Burmese-style Bean Thread Noodle Salad

This Burmese-style Bean Thread Noodle Salad is spicy and delicious, full of tasty crispy pork, shrimp, fresh cilantro, chili peppers and lime juice. 

This salad recipe is a family favorite that my Burmese friend, Ma Toe, taught me many, many years ago, back when we were neighbors in a small oilfield town in Brazil. I loved our diverse expat community and learned recipes from all over the world from friends there. 

Aside from how tasty it is, the best thing about this salad is that it can be made a day or two ahead of time. It travels well and keeps for several days in the fridge. I tend to make a big batch even if it’s just my husband and me at home because we can eat this every day till it’s gone and never tire of it! I hope you like it as much as we do!

Burmese-style Bean Thread Noodle Salad 

Mung bean thread noodles are available in Asian markets and many regular supermarkets as well these days. They are also called simply bean thread noodles or glass noodles but do not mistake them for rice noodles!

Ingredients

1/4 cup or 20g dried shrimp (or 2 tablespoons dried shrimp powder)

8 oz or 227g ground pork (or sub turkey or chicken)

Fine sea salt

6 oz or 170g raw shrimp, weight already peeled (about 1 dozen medium)

8 oz or 227g mung bean thread noodles 

Chopped hot fresh bird’s eye chili peppers to taste  (I use 3-4 but we like things spicy.) 

1 large purple onion, very finely sliced

1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lime juice

1/4 cup or 60ml fish sauce

3/4 teaspoon sugar

1 big bunch of coarsely chopped coriander leaves (You can use the soft stems too, but they must be chopped very fine.)

Method

Pound the dried shrimp, if using, in a mortar to flatten them into a fluffy powder. Set aside. 

Lightly salt the pork and pan-fry it, separating it into crispy crumbles as it fries. If your pork is very lean, you might need a drizzle of oil to get it to get brown and crispy. Remove from the pan to cool and drain the fat off.

Shell, devein and chop the shrimp into two or three pieces. Lightly salt them and cook them in the pork pan till just pink. 

Soak the mung bean thread noodles in hot water for 10 minutes, until soft. 

Drain and immediately rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and set aside.  

Cut the noodles up with a pair of scissors a few times. This will make it easier to stir the other ingredients in. 

Put the sliced onions and chopped chili peppers in a bowl with the lime juice and set aside for a few minutes. The lime juice helps soften the bite of both the peppers and the raw onion. Add in the fish sauce and sugar to complete the dressing.

Put the drained noodles in a really big bowl, one big enough that you can stir without creating a big mess. Add in the chopped coriander and sprinkle with the shrimp powder. Mix thoroughly, using your clean hands, if that’s easier. 

Add the ingredients of the onion bowl and mix well.

Finally add the shrimp and pork and mix again. 

Taste and add more lime juice or fish sauce if necessary. Cover the bowl with cling film and keep chilled until ready to serve. 

We usually just eat this salad in small bowls with a fork, but it’s also excellent spooned into small lettuce leaves as a finger food, perfect for a party. You can put extra fish sauce and lime wedges out in case anyone would like to add more to their salad.

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and I’m hosting. Today just happens to be my birthday so I thought it would be fun to get all of my fellow bloggers to share recipes they’d bring to a birthday party potluck. Check out all the delicious dishes (and one drink!) I so wish I could actually enjoy in real life today!

• Bhagar Rice from The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen
• Borage Sparklers, Both Boozy and Not from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Burmese-style Bean Thread Noodle Salad from Food Lust People Love
• Cheeseburger Sliders with Homemade Slider Buns from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Eggless Gajar Halwa Cake - Carrot Halwa Cake from Sneha’s Recipe
• Four Cheese Ravioli Skillet from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• French Macarons from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Greek Feta Spread (Kopanisti) from Palatable Pastime
• Maple Panna Cotta With Roasted Figs from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese from Making Miracles
• Tandoori Aloo Platter from Sizzling Tastebuds

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Natural Rainbow Challah #BreadBakers

This natural rainbow challah is colored with spices, fruit and vegetables for a bright and festive look without artificial dyes. It would make a beautiful addition to any party table or weekend brunch. 

Here’s where I suggest, right up at the top, that if you plan to make this bread on the day you want to eat it, you will want to make your natural dyes a day ahead of time. None of this is hard to do but it is time consuming. 

Also, this would be a great project for Easter because you end up with way more dye than you need for this bread and it could be used up dying eggs the old fashioned way. I felt really bad tipping it all out when I was done, without another use for it. 

Natural Rainbow Challah

The inspiration for this challah was a post on the blog What Jew Wanna Eat and the recipe itself is a combo of that post and Joan Nathan’s favorite challah on New York Times Cooking. 

 

Ingredients

For the food coloring:

Pink - 1 small beet (about 3 oz or 85g)

Orange – 1- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground annatto aka achiote

Yellow – 1- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric

Green – 1 cup, packed, or 85g spinach leaves

Purple – 1 cup or 140g fresh or frozen blueberries 

Blue – unused cooked blueberry juice from purple + 1 teaspoon baking soda

For challah dough:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 packet

3/4 cups or 80ml warm water 

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil, plus more for dough bowls

1/4 cup or 60ml honey 

2 large eggs +1 egg white  (Save that 1 egg yolk for glazing)

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

5 cups or 625g bread flour, plus more as needed for kneading

Method

First, we’ll make the dye colors.

For the pink, boil your beet in just enough water to cover until tender. When it’s cool enough to handle, use a paper towel to push the peels off. Blend it in small food processor until smooth. Set aside to cool completely. 

For the green dye, simmer the spinach leaves or greens with a little bit of water in a covered skillet until they completely wilted. Blend in small food processor until smooth. Set aside to cool completely.

For the purple, simmer the fresh or frozen blueberries in 2 tablespoons water in a covered pot until they fall apart. Cool, drain, and reserve the liquid.

We'll make the blue out of the purple once we've used it to color one ball of dough by adding the baking soda to the balance. 

Now, make your challah dough. Prepare the yeast in a large mixing bowl for a stand mixer by whisking it with warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar. Leave it for a few minutes to activate the yeast. It should bubble up and get foamy. This means your yeast is live. 

Beat the oil and honey into the foamy yeast mixture. 

Add in the two eggs, one at a time, beating with each addition, then add the egg white. 

Beat in the remaining sugar and salt. 

Gradually add flour beating with each addition. As the dough gets thicker, you might need to change to the bread hook. 

When dough holds together and isn't too sticky, you are ready to start adding your natural dyes.

Divide your dough into six even pieces. I used a food scale to weigh them out. The dough weighed 1162g so each ball was approximately 94g.

Flatten out each piece one at a time (keep the others covered) and put some of each of the homemade food coloring in the middle of each one.  Fold the dough over the dye and pop it back in your stand mixer with the bread hook. Knead until the dye is thoroughly mixed in. 

I started with the easy ones that didn't add liquid, the annatto and turmeric! 

Add a little more flour or dye as needed. I had to hand knead some of mine as well to get the colors well mixed. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a greased bowl and cover lightly with cling film. 

Repeat with the four more dough balls, making a yellow one with the turmeric and adding a little flour as needed for the pink, green and purple dyes. 

Once you've colored the purple ball, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the blueberry juice. This will turn it a dark indigo blue. Color the final ball of dough with some of this and knead to incorporate it as you did with the others. 

Put the six dough balls in lightly oiled bowls and cover them with cling film. Leave them to rise in a warm place until they have at least doubled in size, about 1 hour. 

To form the rainbow challah, roll the colored balls into long tubes. 

Now braid and tuck by following these instructions here on the King Arthur Flour YouTube channel: How to braid a six-strand challah. They make the process much clearer than I ever could with words so I'm not even going to try to confuse you! 

Leave your challah to rise again on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, lightly covered, until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 

My latest wintertime trick is to heat a couple of inches of water to boiling in a bowl in the microwave. I open it quickly and set my baking pan on top, closing the door again swiftly. This creates a moist, warm environment for the dough to rise in.  Works like a charm as long as no one else needs the microwave for an hour or so.

When the challah is almost finished rising, preheat your oven to 350° F or 180°C. 

Whisk the egg yolk with 1/2 tablespoon water and generously brush the mixture over the challah.

Bake for 40-45 minutes in your preheated oven, rotating the pan halfway through. If it starts to brown too fast, make a foil tent to cover it. It’s done when the internal temperature reaches 190°F or 88°C.

Leave to cool then slice and enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means my Bread Bakers are out in force! Today we are sharing naturally colored breads. One over-achiever (looking at Kelly from A Messy Kitchen!) even baked two different breads. Check out all the links below. Many thanks to our host, Radha of Magical Ingredients for this fun and challenging theme!

• Beet Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Beetroot Pinwheel Paratha from Sneha's Recipe
• Callaloo Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Cranberry Cherry Raisin Bread from Palatable Pastime
• Matcha and Strawberry Cream Melonpan from Magical Ingredients
• Natural Rainbow Challah from Food Lust People Love
• Panini al Pomodoro from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Purple Sweet Potato Pepita Swirl Bread from A Messy Kitchen
• Spinach Monterey Jack Sourdough Bread from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Turmeric Milk Bread from Ambrosia
• Turmeric Sourdough from A Messy Kitchen

 

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Jalapeño Pecan Cheese Ball

This spreadable Jalapeño Pecan Cheese Ball is made with cream cheese and cheddar. It’s a spicy, creamy, crunchy, delicious, attractive addition to your party table. Watch it disappear!

Growing up I was not a fan of the cheese balls my paternal grandmother adored. But because she loved them, they always made an appearance at family gatherings around the holidays. I think my mom bought them for Gram from Hickory Farms but I’ll have to get back to you on that.

If you’ve been buying them too, I’m here to tell you how easy they are to make at home. The only challenging part is mixing the ingredients together since this makes a fairly firm ball. Roll up your sleeves and apply a little elbow grease to that wooden mixing spoon and you’ll be fine.

Jalapeño Pecan Cheese Ball

The ingredients below make one substantial cheese ball (about 1.1 lbs or 500g) but I can promise it will disappear in no time. We like to spread it on crackers or toast but you just might find yourself licking the knife when all of those are gone. Choose a dull one.

Ingredients

8 oz or 227g cream cheese, softened

4 oz or 113g sharp white cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups or 150g pecans

2 green onions

1 fresh jalapeño

4 soft sun-dried tomato halves (if in oil, drain and pat completely dry with paper towels)

To serve:

Crackers or toast rounds

Method

Grate the cheddar cheese. Finely mince the jalapeño, green onions and sun-dried tomatoes. Separate out about 1 tablespoon each of the vegetables to be used later when we roll the cheese ball. 

Chop the pecans finely.

In a bowl, use a wooden spoon or stiff spatula to combine the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, one quarter of the pecans (you can just eyeball this) and the bigger piles of jalapeño, green onions and sun-dried tomatoes until thoroughly blended. 

Form the mixture into a ball.

Cover your work surface with cling film. I find this works best if I wipe the countertop with a clean damp sponge first which helps the cling film stick and stay in place. Sprinkle the reserved minced jalapeño, green onions and sun-dried tomatoes onto the cling film. 

Top these with the remainder of the chopped pecans. Transfer the cheese ball to the middle. 

Dampen your hands with a little water to stop the cheese from sticking to them and then roll the cheese ball around on the pecans and veggies until it’s completely covered. You can keep rolling it, applying gentle pressure until most of the pecans have adhered to the ball. 

Pile any leftover pecan/veggie bits in the middle of your serving plate and, using your hands, pop the cheese ball on top, pressing down gently. 

Refrigerate the jalapeño pecan cheese ball, covered, for at least 1 hour to chill.

Serve with crackers or toasted rounds of bread.

Enjoy!

It’s the first Wednesday of the month so that means it’s time for my Foodie Extravaganza friends to get together to celebrate an obscure food holiday. This time it’s National Georgia Pecan Month! I can’t promise my pecans are from Georgia but this recipe certainly showcases my favorite nut. Check out the links to the other recipes below. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. 

• Autumn Flavored Rice Pilaf  by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Autumn Pecan Sourdough  by Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Candied Pecans by  Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chicken & Pecans Sandwich by Sneha's Recipe
• German Chocolate Banana Bread by The Spiffy Cookie
• Jalapeño Pecan Cheese Ball by  Food Lust People Love
• Pecan Chutney by Magical Ingredients
• Pecan Long Grain and Wild Rice (Instant Pot) by Palatable Pastime

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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Shrimp Salad Finger Sandwiches

Shrimp salad finger sandwiches with tiny shrimp, green onions and slightly spicy pink sauce are perfect for a tea party, brunch or shower. 

I’ve made shrimp salad before but always with normal sized shrimp, chopped up. In fact, this curried version is one of my favorite dishes of all time. Until I happened to notice them in the freezer section of my local grocery store, I didn’t even know that salad shrimp were a thing. 

Apparently the only thing that makes them “salad shrimp” is their diminutive size. To be labeled salad shrimp there must be more than 60 per pound. Who knew? I can say they make a lovely shrimp salad! They were great in these little finger sandwiches or you could heap this shrimp salad in avocado halves as a starter for your next dinner party, whenever THAT is possible again.  

Shrimp Salad Finger Sandwiches

If you can’t find salad shrimp, by all means use bigger ones and just chop them up with a sharp knife. All shrimp are good shrimp. For those of you around the world who call them prawns, those work as well. 

Ingredients

12 oz or 340g salad shrimp, thawed and drained, if frozen

2 green onions

1/2 cup or 120ml mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ketchup

1/4 teaspoon English mustard powder

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon hot sauce – optional but highly recommended

10 slices sandwich bread (the square kind)

Method

Pop the shrimp on a couple of paper towels to get rid of any excess water then discard the paper towels. 

Slice the green onions lengthwise, then chop them finely. Put them in a mixing bowl with the mayonnaise, ketchup, English mustard powder, black pepper and hot sauce, if using.  Mix thoroughly. 

Add in the shrimp and stir to combine. 

Refrigerate the shrimp salad until you are ready to assemble the sandwiches. 

When you are ready to assemble the sandwiches, use a serrated knife to cut the crusts off of your slices of sandwich bread, then cut each slice in half. 

Pile the shrimp salad on one half and then cover it with the other. 

Press down gently so the shrimp salad will stick to both sides of the sandwich. 

Continue until all the sandwiches are made and transfer them to a serving plate. If you aren’t serving the sandwiches immediately, slightly dampen a paper towel by flicking it with cold water. Cover the sandwiches with the paper towel then cover the paper towel and plate with cling film. The damp paper towel will keep the bread from drying out. 

Refrigerate until ready to serve. I also sprinkled on a little chopped green onion to pretty them up. 

Enjoy! 

January is Hot Tea Month so my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing recipes for tea drinks, something you would serve at a tea party, or anything that uses hot tea for cooking. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla. Check out all the links below. 

• Asian Rice Salad with Matcha Ginger Dressing by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Black Tea Noodles by Magical Ingredients
• Chilled Masala Chai Mousse by Sneha's Recipe
• Chinese Tea Eggs by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Earl Grey Hot Toddy by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Earl Grey Tea Bread by Palatable Pastime
• Peanut Butter Sugar Cookies with Plum Preserves by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Shrimp Salad Finger Sandwiches by Food Lust People Love
• Tea Infused Creamy Oatmeal by Making Miracles

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board

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Spicy Marinated Cheese

Spicy marinated cheese is not just pretty, it’s also delicious! It’s the perfect party food for the cheese lovers in your life. 

Personally I can, and often did, eat cheese in prodigious quantities sliced straight off the block or wedge. In fact, in a recent conversation with my primary care physician, I blamed cheese for my high cholesterol and (ahem) I’ve been cutting down on its consumption since. I’ve never smoked and I’m not much of a sweet eater. After alcohol, I’d call cheese my second vice. 

It’s hard to resist. 

I've been pretty good for weeks but today I’m going to eat spicy marinated cheese! My friend and fellow blogger Camilla is hosting our Sunday FunDay event today and she chose the theme holiday cheese boards, saying “Let's share recipes or tips for making holiday cheese boards. Think phyllo-wrapped baked cheeses, pickle relishes, homemade crackers, spiced nuts, and more. Anything you would put on a cheese board is fair game. Be as creative as you like!” This is like permission, right? 

Make sure you scroll down past my recipe to see what everyone else has made. 

Spicy Marinated Cheese

Start this recipe early in the day because it’s best if the cheese has at least eight hours to marinate. It can also be made one day ahead. My recipe is adapted from one on the blog The Kitchen is my Playground. 

Ingredients

8 oz or 227g block extra sharp cheddar cheese

8 oz or 227g block cream cheese

For the marinade:

1 red bell pepper aka (Br.E. capsicum)

3 cloves garlic

1 hot red chili pepper

1/2 cup or 120ml white balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup or 120ml extra-virgin olive oil

small bunch fresh parsley, leaves picked off

2 green onion tops, green part only

small bunch fresh basil, leaves picked off

few good grinds black pepper

Method

The first step in this recipe is to put your two cheeses in the freezer. They are much easier to slice neatly when well chilled. 

Secondly, we’ll roast the outside of the bell pepper in order to peel it. You can put it in a baking pan and use the broiler (making sure to turn the pepper often) or use a long fork to hold the red pepper over your gas stove till it chars and bubbles all over. 

Either way, once the pepper is properly charred, pop it in a plastic bag and close. Set aside. Once cooled, the peel will slip right off.

Mince the garlic and the hot chili pepper. Put them both in a clean jar with the vinegar. Add in the sugar and salt and give the jar a swish to help them dissolve. The vinegar helps reduce the sharpness of the garlic and chili pepper while simultaneously being infused with their flavors.  

Finely chop your parsley, onion tops and basil. Add the olive oil to the marinade jar along with the herbs. Give the jar a good shake. 

Use your clean hands to remove all of the skin off the bell pepper and a sharp knife to remove the core. Discard the seeds. Cut half of the bell pepper into thin strips, then small cubes. Run a knife through these a few times to mince. 

(Save the other half of the bell pepper for another recipe. It can be used in place of the jar of pimentos in my spicy pimento cheese recipe.)

Add the bell pepper to the marinade jar along with a few good grinds of black pepper and shake well to combine. 

Cut the block of cheddar in half lengthwise; then cut it crosswise into 1/4 in or 1/2 cm thick slices. Lay the cheddar out single file on your cutting board. 

Cut the cream cheese block in half lengthwise and put half back in the freezer. Cut the cream cheese in similarly thick slices. As you cut the cream cheese, place each piece on top of a piece of cheddar. This makes the cream cheese easier to handle because as it softens up, it will stick to whatever you set it on and it’s easier to handle if that’s not the cutting board. Get the other half out of the freezer and slice it up too, still setting each slice on top of the cheddar. 

Arrange your pairs of cheese slices in as small a dish as possible where they will fit comfortably without being too crowded. 

Give the marinade another good shake then spoon the more solid bits over the cheese squares. 

Pour the rest of the marinade over. 

Cover the dish with cling film and refrigerate it for at least eight hours.

To serve, transfer the cheese to a serving platter and spoon a little of the marinade over it. 

Save the rest of the marinade to use as salad dressing. It makes a wonderful vinaigrette. 

Serve the spicy marinated cheese with crackers or sliced baguette.

Enjoy! 

Check out all the other holiday cheese board posts my Sunday FunDay friends are sharing! Many thanks to Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for this fun theme and for hosting!

• Breakfast Charcuterie Board by Palatable Pastime
• Cheese Boards: A Feast for the Eyes and the Tastebuds by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Holiday Cheese Board Ideas by Making Miracles
• Homemade Grilled Veggie Cottage Cheese by Sneha's Recipe
• Honey Thyme Feta by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Marinated Cheese by Food Lust People Love

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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