Tag: mango

Shrimp and Strawberry Summer Rolls

Well Dined | Shrimp and Strawberry Summer Rolls

Shrimp and Strawberry?  Do you think I sound crazy right now?  Trust, young padawans, and learn the ways of combining sweet and savory.  Rice noodles, pickled veg (and mango!), basil, mint, scallions, shrimp, and strawberries are combined in a rice wrapper for the ultimate summer freshness.  Served with a delicious peanut sauce for dipping – get in my face!

Well Dined | Shrimp and Strawberry Summer Rolls

I had seen a blog photo ages ago that I loved on this site, but I was scared to try it because I had never made summer rolls before and it seemed finicky.  Then I was over at a friend’s house for dinner and that is what we made!  It was a bit tricky, but not as scary as I had imagined.  She was a pro, so I asked her to help me make my shrimp and strawberry rolls.  Then I looked at the recipe for the photo I loved, and wasn’t a big fan of the ingredients.  I wanted noodles instead of cabbage, and mango instead of bell pepper.  So I switched some things around.

Well Dined | Shrimp and Strawberry Summer Rolls

Then we got to work!  She was skeptical of my flavor combo, but ended up loving it.  You can see the progression here from back to front where I put the ingredients on in the wrong order so the pretty parts didn’t show, then exploded one, then finally got some decent rolls.  The good news is – it doesn’t matter if you don’t get the best looking rolls, they still taste amazing! (more…)

Shrimp Packets with Mango Salsa

Well Dined | Shrimp Packets with Mango Salsa

Here’s a fun summer dish for camping, grilling, or even using the oven (which is what I did).  It’s easy, fast, filling, and healthy.

Well Dined | Shrimp Packets with Mango Salsa

Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray (I used coconut oil) and raw shrimp, couscous, and a big handful of spinach.  Cook using your method of choice for about 10 minutes – steam will fill the foil packet and cook all the ingredients.

Well Dined | Shrimp Packets with Mango Salsa

Open up the packets and add in a fresh salsa made with avocado, mango, tomato, red onion, and lime juice.  You can eat straight out of the packets, or transfer to a bowl.  Either way, this fresh dish is sure to please the whole family! (more…)

Kanikama Salad

Well Dined | Kanikama Salad

Kanikama is the imitation crab meat you find in cheap sushi rolls.  It is made from white fish (pollock usually) that is formed and colored to look like crab.  Sounds gross, but is actually pretty tasty – and way cheaper than real crab.  Kanikama salad is a pretty typical way to prepare imitation crab outside of sushi rolls.  It usually involves kanikama, shredded vegetables, and mango in a light mayonnaise based dressing and is sometimes topped with tobiko.

My version is kanikama and mango over lettuce, served with avocado (I meant to get tobiko, too, but I forgot!)  This is really light and refreshing, and a little bit sweet – perfect for summer.  It’s important to realize that Japanese mayo is different from American – it is lighter, thinner, and made with rice wine vinegar.  For my dressing, I bought Yum Yum sauce thinking it would be good as is (it’s a mayonnaise based sauce that they use at Hibachi grill restaurants).  But when I tried it out, it was a bit too sweet and bland.  So I added a splash each of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, mirin, and toasted sesame oil (easy on that last one, it is very strong).

I don’t really have a recipe – it’s more of a play with seasonings til you like it kind of thing.  You could add in julienned carrots, cucumber, even summer squash.  You could dice the avocado and fold it in with the mango (which I did on subsequent days).  You could toss the lettuce in the dressing as well, instead of setting the dressed kanikama on top.  There are lots of ways that you can make this your own.  Leave a comment telling me how you like your kanikama salad!

Well Dined | Kanikama Salad

Juicing

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About a month ago I got really excited about juicing after watching a documentary called “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.”  The man in the film goes on a 2 month long juice fast, which I was definitely not prepared to do.  I wasn’t even prepared to do the more standard 7-10 day juice fast.  But I did like the idea of using juices to consume large quantities of raw vegetables in a more palatable manner.  So I bought a ton of veggies and went to work.

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I started with a recipe from the doc’s website and added a little to it, using carrots, bell pepper, apple, ginger, golden beet, fennel, and mango.

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Gorgeous color!  I used too much ginger, though, it had quite a kick. (more…)

4th of July

It’s a little late, I know.  But I did some cool things for the holiday that I thought would be worth sharing.

First up, burgers:

I thought that mixing shredded cheddar and diced bacon into the burgers themselves instead of using them as a topping would be pretty tasty, and I was right!  I also added in pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, and paprika (no salt b/c I figured the bacon would be enough).  I didn’t really measure, but you can get an idea for the proportions here.

Next up – jello shots!

I am kind of obsessed with jello shots right now.  Not the kind you made in college in the little cups that tasted like Everclear, but the fun, creative, tasty kinds found on Jelly Shot Test Kitchen.  These are solid enough to stand on their own in little cubes (or whatever shape you cut them into).  I haven’t gotten too fancy with cutouts and shapes yet, but I am getting pretty good at doing layers. (more…)