Sara Haddad and I had planned this extraordinary Asian dinner. Shrimp dumplings in a noodle soup (like here, except with shrimp instead of pork), thin, savory steak slices rolled up with peppers and carrots (like here), and fresh hot rice.

It mostly worked. The steak rolls (which i’ll tell you about later) and the soup turned out beautifully. But, right afte we had made this delicious shrimp mixture to pleat into wonton wrappers, we discovered that the wonton wrappers were MOLDY. What a downer.

But we didn’t panic! We brainstormed (and Googled, which is often the same thing). And we came up with these. Fried shrimp balls, a.k.a. Shrimp Falafel! They were phenomenal. We ate them dipped in chili sauce as a side dish to the steak rolls or floating in a brothy soup of cabbage, mushroom, and egg noodles. Sara took these great pictures, too.

Shrimp balls, also known as Shrimp Falafel (thanks, Sarah!)
(adapted from Steamy Kitchen)

1 pound ground shrimp (mince it in a food processor)
3 or 4 stalks scallion, finely minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 egg
2 slices of toast, made into breadcrumbs and toasted in a dry pan

Mix everything up. Drop tablespoonfulls of the mixture into a pan with hot oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Makes about 20. Serve with chili sauce or plop them into a bowl of soup (for the soup option, maybe make them 1/2 tbs size).

Ohh, this was a good one! The chipotle peppers give this soup a smoky smooth flavor. It’s a nice departure from the normal corn chowder. But, beware. The first bite of the soup isn’t spicy, so you might be tempted to add more chipotle. Be ye warned - it gets progressively spicier as you eat it. In the end, I felt feel somebody kicked me in the tastebuds. And I liked it.

The fish tacos couldn’t be easier. Why? They’re made of fish sticks! Gasp! Cheating! I know. Fish tacos from frozen fish sticks? What? But they taste so good, and they’re so quick. All you have to do is fancy them up a little with some salsa.

Recipe here: (more…)

This is a very hearty, scoop-it-into-a-bowl-and-get-some-crusty-bread stew which can be made completely vegetarian or a little different by adding lamb or beef. I got it from Elise at Simply Recipes. I think it tastes best when the eggplant, tomatoes, mint, and peppers come from your own garden (or your father-in-law’s).

This stew, as Elise explains it, is beautifully layered, and when each layer of flavor stays in tact, you get different punches of flavor as you eat. You serve it in the same dish that it cooks in, to preserve the layers. However, it also works well layered into a big pot and then just scooped into bowls to serve.

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Greetings! World Tour 2008 was great, even though we were exhausted. It truly was a whirlwind - we spent 4 days in Saudi Arabia, 4 days in Syria, 4 days in Pakistan, and the rest in transit. I’m going to post some pictures of Syria and Pakistan on here a bit later.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this beautifully misspelled menu item for sale in Medina. There’s not much to be said about it - the picture says enough. Want some?

This is a simple, homey soup with just some basic flavors - not a lot of fancy herbs or spices, just the basics. Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and the vegetables. And with a simple shortcut, its super quick.

Leeks look like an overgrown scallion and have a mild oniony taste, so you don’t have to start by sautéing onions for this soup…unless you just really like onions. Leeks are a little quirky to work with - the bottom part of a leek, the white part, is grown underground, so the dirt gets inside the layers. With leeks, you cut first, then submerge in water and rinse very well to get the dirt all out.

I used leftover mashed potatoes that I had frozen to make this. The mashed potatoes had spinach and mushrooms in a buttermilk alfredo sauce (this one), so if you wanted to make it the full “Potato, spinach, mushroom, and leek soup” (which I highly recommend), just sautee the mushrooms and spinach along with the leeks.

Recipe here (more…)