try it with fresh mushrooms and no tomato puree too.