second stop - a delightful salad

See the line-up for this progressive dinner from my foodies.

From Quechee VT comes our next course, her version of a Vietnamese salad called Bún Thịt Nướng. Carol Egbert is a multi-talented individual and her recipes are exceptional in appearance and taste. You need to visit her blog to view the excellent artwork - like I said she has many wonderful things going.

Bún - My Way

I thawed and brined eight large shrimp for about an hour in a bowl of cold water mixed with two tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of salt. To prepare the vegetables, I peeled the bottoms of the asparagus, sliced the onion in quarter inch slices and the red pepper in one inch squares, rinsed the jalapeño but left it whole, grated a tablespoon of ginger and a large clove of garlic with a micro plane. To soften the rice noodles, I put them in a pot of boiling water, turned of the heat, covered the pot, after ten minutes, I rinsed the noodles in cold water and drained them. A handful of noodles about an inch and a half in diameter was the perfect amount for two, so sweet Rosie was disappointed when there were no noodles in her bowl at dinner. While the vegetables cooked on the grill pan, I made a simple sauce of equal parts of lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. I put the vegetables onto a platter as they finished cooking and grilled the shelled and deveined shrimp. In a wok, I quickly sautéed the garlic and ginger in a tablespoon of oil, added the noodles and sauce, gave a quick stir and turned off the heat.

Time to build individual salads in large bowls. Begin with shredded, lettuce, noodles next, then vegetables and shrimp, top with chopped peanuts and any of the sauce still in the wok and the minced grilled jalapeño.