I happen to love being experimental in the kitchen and I have the passion for Asian-influenced cuisine. I believe that in 2022 during the COVID blues-cook-all-you-can-shutdown-syndrome I did a spring roll recipe. Since then, I have fluffed away from deep frying and opted for more sautés these days.
This recipe is very similar in content and I hope you’re not offended knowing I love to focus on seafood. I promise that next issue I will have an exotic recipe that will tickle your tastebuds and break your budget for sure.
This endeavor can be altered to stay vegan or pile in the porcine/bovine products as adequate substitutes depending on which way the smoke blows. Next column, no Wagyu beef or Chilean Sea Bass, but something to test if you can walk on the rice paper instead of eating it my dear, Shaolin kitchen disciples. Fingertip pushups only.
For me, the zen of cooking is about preparation and then the satisfaction of a successful mistake or a plan well executed. I always have a bag of rice noodles or rice paper in my pantry because they’re not the starchy stuff of Roman legend. Rice noodles and rice paper cook up very transparent, and are prepared within a few minutes to yield a nice firm chewiness that is different from the starch noodles or floury wraps. Rice paper can be a great source to make fettuccine-cut “pseudo-pasta,” adding crispy spicy scallions, soy sauces, hoisin, and fish sauces as complements. Throwing in the optional proteins, one can have an incredibly delicious reasonably healthy Asian-influenced meal. But I’m a “schnacker” at heart, and I love the way I make the cakes
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After a day editing at the computer, I’ll be in the mood for a quickie and try to get something accomplished on the stove top, and make a dish that’s not “hamburger helper” but can be accomplished in under 30 minutes. After spending the day working on perfecting my carpal tunnel using my Wacom tablet (I never learned how to use a mouse) I look forward to some ambidextrous chopping with my sharp Kamikoto 9” chef’s knife, all the while chanting some non-sacred mantra like, “I hope this tastes good, and I might be able to use it for a recipe.” I will forever thank my friend Jorge Parra for gifting me my beautiful knife. I’ve had it for several years and it holds an edge like a Hattori Hanzo katana. I would be lying if I said I’ve never completed a meal where I couldn’t find a sliver of fingertip lost in a samurai swipe of that blade. Thank the stars that I didn’t live a previous incarnation as the Shogun’s personal ninja cook.
Putting these shrimp rice cakes together does require some experience. Once you place a disk of rice paper in the water for only five seconds, that material will start to get very pliable and unmanageably soft, so you might have to redo a couple of cakes if you can’t get the whole thing wrapped up in under a real-time minute. I guess after a few thousand, “Grasshopper, you too can leave the temple.” Once soaked, rice paper becomes very sticky, and when sautéing as well. When those cakes are in the oiled pan, you cannot let them touch or attempt to mate.
The final flavor is layered as you bite the crispy outside and next you’re chewing a little sticky fun under the skin. That’s a lot going on inside your mouth. Please don’t get all woke and take that the wrong way. It’s about the crunchiness and the chewiness at the same time. Please chill with the metaphorical imagery but revel with the innuendos. Ha, ha, ha – I’ll be here for a week if the HR department doesn’t come looking for me.
I’m having a bit of a thrill because lately when I finish my column, a few weeks later, I see a plethora of Epicurious, Facebook and Instagram references to a similar dish. Or maybe I’m being naïve because the AI is getting so good. I often browse around to check other recipes similar to mine and maybe there’s an AI algorithm out there that knows the direction I want to go and is offering me some help. Maybe I truly am naïve, but today every third or fourth Instagram post was about using rice paper in cooking and my Pavlovian drool was earned when I gobbled down dim-sum in New York. Who knows which way the wind blows, but hopefully, you’ll be smellin’ what I’m tellin’.
CHEF SID’S Shrimp Rice Paper Dumplings
Serves 4, or you can do the plate in one sitting depending on the intensity of your munchies.
Ingredients:
1 lb. or 21/25 count fresh or thawed frozen sustainably sourced deveined shrimp, coarsely chopped.
1 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 cup finely chopped mushroom mix (Shitake, enoke, or oyster will do)
½ cup fresh scallions, coarsely chopped
½ cup chopped, shredded carrots
½ cup red cabbage coarsely chopped. I like to freeze my half head of cabbage and then thaw before chopping – it cooks faster.
3 cloves chopped garlic.
¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tbsps. fresh grated ginger
3 oz. light soy sauce
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 package 20-sheets Vietnamese Rice Paper of the smaller 10” diameter
SIDE DISH:
Condiments of hoisin sauce, fried chili oil, and duck sauce
Garnish and eat with extra cilantro sprigs.
PREPARATION
• Saute the chopped mushroom mix for two minutes, add the chopped carrots, cabbage, soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Partially cook for 2 minutes, medium heat, and add the chopped shrimp and all the greens to stir and cook for one minute. Remove from heat.
• Place the cooled filling in a food processor for 10-12 seconds or use the Ronco Chop-O-Matic or other chopping device and finely chop mixture to a uniform consistency, but don’t make it chopped liver. The sensei say, please do not try using a Kamikoto fingertip-less kata technique used by Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine.). I refrain from daring you for legal reasons.
• Put the cooled shrimp filling in a bowl ready to spoon into the rice paper.
• Individually soak the rice paper circles in cool water, one at a time for no more than 5 seconds and place on flat, moist surface or lightly oiled surface tray and start making cakes
• Gently dollop a spoonful of filling to the lower third of the circle,
• Quickly fold over the bottom flap to cover the dollop and then fold over both right and left side sides. Then flip twice vertically to complete your “cake shape”
• Place folded cakes on an oiled cookie sheet and do not let them attempt to conjugate or have any contact. No kissing allowed.
• Place in refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up. Do not let them touch each other or you will be using four-letter expletives.
• Sauté in high heat oil at medium temperature (avocado oil is great) until cakes are a light golden brown. I don’t go for the super crunchy brown, but you can do as you prefer.
• Serve while warm and have a good selection of dipping sauces at your disposal. I love them with duck sauce and crispy chili oil.
Next month my aim will to be make you work it and spend some dough, moohla, coins, cashola.
Sid Hoeltzell is an awardwinning Miami-based commercial food and beverage photographer and former “MasterChef” contestant. He frequently photographs for Royal Caribbean cruise lines, Christie’s and Sotheby’s.