Social Distancing addendum

In my last post, I wistfully anticipated spring weather when I could get outside to do yard work or gardening or biking. So naturally today is cold and rainy with slushy snow predicted overnight. According to the Farmer's Almanac, spring is supposed to arrive tonight. But it's still March in Minnesota.

The dismal weather today is distressing for two reasons. First, the weather adds to all the other bad news about the pandemic and the economy and just makes it worse. Second, no morning walk and no afternoon walk to get some fresh air. I spent the whole day reading and staring at my computer screen ... and I didn't see anything to cheer me up. In fact, mid-afternoon I began to feel dizzy and clammy and I worried that maybe I was coming down with the coronavirus. I took my temperature, and it's still normal. So I think it was just nerves.

As I wrote in my last post, cooking provides a creative outlet for the tension and is helping keep me from getting totally stir-crazy. Last night for dinner, I made quinoa cakes and roasted Brussels sprouts. It's a dish that I enjoyed in San Francisco last June at the Sparrow in San Francisco. I wrote about it last June. (Click here.)

The night before, I adapted a couple of recipes to use up some leftover rice noodles that we had in the fridge. It turned out so well that I'm going to make a regular part of my repertoire.

My main inspiration was a recipe from Epicurious: Sesame Rice Noodles with Shrimp. That original recipe called for Sriracha. I didn't have any and besides, my wife doesn't like hot spicy sauce like that, so I left it out. The recipe also called for julienne cucumbers. I didn't have cucs, so left them out. And it called for scallions; I substituted thin-sliced onions. But the biggest change I made was the preparation. The original recipe calls for marinating the vegetables and just adding them to the cooked shrimp and noodles. But we wanted a stir fry, so that's what I did.

The final adaptation was how I did the noodles. The original recipe called for adding the cooked shrimp and marinated vegetables to cooked noodles. But I was working with cold, leftover cooked noodles from the fridge. So I added the noodles and the sauce to the stir fry and then mixed them all together with the stir fried shrimp and vegetables.

I didn't try to come up with a creative name for my revised recipe. I settled for a simple descriptive name. Here it is:

Stir fried shrimp and vegetables with rice noodles

An improvised stir fry

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar, divided
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup peeled, julienned carrots
• 1 cup julienned radishes
• 1/2 white onion, cut in half vertically and sliced thin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 lb rice noodles
• 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds (black or regular)

PREPARATION

Prepare the rice noodles according to package directions. After the noodles have softened, drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together soy sauce, 1 tablespoon vinegar, oil, garlic, and honey. In a separate bowl, toss together carrots, radishes, onions, remaining 3 tablespoons vinegar and salt. Let stand 10 minutes, tossing occasionally.

In a wok or large saute pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the marinated vegetables. Stir fry briefly until crisp and tender. Push the veggies to the outside of the pan and add the shrimp. Stir fry until pink and just cooked through. Remove the shrimp and veggies from the pan.

Add the drained noodles to the pan and begin to stir fry. After just a minute, add the sauce. Continue to stir and fry until heated through and noodles are well-coated with sauce. Add the shrimp and veggies. Stir fry and toss until thoroughly combined. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.