When you want something done right...

[Mercy]

K. and I love to cook so eating out or ordering delivery is usually reserved for those things beyond our kitchen's means. Shrimp toast is one of those exceptions and we make Chinese restaurant choices based on who has it on the menu. In a town with almost as many Chinese restaurants as petrol stations, shrimp toast has fallen off the menus of all but the worst restaurant in our area. Long story short-- we just finished consuming the best shrimp toast I have ever eaten.., made in our own little kitchen. They were so good, we stood at the counter eating them as they cooled to tolerable temperature. Did I mention that it was easy-peasy?

We minced and mixed 15 medium shelled/deveined shrimp, about a third of a tin water chestnuts, and roughly a tablespoon of fresh ginger. Mixed in some chopped spring onion (scallion) from our "garden", half a beaten egg, a splash of sesame oil and half a tablespoon cornstarch. Three slices of butter wheat bread lost their crusts to the compost then smeared from edge to edge with the paste mixture. Each slice of paste-slathered bread was cut corner to corner then plated to sit in the freezer while the oil came to temperature. We fried five at a time in 360° oil paste down for a couple of minutes, then rolled them over for another minute. They were divine dipped in a little Caravelle sweet chilli sauce, which is sort of like duck sauce with kick.

Anyone else ever try recreating a dish from a restaurant?

[erm2003]

One of the big things I tried making well was a good alfredo sauce. Seems simple enough, yet it can be hard to find the right combo of cheese and garlic. I think I really got it right when I noticed our local grocery store sold a grated combo of asiago, parmesan, and provolone cheeses. I would put some garlic and butter in a saucepan, let the garlic cook for a few, added cream (I used a light cream to make it a slightly bit better for you), let the cream get up to temperature (keep on stirring and have patience), then slowly sprinkle in and mix the cheese until it's melted in. A little cracked pepper and I had a damn good sauce.

[Brasel]

My wife routinely looks up recipes from Disney World restaurants and makes them. They're usually pretty tasty. She made an awesome Mediterranean pizza one time.