I just had the best shopping day ever!!!!!
And I promise not to use successive exclamations points again, but I was excited.
First, the food….
These ‘egg noodles’ are my personal substitute for pasta. I’ve made them with various sauces for first courses. For a main course the recipe could be doubled or tripled.
They’re simply noodles made from eggs with a bit of flour added for more body.
Egg “Noodles” with Shrimp Puttanesca Sauce
Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- Noodles:
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/4 tsp flour
- 4 1/2 tsp milk
- 2 tsp oil
- Sauce:
- 1/2 medium leek, chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup (8oz, 240gr) chopped tomatoes
- 10 shrimp, cleaned
- 1/3 cup chopped olives, combination dry-cured Greek and green
- 2oz (60gr) feta, crumbled
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp olive oil
Instructions:
- Sauce:
- Heat olive oil in a small skillet. Add leeks, pepper sauté until tender
- Add chili powder, tomatoes, oregano and sauté until sauce is thick.
- Add shrimp and simmer until they turn opaque and curl.
- Add olives and heat through.
- Noodles:
- Put eggs in medium bowl and whisk well.
- Add flour, a little at a time, sprinkling it across the eggs, and whisking well after each addition. (Even better, have someone else add it while you whisk constantly) Try to avoid lumps.
- Add the milk and whisk well.
- Heat the oil in a medium nonstick skillet or omelet pan, 7 – 8″ (20cm) in diameter, over medium heat.
- Add 1/3rd of the egg mixture, tilting pan to cover well. Let cook, undisturbed for 1 – 2 minutes, until cooked through and top is dry. With a spatula, carefully turn and cook on the other side for 30 seconds. Remove to a plate. Do not keep warm.
- Repeat twice more.
- When eggs are done, and cooled slightly, roll each up like a cigar and slice 1/4″ (.75cm) strips. Egg Noodles!
- Divide strips in half and place on two plates. Divide shrimp, sauce and spoon over noodles.
- Garnish with feta and serve.
I found an Asian supermarket.
It’s not that I can’t find Asian foods here, I just haven’t been able to find everything I want and even when I do find what I’m looking for I may not find it again and / or it may be ridiculously expensive.
Like soy sauce….
For a year or so I was able to find litre (32oz) bottles of soy sauce for around $7.00. Recently all I find are small bottles, 250ml (8oz) for 5.00.
Or water chestnuts….
There is only one small shop that ever has them, they only have them about 25% of the time and they cost 4.00 for a small can.
Most of what I want is only available during Chinese New Year.
You can see why I was excited.
I was expecting a large store with a good selection.
It was a huge store with an absolutely, incredibly, amazing selection.
I wandered up and down the aisles with a stupid grin on my face, feeling like I had just stepped into supermarket heaven.
They had everything – woks and steamer baskets and cooking utensils and rice bowls and soup spoons.
There was Vietnamese and Indian and Thai and Japanese and Chinese foods.
There were 5 kilo sacks of all types of rice and 5 litre boxes of soy sauce.
The noodle aisle had all sizes and lengths of rice noodles and wheat noodles and soba noodles and noodles that I didn’t know..
There was every conceivable size, style and type of sauce: hot sauces, oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, mushroom soy sauce….Two aisles of sauces.
And spices and herbs and vinegars and miso and mirin and sake and, and, and…..
I found mung beans and soy beans and black beans and black-eyed peas; white lentils and green lentils and brown lentils and red lentils.
I found water chestnuts for 1.00 and all sorts of cans of things I was clueless about.
And I haven’t even covered half of the store yet!
The produce section was incredible: banana leaves and nori and rambutans and lemon grass and fresh bean sprouts and lots of stuff I’m clueless about and lots of stuff even my favorite Gran Frais doesn’t have..
The freezer section had pork buns and shrimp buns and nem and egg rolls and peeled, raw shrimp. I’ve never seen peeled raw shrimp here.
Okay, that’s enough. You get the idea.
Fortunately, I had decided ahead of time that I wasn’t actually going to do any shopping. This first visit was just to see what they had. I’ll take the trailer when we go back.
Tomorrow I’ll show you what ‘not shopping’ looks like sitting on my counter.
I was kind of excited.
As if that wasn’t enough for one day, then we went to the garden store.
Time to reacquaint myself with ‘1.000 Recipes Chinese Cookbook’.
Does this mean we’ll see more Asian recipes? Yours work and we like them.
P.S. I don’t see tomatoes in your ingredient list
I love a bit of non shopping so I am looking forward to the pics !!
that cookbook has been my favorite since 1993 when I found it in San Francisco. I learned so much about technique I will never give it up.
Yes do take the trailer when you go back Katie. We are lucky to have an amazing Asian market as well.
but you haven’t told us where the supermarket is!
I am so pleased it had the same effect on you as it has on me, Katie. I have to restrict my purchases to what we can use whilst in France and the packet of crystallised ginger I can pack in my suitcase! I am looking forward to your pics and any recipes that are a consequence of your ‘non shopping’.Is the garden store nearby? We haven’t found that.
I’m asking the same question Jane did. Where is the store? And why did it take you so long to find it?
You must have thought you’d gone to heaven. Definitely looking forward to the recipes that will result from your non-shopping…
I’m happy for you – always fun when a whole new culinary world opens up!
Karen, yes…. I’m excited to start playing. And I fixed. I was rearranging the list and must have deleted it
Kate, one’s self-control can only be so strong LOL
deebar, mon mari gave it to me for Christmas back in the beginning of time…. It’s a wonderful book and I haven’t used it in a bit.
Val, I’m really looking forward to it – I want to buy some of the dishes as well as the food…
Jane, in Bordeaux – Bordeaux Lac, near Ikea.
Gill, we go to the big Jardiland on the other side, right were the motorway heads off the rocade towards Toulouse. It’s on our way home.
nightsmusic, it’s in an area we go to often, but kind of tucked out of the way. And usually our list of errands is long enough that we don’t explore. Even knowing where it was it took a bit to find it.
Zoomie, so nice to be able to find this kind of food again. Can’t wait to start playing.
Supermarket heaven, indeed. I know that feeling. I get it at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Madison has an Asian market, or had one when I lived there, and I loved it. Then there was one on North Third Street in Milwaukee that was fascinating. So much fun – because in winter and early spring, that’s the kind of food I want.
It’s exciting when you find just the right place to shop….an Asian supermarket sounds just my kind of space. Love the pasta and shrimp combo.
Katie. I think I will try the noodles. Ate a Paleo wrap yesterday made from eggs and tapioca flour. Very bland and a bit cardboardish. These sound more like a crepe. I’ll let you know what I think.
Mimi, It really was fun just finding stuff I’ve been missing forever.
Minnie, it was fun – and they have a buffet for next time LOL
Gill, These are heavier than a crepe – but don’t have to be at all bland. Don’t think they’e work for a wrap but great for noodles.