Saturday, May 21, 2011

A Lousy Last Supper

I thought Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles (pg 322) would be a good dinner to fuel up on for The Rapture. Teleportation sounds exhausting. I also thought a Chinese dish would be a nice change of pace. I was wrong. This dish was B-L-A-N-D. The recipe calls for a mere tsp of Chinese five-spice powder, tsp of sugar, and a pinch of cayenne to flavor a pound of shrimp and a whole pot of noodles. The instructions say to be generous with white pepper, and I was, so this tasted like white pepper. That's it. There was no other flavor.

Conclusion: Dislike. I have survived The Rapture to cook again.

17 comments:

  1. This was hilarious-love how you celebrated being able to "cook again", even if it is not the recipe on p 322. Very interesting to hear the results because I agree that this recipe sounds amazing - like a complete winner. Funny to hear that it fell flat. So sorry. But that photo looked fab. And we did survive :)

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  2. Yeah, good thing the rapture didn't happen because I'd hate for you to end it on a bad recipe. Cellophane noodles are more difficult to flavor. I'm curious about making this dish now because cellophane noodles are best flavored with a sauce instead of direct spices. Great post though. Make sure to pick up your awards on my blog!

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  3. There was tomato puree in there, too, which I guess was the sauce component. It didn't contribute much flavor, though.

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  4. Too funny - you even skipped the puree and STILL had issues. Le sigh.

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  5. We didn't care for this one either. I liked the spices in this, but everything was just overwhelmed by the tomato puree.

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  6. So glad we weren't the only ones who didn't like this one. Thought we had lost our minds!

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  7. Not a hit in our house, either! I just ate the shrimp.

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  8. My guess is that the tomato puree sucked up all the flavors. Cilantro and 5 spice are so subtle. It was great without the tomatoes.

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  9. Yes, bland was the word. I should have added more spice to mine, maybe it would have helped.

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  10. Ah ... again, I'm in the minority! I did like this dish ... but I used only 1/4 cup of tomato puree, a bit more than a pinch of cayenne, ground BLACK pepper, and a generous squeeze of lemon at the end. I'm not sure it will be a "go-to" recipe for me, but I found the taste appetizing.

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  11. Definitely bland. I felt like maybe the tomato puree flattened it all out. Go figure. Dorie missed on this one. Glad you survived the rapture. (P.S. Happy that I can comment, the comments are inaccessible on your new blog. Hope all is well in Italy.)

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  12. Definitely in need of much more flavor. I doubled the 5 spice after the fact but it didn't help much. Wish I had left out the puree....

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  13. Oh no! Sorry to hear this was not a hit.

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  14. LOL :) I doubled the spoce and it was too much but I also blended the spices then tossed them directly on the shrimp so it really kept its flavor.

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  15. Dropping the tomato was a good idea, I think - sounds like the puree it overwhelmed the dish and contributed to the blandness.

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  16. Sorry you didn't like....I am one of the "few" who liked it!

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  17. Agreed. This was not the best of recipes. But alas, you survived and can continue to cook! (Next week's will be tons better!)

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