Spring Roll Salad

This recipe is very tasty, but it something you should make on a lazy sunday - it has a lot of steps, but together they turn out really well.  Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

Ingredients

12 oz fresh shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 T olive oil
3 T soy sauce
4 oz thin rice noodles
2 carrots, grated
2 T fresh mint, chopped
3 T fresh cilantro, chopped
2 chives or green onions, chopped
1/2 c roast peanuts, chopped
1/2 cucumber, cut into matchsticks.

For the Peanut Sauce

3 medium shallots, unpeeled
1 C coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
1/2 t cayenne pepper (optional)
1.5 T soy sauce
2-3 T lime juice

For the Tamarind Sauce

4 T sugar
3/4 c boiling water
2 T fresh lime juice
4 T tamarind concentrate
2 T soy sauce
2 t fresh cilantro, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

1) To make the peanut sauce, place the shallots on a foil-covered baking tray, and roast at 375F for 30-35 minutes, until very tender.
2) After the shallots have cooled, squeeze the pulp out of the skins into a small bowl
3) Combine with coconut milk, peanut butter, cayenne, soy sauce, and lime juice, and blend until smooth. Cover and set aside.
4) While the shallots are cooking, toss the mushrooms in the olive oil and soy sauce.  Spread on a foil-covered baking sheet and cook about 40 minutes, until the mushrooms are browned and slightly shrunken.
5) To make the tamarind sauce, combine the sugar and boiling water until the sugar is dissolved.
6) Add the lime juice, tamarind, soy sauce, garlic, and cilantro, and stir until blended. Cover and set aside.
7) Bring a pot of water to boil, remove from heat, add the noodles, and let them sit 3-4 minutes until tender.
8) Drain and rinse noodles with cold water for about 30 seconds.
9) Toss noodles with herbs, carrots, cucumber, and peanuts.
10) Serve noodles with mushrooms and both sauces.