Sorry for the delays in posting…I had a bit of an accident or “what not to do“  in the kitchen yesterday…

One of the upcoming recipes is for falafels and in a rush, I grabbed flatbread instead of pitas at the store.  Feeling adventurous I decided to try to learn how to make my own (which by the way was quite successful) however my mind was somewhere else during the process and instead of using oven mitts to handle a rack that had just come out of a 500 degree oven, I accidentally picked it up with my fingers and well…you know what happens next.  Now they are blistered and bandaged but alas, I did get to this recipe with the help of my wonderful husband (and thank goodness – this was a multi-step, time-intensive recipe!).

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673143 

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2007

Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 wrap and about 1 1/2 tablespoons sauce)

Ingredients

Sauce:

  • 1/2  cup  packed brown sugar
  • 1/2  cup  low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1/4  cup  water
  • 1  tablespoon  dark sesame oil
  • 1/2  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
  • 1  garlic clove, minced

Wraps:

  • 12  napa (Chinese) cabbage leaves
  • 1  tablespoon  canola oil
  • 1 1/2  cups  shredded carrot
  • 3/4  cup  finely chopped red bell pepper
  • 3/4  cup  thinly sliced green onions
  • 1  tablespoon  minced peeled fresh ginger
  • 2  garlic cloves, minced
  • 3  tablespoons  minced fresh cilantro
  • 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh basil
  • 1 1/2  tablespoons  fresh lime juice
  • 1 1/2  cups  cooked bean threads (cellophane noodles; about 3 ounces uncooked)
  • 36  medium shrimp, cooked and peeled (about 1 1/4 pounds)

Preparation

To prepare sauce, combine the first 6 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until the sugar dissolves and sauce slightly thickens (about 5 minutes), stirring frequently. Remove from heat; cover and chill.

To prepare wraps, steam cabbage, covered, 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain and pat dry; set aside.

Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot and next 4 ingredients (through 2 garlic cloves) to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add cilantro, basil, and juice; toss gently to combine. Place about 3 tablespoons vegetable mixture and 2 tablespoons bean threads on each cabbage leaf. Top each with 3 shrimp; roll up. Serve with sauce.

Nutritional Information

Calories:151 (19% from fat)
Fat:3.2g (sat 0.4g,mono 1.3g,poly 1.2g)
Protein:10.6g
Carbohydrate:19.7g
Fiber:1.1g
Cholesterol:72mg
Iron:1.7mg
Sodium:443mg
Calcium:55mg

  

Notes:

Okay, we had a couple problems here.  First I had burnt fingers and was limited to handling the cold stuff, though chopping was quite a chore with 2 burnt thumbs and 2 burnt forefingers.  Not fun but we were hungry and forged ahead.  Made the sauce as is, but it says to cool which helps it to thicken.  In haste, I poured the sauce into a bowl and put it in the freezer for a couple minutes.  What I didn’t realize is that when I shut the freezer door, I upended the bowl on its side pouring all of the contents out and onto a packed freezer.  When I opened the door to retrieve said bowl, I was not only deflated that we lost all our sauce but had to take 10 minutes to wash off the gooey/sticky/half-frozen sauce that had poured over multiple items.  Needless to say, I was brooding.  To make matters worse, we had used up the last of our soy sauce to make the sauce and couldn’t make another batch.  So now I was hungry, in pain and pissed…not a good combination.  I usually have a pretty cheerful disposition, however, this was not one of those moments.  All was not lost though – I did have a bottle of unopened hoisin sauce which is similar in taste to the soy sauce and brown sugar, so we made another batch with hoisin sauce in lieu of those two ingredients and tragedy was diverted.

Some other things to note, I realized half way through the recipe that I didn’t have carrots (what the heck? I know, I seem to have that problem often), so I used a small can of water chestnuts that I happened to have on hand to fill in for the missing cup and a half of carrots and missing crunch and I’m thrilled I did – it gave great texture overall and I would make sure to use these if I were to make again.

Also, the napa cabbage as wraps simply did not work.  They didn’t hold the filling and it made for a drippy mess.  With this in mind, we decided to scrap the cabbage (though you could chop up and add if fresh and crispy) and we mixed everything together like a noodle dish (instead of keeping all the components separate).  I would recommend you do the same.

Verdict:

Despite all the problems we incurred, this was really flavorful and even better the next day.  Should you choose to make this, I recommend you mix all the ingredients together in the end rather than trying to arrange as wraps. 

As an aside, blisters have come down quite a bit today after a good slather of calendula cream and I should be back to cooking some more tonight!