hot/sour/sweet dressing or dipping sauce

this delicious dressing/dipping sauce is filled with goodness and will belt you in the head! so if you like stuff that belts you in the head - this one is a winner!

the salad pictured below is romaine chiffonade, frozen peas that are just barely thawed, cucumber, shrimp, blood oranges, fresh homegrown sprouts and the hot/sour/sweet dressing.

kymberz hot/sour/sweet dressing:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup of organic sugar
3 tablespoons of fermented fish sauce
2 tablespoons of unseasoned rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves (i always use 4 - we love garlic!)
1 tablespoon of homemade hot sauce (or store-bought)
1 jalapeno pepper with seeds, minced finely (if you don't have a jalapeno, you can probably substitute with canned jalepeno chopped finely, or red pepper flakes)

1. put all of the ingredients in a jar and shake until the sugar dissolves. put in the fridge for at least an hour to get a nice chill (when i made this the other day, i just put the jar out in the snow - bahahahah!)

this dressing can be used on any kind of salad of your choice. it is also great as a dipping sauce for vietnamese spring rolls or rice paper rolls. when i use it as a dipping sauce i always include a good handful of chopped up green onions.

enjoy! and if you have any questions - just leave them in the comments section.

Sushi, done Framboise Manor Style!

sushi. we looooove sushi! and had easy access to it back in the city. but not here, where the nearest town is over an hour away. and there is only one sushi restaurant on the whole island! we went to that restaurant once since being here. it was lovely. and very tame as people here on the island aren't very welcoming of new and exotic types of food. they want their meat and potatoes - and that is fine!

but we have been craving sushi for a while and as we will not waste the gas for a 3hour round-trip simply to get some sushi - we decided to make our own - woohoo! can't be that hard, can it?

we had crab (fresh-caught by our friend), avacado, cucumber, carrot strips, sticky rice and toasted some sesame seeds. all seemed to be going well until we remembered that we didn't have any bamboo rolling mats! no problem - i am the queen of improvisation! we'll use silicone baking mats instead.

woops! not so good. they started out looking really good, and professional, but fell apart when we opened the mat! have a peak at my attempt:




jambaloney almost made a roll out of his:



once we put some dipping sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger on the messes on our plates - it tasted fantastic! and just like sushi! it just looked bad! so until we get some proper sushi mats - we will make sushi salad instead. it contains all of the ingredients as above...but just looks better! and we are enjoying sushi again - finally!



a close-up:



oh and the dipping sauce is divine. plain soya sauce, a dollop of sesame oil, crushed ginger and garlic and wasabi to taste. i set up the dipping sauce in the traditional dippers for the pic...but when we eat the salad, we mix the wasabi into the sauce and then pour the sauce over the salad.

enjoy!