Lemongrass Shrimp Noodle Salad

Sauce for the salad (Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce):

1 clove garlic, minced

1 serrano chili, minced

½ tsp ground chili paste

2/3 cup hot water

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup fish sauce

2 tbs fresh lime juice

Pound the garlic and fresh chilies into a paste. In a small bowl combine garlic mixture, chili paste, hot water and sugar, stir well. Add the fish sauce and lime juice. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Noodles:

8 ounces (225 grams) dried rice vermicelli noodles

Cook noodles in boiling water, 3 to 5 minutes. Rinse until cooled in cool water.

The Shrimp:

2 tbls vegetable oil

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound (450 grams) large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tbs minced fresh lemongrass

2 cups sliced white mushrooms

2 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp sugar

Salt

Stir fry shallots and garlic in the oil for about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and lemongrass and stir and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, fish sauce and sugar and cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes.

Garnishes:

2 cups lettuce

2 cups bean sprouts

1 ½ cups peeled, seeded, julienned cucumber

1/3 to 1/2 cup rough chopped mint

 1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped basil leaves

2 tbs chopped peanuts

Cilantro

In individual bowls put the garnishes, some noodle, shrimp mixture and sauce.

Gnocchi, by Kelani

Taken and adapted from food network by Mario Batali

Ingredients

3 pounds potatoes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg, extra large

1 pinch salt

½ cup canola oil* (we did not do this part, we had so much we dusted them with flour and froze the extra before cooking)

Directions:

Boil the whole potatoes until they are soft (about 45 minutes). While still warm, peel and grate into large bowl.

Set 6 quarts of water to boil in a large spaghetti pot, set up ice bath with 6 cups ice and 6 cups water near boiling water.

Make well in center of potatoes and sprinkle over with flour, using all the flour. Place egg and salt in center of well and using a fork, stir into flour and potatoes. 

Once egg is mixed in, bring dough together, kneading gently until a ball is formed. Knead gently another 4 minutes until ball is dry to touch.

Roll baseball-sized ball of dough into ¾-inch diameter dowels and cut dowels into 1-inch long pieces. Flick pieces off of fork until dowel is finished.

Drop these pieces into boiling water and cook until they float (about 1 minute). Continue with remaining dough, forming dowels, cutting into 1-inch pieces flicking off of fork. As gnocchi float to top of boiling water, remove them to ice bath. 

Continue until all have been cooled off. Let sit several minutes in bath and drain from ice and water. 

Toss with ½ cup canola oil* and store covered in refrigerator up to 48 hours until ready to serve.

We used a tomato based Carbonara sauce on our gnocchi.