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.