Adventures in Ramen

First of all, I have to share this with you. I bought more baby bok choy for super cheap at T&T last week, and as I was cutting it and cleaning it to put in this soup I'm about to tell you about, I came across a nice little surprise:


Yes, it's a nice juicy caterpillar! It was dead. But it totally grossed me out to the point where I had to chuck out the rest of the head.

Anyway, on this trip to T&T (I went to the bigger store at Surrey Central), in addition to buying bok choy, I wanted some soup. I love ramen. I know I should not, but there you go. There is a TON of ramen and ramen-like instant noodle packages at T&T it's almost ridiculous. I hardly knew what to choose because I wasn't used to any of the brands other that Sapporo Ichiban, and that was 99¢/package and there was stuff there that was way cheaper. I went for some that was 39¢/package, made by this company from Thailand. The noodles are called Mama something, the something being in the Thai language that I obviously don't read. But this is basically the deal:


Inside the package with the noodles were 3 seasoning packs. One was a powder, one was a paste, and one was marked chili powder. The paste had a shrimpy scent to it, which made sense because it was a package of shrimp-flavoured noodles. I tossed the chili powder.

This is the soup I made, with shrimp and caterpillar-free bok choy:


I will never buy Sapporo Ichiban again! This was great. There was a bit of heat in it, and it did not have a salty fake taste to it like other ramen. This tasted like a more "authentic-ish" broth. The noodles were better, too.

And at 39¢ you can't go wrong, really. I have two more packages in the pantry, one is chicken.

And I think I'll be giving bok choy a break for a while...

Cooking with Kylie: Wonton Soup

All right, after last week's dreary chicken noodle soup, I decided to use some of the left over stock for wonton soup. I just love wontons and wonton soup! And luckily, Kylie's wonton recipe is one of the best I've ever made. You can find the recipe for the wontons here; it's the same one that appears in this post.

When I made this batch of wontons, I saved myself a lot of hassle by whizzing the ingredients all up in the food processor. This was most excellent. Again, I used my #100 cookie scoop, which is about 1 tsp, to easily fill the wonton wrappers.

Because I knew beforehand that the stock needed help, I was able to tweak it so it was flavourful - and I did a damned awesome job, if I do say so myself. I made half a recipe and got two meals out of it.

Prawn Wonton Soup (adapted by me from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 46)

1/2 bunch of bok choy
3 cups Chinese chicken stock
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sake
2 tbsp oyster sauce
green onions, sliced, for garnish

wontons

Simmer everything except the bok choy & green onions for a few minutes. I boiled the wontons in a separate pot because I didn't want a starchy soup. When wontons are done, add to soup with the bok choy & simmer for a minute. Serve with green onions.
The chicken noodle soup failure was a good learning experience, because this soup was far more flavourful than the chicken noodle soup. In fact, it was fantastic! The wontons were also fan-fracking-tastic! It is so worth it to make homemade wontons, I think.

So this was another winning Kylie recipe!

Cooking with Kylie: Prawn WonTons

I adore a good wonton, so it was only a matter of time before I made one of Kylie's recipes for these wonderful meat-filled noodles. What attracted me to this recipe for Prawn Wontons with Spring Onion, Ginger, and Vinegar dressing was the lightness of it: prawn wontons with a simple vinaigrette sounded like comfort food without the heaviness often associated with comfort foods.

Once again, I was not disappointed.

The recipe for this dish is HERE.

Here's how it went.

First of all, I made the dressing, which was easy-peasy. It had an ingredient in it I'd never used before called kecap manis. From what I gathered, this is a condiment similar to soy sauce, but in addition to having soy sauce in it, it also has molasses. It's a little thicker than soy sauce, but it has a richer, more complex flavour. It was really good. The dressing was delicious, and I could see a version of it being used in other dishes as well as with these wontons.

Wontons are easy to make but do take a bit of patience. Again with this recipe, I halved the ingredients, and so I used 150g of my medium shrimp that I usually have in the freezer. To fill the wrappers, I used my #100 cookie scoop, which is about 1 tsp. Using the scoop makes wonton so much easier.

I didn't shape mine in Kylie's way, but I don't think that matters too much. After boiling them, they were ready to be bathed in dressing!This was delicious, absolutely delicious! I was kicking myself for only making 1/2 a recipe because I wanted MORE! Once again, this was very simple to make & put together, just as the cookbook title suggests. Another awesome Kylie recipe!

Cellophane Noodle Salad

I had a lot of left overs from the Hot Sour Salty Sweet meal, and I hate stuff withering to waste in my fridge. I had a bunch of cellophane noodles (AKA bean threads) left over from the salad rolls I made as well as a whole bunch of herbs from the herb and salad plate; I also had a lot of lime wedges left over, and I had a decent amount of the Must Have Table Sauce (nuoc cham) sitting in the fridge, too. As I was wondering what to do with this all, I happened upon a recipe in HSSS for Cellophane Noodle Salad with Oyster Mushrooms (p. 144). In reading it through, I got the idea to use up my leftovers in a similar salad.

Cellophane Noodle Salad with Chicken & Herbs

1 chicken breast, cooked, cooled and diced
1 bunch cellophane noodles/bean threads, cooked according to package directions, cooled & snipped into manageable lengths
1 cup chopped mixed herbs: I used mint, cilantro, and basil
2 sliced green onions
juice of half a lime
1/3 recipe nuoc cham (recipe to follow)

Toss everything together gently in a large bowl.

This was fantastic! The flavours were so bright and fresh! My tongue practically danced!

Now, for the nuoc cham, or Vietnamese Must Have Table Sauce (p. 28 HSSS), adapted by me

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, grated or minced

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Enjoy!

Family Feasting

I thought, for a quick Friday post, I'd share with you some food made by other members of my family. We recently had a huge family feed and my SIL and my dad provided most of the food. My brother BBQed, and I brought some of my mini marble cakes for dessert.




My SIL, Shan, made these super yummy shrimp salad rolls, served with a homemade dipping sauce made with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and garlic.











Shan also made this soba noodle salad with a dressing made from fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and garlic.









Dad made this green salad full of all kinds of goodies (many of which, like the cherry tomatoes and blue cheese, I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole,but it's a nice-looking salad nonetheless).













The main star of the evening was my dad's buffalo burgers, which were fantastic, as usual. The guy does a great burger, I must say.






And then where was this...We still have no idea what it is. Well, obviously, it's a sausage, but Dad couldn't tell us what it was. He was cleaning out his freezer when he found a package labeled "B.U. & Onion Sausage." He assumed it was buffalo sausage, but as Jem and I sliced one opened, we were pretty sure this was no buffalo sausage. The meat wasn't dark enough. And it certainly wasn't beef. My dad was at a loss, but he said it had to be some kind of game meat if it wasn't buffalo or beef. Whatever it was, it was kind of bland.


Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tofu Tuesdays #2: Tofu & Veggie Chow Mein

While perusing the tofu section of my local overpriced grocery store this past week in anticipation of this post, I was confronted by a selection of tofus that looked quite a bit more interesting than the regular stuff - soft, firm, etc. There was a flavoured tofu that was red in colour, but the packaging didn't say what the flavouring was. Then I spied this package of fried tofu that piqued my interest. Yes, it's higher in fat, but I thought it would be more interesting than the pedestrian tofus next to it.

I also had most of a package of fresh egg chow mein noodles left over from my last Tofu Tuesday installment, and on the back there was conveniently printed for me a chow mein recipe. Hence, this week's Tofu Tuesdays idea was born!

Fried Tofu & Veggie Chow Mein

1 package fried tofu, cubed
1/2 bag coleslaw mix (I love this stuff; it's perfectly chopped for stir fries, and it contains both green & purple cabbage, as well as carrots)
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 package fresh egg chow mein noodles
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 cup broth (I used beef, which I admit seems contrary since this is a vegetarian dish, but sue me - it's what I had on hand)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp sesame oil

1. Boil chow mein noodles until soft; drain. (The package claims all I had to do was run them under hot water. The package is a liar. Running them under hot water was inadequate, and I found that boiling the noodles for a few minutes worked much better). After draining, I cut my noodles with my kitchen shears to make them a manageable length.

2. Heat some oil wok, and when it's hot, add veggies and stir fry until tender. Add tofu. Add noodles.

3. Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl and add to the stir fry. Combine well.

The fried tofu had a chewy exterior that was a bit more pleasant than its unfried counterpart, and the flavour was mild enough to blend in well with the other ingredients in the chow mein. I'd definitely use this again (and it was cheaper, too). All in all, this was a great meal!

Bon appetit!

Tofu Tuesdays #1

Oh yeah - another series!

I was inspired to start this tofu series after writing this post about greening up the kitchen and my eating. In that post, I mentioned an article in Bon Appetit called "50 Easy Ways to Eat Green", and idea #39 was to eat more tofu. I used to eat tofu somewhat regularly in university and every so often when I was on Weight Watchers. I kind of got over it though, and haven't had any in quite some time. I haven't really missed it. My main knock against it is that it's very processed, as are many tofu products, and my focus has been to eat more unprocessed, whole foods instead of stuff that bears no resemblance to it's natural form. But, as the article states, tofu is quite green, and takes less resources to produce than your average pound of beef (which I eat rarely anyway). Replacing 1lb of beef with 1lb of tofu per month apparently saves 20,000 gallons of water annually.

Fine. I can add some tofu to my diet.

Enter Canadian Living Magazine, February 2009 issue, and a section on a Chinese New Year menu, which included this recipe for Bok Choy, Mushroom, and Tofu Soup. It looked simple and delicious, and has about 59 calories per serving. Now, this soup is supposed to be part of a larger meal, so it's not too hearty on its own. In order to make it more filling and a little more...ah...fun, shall we say, I added some fresh chow mein noodles to it - because, let's face it, noodles make everything better, right? I also made my own stock once more, as seen here, only leaving out the lemon and adding ginger and some celery tops instead.

The soup turned out really well and I used medium tofu instead of firm. Big difference! Not rubbery or chewy and its softness took in the flavour of the soup much more than firm tofu would have. I'll have to remember this little tofu tip for the future.

Bon appetit!