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Cupboard Challenge! Rice Noodles and Shrimp Paste

2007_01_26-Cupboard.jpgHere's another Cupboard Challenge. In the spirit of la cucina povera and frugal living, I am really trying to use up the things in my cupboards.

This week it's extending to my produce drawer, too. I have a bad habit of buying things like ginger and onions in great quantity and then letting them go to waste. With the addition of another somewhat unfamiliar ingredient, this challenge is genuinely a bit trickier - for me anyway. Rice noodles, shrimp paste, fresh ginger and scallions that really need to be used up soon. What would you do with them?

Can I make something out of just these four things, plus spices, or do they really call out for something else to tie them together? I am going to play around with these things and I'll post a recipe next week.

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Comments (9)

Rice noodles are the greatest. I know you'll have success. You could make a flavorful winter soup or a tasty asian stir fry!

posted by Linda on 2007-01-26 11:32:51

sambal terasi
indonesian (i think...) spice base made of shrimp paste, scallions, garlic and . . . damn I just made it a few weeks ago!
It's in Essentials of Asian Cuisine by Corrine Trang

I used it in a fried rice dish, but why not noodles. You cook your protein (ground pork, and crab) with the sambal terasi, then mix it up with the rice/noodles
funky goodness!

I'm looking for other stuff to do with all that leftover shrimp paste . . .

posted by guido on 2007-01-26 11:41:27

i would say with some veggies and a protein, you'd have a good stir fry. or a pho, with broth. i probably wouldn't just use those four, but that's just me. i like a veggie and a protein.

posted by liz on 2007-01-26 11:49:12

Ginger never needs to go to waste. You can freeze it, skin on, and then grate it while it's still frozen. Or my preferred method is to peel it, slice it, and put it in a jar covered in vodka (or another alcohol). Pop it in the fridge and you always have fresh ginger, plus you also have ginger-infused alcohol.

I also adore ginger juice, which is used with a 1:1 ratio to regular ginger in recipes. Makes great ginger tea too! I buy it at Whole Foods.

posted by shanabanana on 2007-01-26 11:49:56

I'd lean to southeast asia, as guido is going.

Start with spice base of shrimp paste, minced ginger, garlic, and some sriracha (rooster sauce). Fry that up with some ground pork. Toss in some veg like sliced peppers, carrots or celery (or frozen veg if that's what you've got). Serve on rice noodles.

posted by Michelle of Montreal on 2007-01-26 12:26:08

p.s. on sambal terasi
critical ingredient, a ton of chiles
Thai bird, or whatever you can find that's fresh and hot

posted by guido on 2007-01-26 12:34:09

Shanabanana,

neat idea! I am always throwing out left over ginger too... ginger infused vodka sound yummy.

Too bad garlic vodka won’t elicit the same kind of response from cocktail party guests ;-)

posted by Nisha on 2007-01-26 12:35:33

Another way to use up shrimp paste: Thai Papaya Salad:
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/greenp.html
Haven't made it myself, but I've tasted this salad & it's great!

posted by leeds on 2007-01-26 14:58:45

Gkapi is almost always paired with chillies, so I hope you have some or they count as a spice. It's always nice to wrap it in a bit of banana leaf (or foil) and toast it over your stove-top burner before you use it, unless you're going to fry it for a while in plenty of oil (like if it were in a curry paste).

Ginger + gkapi seems so strange to me, almost a foreign combination, because it's always galangal and sometimes krachai with gkapi or belecan, not ginger. I've had some tasty dishes in Thailand that had shredded ginger in quantities similar to the other veg in the dish (onion and mushroom) stir-fried with chicken, fish sauce and white pepper. It's very spicy from all the ginger, but tasty. Fry the ginger and onion in plenty of oil till the tips brown and then add your other stuff.

guido, gkapi and belecan last a long time, especially if you have them in the fridge. We go through quite a bit, but it's only a tablespoon or so at a time. We use it in Thai curry pastes, toasted in rempahs with shallot, galangal, fresh turmeric and candlenuts that get used for the bases of many S'porean/M'sian dishes from laksa lemak to soto ayam and in nearly all of our sambals (I think we have around 6 jars of different ones if you count freezer and fridge). Sambal belecan uses the most shrimp paste, and you can substitute the gkapi for the belecan. It stores in the fridge and then you stir in lime (preferably kalamansi) juice before you use it. One of my favorite ways to eat it is to smear it all over a skate wing and wrap that in banana leaf and then bbq.

I think one of the most worthwhile and time-consuming things to make with gkapi is homemade masaman paste, where you go all out and toast the chillies too. If you go to all that trouble, be sure to use lamb, not beef (or water buffalo if you can get it!). Too bad you're on the right coast, I have more kaffir limes right now then I know what to do with, my tree got cold and dropped them all!

Sorry to go on and on.

regards,
trillium

posted by trillium on 2007-01-26 18:10:56
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