After last week’s daring French Fridays with Dorie recipe, I expected this week’s to be a breeze. It turns out Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles created quite a bit of controversy.
I had originally planned on serving this for dinner one night, somehow creating a chicken version for my husband and the shrimp version for myself. Then I checked out the P & Q section on the FFWD site. Pretty much everyone who had already made the recipe said there was way too much tomato puree and they didn’t care for the dish.
So, I decided to regroup and make the dish only for myself for lunch so I could experiment. No one ever wants to serve their family a dinner they will hate.
I began making Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles as written (except for cutting the recipe in half). When it came time to add the tomato puree, instead of adding the full 1 cup (for my halved recipe), I slowly added it 2 tablespoons at a time until it looked right. In all, I only used 1/4 cup of puree. I sauteed for a couple of minutes until the prawns were cooked through. The sauce looked a little thick, so I added a splash of Chinese rice wine to loosen it up a bit.
It worked! I love prawns and my “reworked” sauce was good. I probably won’t make this again because I am the only one in my family who eats prawns and this was a lot of work for one person, but it made for a tasty lunch.
I have my fellow Doristas to thank for helping me make this a successful dish. If it had not been for your warnings, I would have not tinkered with the recipe and probably would not have ended up with something I enjoyed eating. A hearty thank you to the group!
