Colorful Cold Entree

Pulling together all the elements to make this month's #LetsLunch theme Cold Entree was so much fun! I love creating from existing ingredients as well as using fresh and new ingredients.

I already had grilled hoisin pork shoulder and cooked cold whole wheat linguine so those were the basis of my dish. All I needed was to build on top...some spicy shrimp to contrast the sweet hoisin pork. Then layering bright colored stir fried vegetables in an interesting pattern. I slathered Annie's shitake sesame dressing over the linguine which was exactly the flavor I was looking for.

A very typical topping in Malaysia and Singapore are crispy shallots but I only had red onion. They would not crisp up even though I fried it exactly how I would have done with the shallots. However, they did caramelize nicely and gave a wonderful sweetness to round out this wonderful Cold Entree.

I can't wait to see what my other #LetsLunch buddies made, always so creative and the best is hearing the stories behind the dish! I'll be adding their links below, so please come back and visit.

I just got my copy of Cheryl Tan's A Tiger in the Kitchen, a Memoir of Food and Family but I've not had a chance to read it yet. I got sucked into her story after reading the prolog on Amazon and just knew I had to have it! I'm a newbie on Amazon but quickly found that if you order over $25, you get free shipping. Cheryl spearheads #LetsLunch and organizes us all with our posts. I'm not sure how she does this as well as her book tour! Visit her wonderful blog, also named A Tiger in the Kitchen, to find out how to join #LetsLunch, I've met the neatest food bloggers.

Colorful vegetables ready for the stir fry.

Stir fried veggies with tea seed oil, then added dash of tamari and sherry

Marinaded shrimp with TSPC
(tamari, sherry, white pepper and cornstarch)
with a little chili garlic sauce.

Assembling the ingredients.

Cathy‘s Jasmine Tea-Poached Shrimp Summer Rolls at Showfood Chef

Cheryl's Spicy Sichuan Sesame Noodles at A Tiger in the Kitchen

Linda‘s Gazpacho Rolls Gone Wrong at Free Range Cookies

Lisa‘s Byron Sprout Salad with Chargrilled Chicken at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Mai‘s Strawberry Soup at Cooking in The Fruit Bowl

Maria‘s Croque Monsieur with Bechamel at Maria’s Good Things

Rebecca‘s Cold Roasted Lamb with Mustard & Rosemary at Grongar Blog

Victor‘s Seafood Napoleon at The Taste of Oregon

Summer Snacks with Gancia Prosecco

Everything came together easily for this #LetsLunch post, Summer Snacks with Bubbly. I didn't have to cook anything from scratch, it was a matter of gathering and working out what goes with what. For me, it's always about flavor, texture and color. My handpainted ceramic tray was perfect to present these Summer Snacks.
Happy 2nd anniversary to #LetsLunch and thanks to Cheryl Tan for organizing this monthly Twitter 'lunchdate". It's fun to be part of your lovely group and learn how others come up with their dishes. Please visit other #LetsLunch links below...

Snack 1:
Grilled Hoisin Pork Shoulder, Mango and Pineapple Salsa, Figs
I used pork shoulder instead of my usual ribs as I was experimenting this dish for a foodies pot luck gathering. It was a perfect 'snack' to serve cold and thinly sliced with a dollop of its juice. The juice had gelled after refrigeration overnight (I thought of heating it up but would have been too runny.) Because of its sweetness from the hoisin sauce, I needed a bit of tartness to contrast its flavor. Well, I had made a mango, pineapple chayote, shallot, grape tomato salsa. All the salsa had in it was a little salt, lime juice and rice wine vinegar. Since the dish had 3 compartments, I filled the last one with fresh sliced figs to make it look good. But, after taking the shots, I put the fig on the sliced pork and they were a perfect combination!

Snack 2:
Grilled Tamari Tempeh, Ginger Dressing, Kimchi, Kiwi
The tempeh was slathered with tamari and truffle olive oil and grilled to give it texture and color. Tempeh on its own tends to be a bit dry, so I put a little Makoto Ginger Dressing in my square spoon I got from CB2, finally got to use it. The kimchi went really well with the tempeh and kiwi dressed up the plate and a little tart and refreshing bite.
Snack 3:
Walnuts, Crispy Goji Berries, Kasugai Peanuts
These kind of snackies go so well with bubbly. I brought back these Kasugai Peanuts and Crispy Goji Berries from Hong Kong. Goji were EXPENSIVE but delicious and very addictive. More about both here.
and
Snack 4:
Cold Baby Portobello Mushrooms
I simply stir fried baby portobello mushrooms and added a sprinkle of lime juice and tamari. I love mushrooms in all shapes and sizes, dried or fresh. A few foodie bloggers talked about having a mushroom gathering.

Bubbly:
Chilled Gancia Prosecco
I love bubbly, it goes with EVERYTHING especially Asian food. It's light and not too sweet, I was introduced to pairing Asian food with prosecco/champagne by a wine supplier. Those champagne flutes were hand painted by an artist friend and were in our goodie bags at a wedding! What a great idea.

Here's a wonderful story about how the first Italian prosecco got started.

I obviously ate the props!

Victor‘s Parmesan Crisps with Goat Cheese, Fig & Prosciutto Spread at The Taste of Oregon

Denise's Home Cured Gravlax at Chez Us

Cathy's Truffled Potato Chips - Peruvian Purple Potatoes at Showfood Chef

Charles‘s Salmon Tartare with an Asian Twist at The Taste of Oregon

Cheryl's Cheddar Pecan Crisps: Bubbly Friendly Bits at Tiger in the Kitchen

Caitlin‘s Gruyere Lace Cookies at Caitlin Shetterly

Charissa‘s Bacon, Apple & Swiss Quiche at Zest Bakery

Ellise‘s Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Palmiers at Cowgirl Chef

Emma‘s Cold-Cured Salmon Bites at Dreaming of Pots and Pans

Linda‘s Cheese Straw Crackers at Free Range Cookies

Lisa‘s Salmon Tartare at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Maria‘s Parmesan Toasts at The Bubbly Girl

Rashda‘s Samosa-Shingara Pies at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Steff‘s Stuffed Figs, Parmesan Crackers & Spicy Cheesy Pecans at The Kitchen Trials

Turnip, Pork Soup (Cook Like A Wok Star 3.0)

Turnip, Chinese Mushroom, Pork Soup. I had with a little red rice.

While making this Turnip, Chinese Mushroom and Pork Soup, the smells and all the tasting was such a tease! I couldn't stop diving into it and had an early lunch! Today's 'thought process' and part of Cook Like A Wok Star series was how to use the same ingredients to make a soup and also a stew! I even videotaped some of this and I'm learning how to edit and piece it together. I'll let you know when I upload to youtube, don't laugh at my attempt, at least I'm trying.

I'm very excited to be invited to join #LetsLunch, a group of wonderful food bloggers I met through twitter! You can see my twitter feed in the sidebar. Someone thinks up a category and everyone goes off and creates a dish, take photos and writes a blog post and link to each other. Today's liquid lunch is a tribute to @geokaren who's had to have surgery and wasn't able to eat solids. Keep checking back for the latest updates at the bottom of this post!

I love using my cast iron wok to stir fry my veggies and meat prior to transferring to a claypot to make soup! This wok is the best material for getting the veggies crunchy and also to sear the marinaded sliced pork shoulder. Because I don't teach using 'recipes', this is a very rough guideline to the ingredients and seasonings I used. I'll be using these same ingredients to make a stew right after posting this, so I hope you'll come back for that.

Korean turnip, Chinese mushrooms rehydrating, carrots, ginger, garlic, scallions

Leave chopped veggies on cutting board. I added in onions.

Chicken broth, tamari, sherry & pepper seasonings to flavor the soup.

TSPC: tamari, sherry, pepper, cornstarch to marinade sliced pork shoulder
4 basic seasonings I use to marinade protein or make sauce.

Stir fry veggies in my cast iron wok with a little oil, garlic, ginger.
Frying your veggies first saves you a cleanup step!

Stir fry pork with a little oil and garlic, ginger in my cast iron wok.
Add pork to claypot, done!

Do visit these other fabulous bloggers and their liquid lunches:
(I took the liberty of copying this list from Cheryl's list!)

Cheryl's Miso Bacon Corn Chowder at A Tiger in the Kitchen. Congratulations to Cheryl on her recent book, A Memoir of Food and Family!

Caitlin‘s Spring Greens Soup with Homemade Baguette at Caitlin Shetterly

Ellise‘s Cucumber-Avocado Gazpacho at Cowgirl Chef

Linda‘s Crack Pie-Inspired Shake at Free Range Cookies

Mai‘s Peanut Butter-Espresso Smoothie at Cooking in The Fruit Bowl

Rashda‘s Spring Pea & Mint Soup at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Steff‘s Gazpacho at The Kitchen Trials