Chinese Take-in at the Crispy Cook

So Gluten-Free Gobsmacked has been tempting me for many months now with a recipe for Shrimp Dim Sum Balls and I finally got around to corraling the ingredients and making a batch. I tried the Shrimp Balls with a beard of rice vermicelli coating (Dan likes them that way) as in Gobsmacked's original recipe



and without

(us chicks preferred ours nude)

They were yummy bits of shrimp goodness either way and so we over-gorged on them and were unable to feast on the beautiful and tasty Spring Rolls that I also made that evening. It was okay, though, since they are nice cold and we tucked them in our respective lunch pails the next day.



I had a dickens of a time trying to break up the rice vermicelli noodles, though. I I used my hands and kitchen shears and just had to wrestle with them to get them into 1/2 inch pieces. They kept sproinging all over my kitchen and I'm finding them still as I sweep and clean up days later. I would just avoid them.

I also also added an 8 oz. can of sliced water chestnuts to the shrimp goo mixture in the food processor, as well as a bit of soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic powder. I also made a nice dipping sauce for both the shrimp balls and the spring rolls out of soy sauce, red pepper flakes, brown sugar and sesame oil. With a little pickled ginger on the side, it was a heavenly feast.

For the spring rolls I softened up some rice wrappers in water and then filled them with a stir-fry of 1/4 head cabbage, some chopped mint and cilantro from the garden, 5 cloves garlic, 2 shredded carrots and the remaining rice vermicelli that I gave up on bearding my shrimp balls with and tossed in hot oil in the wok until puffy and CRISPY.

And of course, Crispy is always good.