Korean Jajangmyeon (Noodle with Black Bean Sauce)

Even though I am Chinese but I never seen this noodle dish before in Malaysia.  I actually learned about this famous Korean Chinese food from watching the Korean dramas.  I got fascinated because this jajangmyeon only served in the Korean Chinese restaurant and it is a Korean fusion Chinese food.   Last year I found out that the Chinese restaurant near my house also featured Korean menu and jajangmyeon was one of them.  So of course I got to buy and give it a try.  But at almost $10 a bowl, it was not affordable.  Recently I saw this recipe at a Korean cookbook and found out that it was actually very easy to make at home.  All I needed to buy were the fresh noodle and the black bean sauce at the Korean market and I was set to go.

Originally this recipe called for pork but I used chicken instead.  Oh well, I only have chicken in my house and my mom also asked me to eat less pork.  Overall, it tasted almost identical to the one I paid $10 for.  So, I am happy that I can easily recreate this dish at home and save some money.  I served it up with the Spicy Korean Radish.

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Nights hosted at Ruth of Once Upon a Feast.

Ingredients:

Serving size: 5

1  (37oz./1050g) premium fresh noodle or jajangmyeon noodle

1 large boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into small cubes (marinate it with rice wine, salt, white pepper and cornstarch)

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

1/2 zucchini (if large), 1 zucchini (if small), cut into cubes

1 small carrot, cut into cubes

3 heap Tbsp. Korean black bean sauce

1 cup water

2 tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp. water

Oil for cooking

Method:

1.  Cook noodle per package direction.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  If not it will stick together and create clumps.  Unless you eat it right away.

2.  Heat wok over high heat and when heated, add in some cooking oil.  When hot, add in the chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink.

3.  Add in the cubes onion, carrot and then zucchini and stir-fry until soften.  

4.  Add in the black bean sauce.  Stir to mix well.  Add in water and sugar.  Stir well.  Lastly thicken with cornstarch water.

5.  Pour on top of the noodle to serve.

Japchae (Vegetable Beef Vermicelli)

The original JapChae, a Korean style vegetable beef with sweet potato vermicelli/cellophane noodles uses beef, but I used chicken in mine.  While looking at my old JapChae recipe, it was so different.  I used to add dark soy sauce because as a Malaysian, I seem to be addicted to dark color food in the beginning of my cooking.  My noodle, fried rice and stir-fried dishes were mostly dark in color.  But over the years, it has change, my cooking seem to be more balance now, not all dishes were dark in color, more white color food came out from me actually.  With the birth of my girls, my cooking also became less spicy.  Guess I would suffer when I go back to Malaysia for a visit as I am not use to that level of heat anymore.

This JapChae was served with Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies).   The recipe is mostly adapted from the back of the sweet potato vermicelli (dang myun) that I bought in the Asian market.

Ingredients:

1 16oz packet of sweet potato vermicelli/cellophane noodles, soaked in warm water until soften.

2 dried flower shitake mushroom, soften in hot water and thinly sliced.  Season with soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil

1/2 cup of dried woodear fungus, soften in hot water and drain

1 small carrot, thinly julienned

1/2 yellow onion, julienned

1 skinless and boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced and marinated with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, white pepper and cornstarch.

2 scallion, shredded

1 big bowl of washed and ready to eat spinach

2 gloves of garlic

1 Tbsp. Toasted white sesame seeds

Sauce:  Soy sauce, Kadoya sesame oil, salt, sugar and pepper to taste

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in oil.  When hot, stir-fry the chicken until cooked.  Dish out and set aside.

2.  In the same heated wok, add in more oil.  Add in onion, then garlic and stir-fry for a minute.  Add in mushroom and woodear and stir-fry well.  Then, add in carrot and mix well.  After that add in cooked chicken and spinach, stir-fry until spinach is cooked.  Add in sweet potato vermicelli and the sauce.  Add some water if needed.

3.  Stir well with a chopsticks or two forks, mix well with the sauces and until the vermicelli turns transparent.  Add the scallion.  Lastly add in the toasted sesame seeds and mix well.  Serve!

Cilantro Walnut Pesto & Alexia Fries

I made this Cilantro Walnut Pesto for years.  You can see it from my old post here.  I realized that I haven't exactly really shared my pesto recipe, so I would share it now.  When walnut was on sales, I bought one big bag and kept it in the freezer.  So, I would have walnut on hands if I wanted it in making cookies, cake, or pesto.  Very convenient!  I added tuna in water into my pesto for added nutrient.  I also added a side of sweet potato fries to make it complete.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a free coupon to sample the Alexia product.  I wanted to try the Caroline BBQ Sweet Potato Fried initially but it was not carried in the supermarket I went to.  So, I ended up picking this Sweet Potato fries.  Alexia premium foods are all natural, delicious and free of trans fat.  You can pick from appetizer, side dishes or bread.  It is a great way to bring outstanding gourmet flavor straight from the freezer to the table in just minutes.  I tasted the sweet potato fries, I got to say it tasted just liked my homemade sweet potato fries.  I sprinkled with some Paprika before baking, but I should have used cayenne pepper because I was hoping for a little spiciness.  It was slightly crispy and the sweet potato was sweet.  If you were too busy to prepare from scratch, this all natural Alexia frozen products could be a good alternative.

Ingredients:

1 box of 16 oz spaghetti

3 pouches of premium light tuna in water (2.5 oz each)

1 Tbsp. of butter (you can use more to suit your taste)

3 huge tablespoons of my cilantro walnut pesto

My homemade rice wine (you can use white wine)

Salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Method:

1.  Cook spaghetti as package instruction.  Drain in cold water and set aside.

2.  In a frying pan, add in spaghetti, butter, pesto and tuna.  Use two forks to mix it well together.  Sprinkle with some rice wine or white wine of it started to stick to the pan.  Stir quickly to mix well.

3.  Serve on plate along side with salt and pepper.  Season to taste based on your personal taste.

Cilantro Walnut Pesto:

1 bunch of cilantro, wash it clean and cut off the bottom part of the stems

6-8 gloves of garlic, depending on how strong you like the garlic taste

1/2 cup of walnut, lightly chopped

Extra virgin olive oil as needed

Salt, black pepper and sugar to taste

In a food processor, add in garlic and walnuts, process until fine.  Add in cilantro in two batches.  Process until fine.  Pour in the extra virgin olive oil until your desired pesto consistency.  Season with salt, black pepper and sugar and process again.  Keep this pesto in a glass bottle and keep in the refrigerator.  You can use this for your pasta, poultry and even seafood.

Instant Noodle with Cheese

If you watched Korean drama or Korean variety shows, you would probably noticed that they added a slice of cheese in their instant noodle or Korean rice noodle.  At first when I saw it, I was like what was that that they put into the instant noodle, then I realized that it was a piece of cheese.  That was mind blowing for me, cheese in spicy kimchi soup??  I was really curious especially those who tasted it all said it was good.  So, my curiosity got better of me and I bought Korean kimchi instant noodle and my American cheese and decided to give it a try.

To increase nutrition, I added seaweed and an egg.  By the way, the Korean instant noodle was like Taiwanese instant noodle made without preservatives and with all natural ingredients.  So, after I finished cooking, I pour it into a bowl and then top with a piece of American cheese.  When the cheese started to melt like the above picture, I stir to mix it well into the soup.

My verdict:  it actually tasted delicious, the soup when mixed it well together was richer and thicker with the fragrant of cheese.  Thumb up from me!  Try it yourself to believe it!  :-)

Stir Fried Ramen

Need a quick meal and yet wanted it to be balance?  I was left with two pieces of chicken strips and I had to make it into a meal that could feed three.  I bought those Maruchan ramen when it went on sales for 10 cents each for stir-frying.  I did not like the seasoning that came with it so I either made my own soup base or save this for stir-frying.  With the protein and carbohydrate readied, all I needed was some vegetable to make it complete.  Just checked the refrigerator for whatever veggie you have and you can cook up this delicious ramen dish in less than 10 minutes.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on Friday Nov, 5th! 

Ingredients:

3-4 packets of ramen, cook ramen as directed by package, drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 carrot, julienne

1/8 head of green cabbage, julienne

1/2 of yellow onion, julienne

Seasonings:

Fish sauce, to taste

Oyster sauce, about 2-3 Tbsp.

Sugar, about 1 tsp.

White pepper, dashes of

A touch of sesame oil in the end of cooking

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, pour in some cooking oil.  Add in garlic, stir-fry a little, add in onion, stir-fry until soften.  Add in cabbage and carrot, stir-fry until cooked.

2.  Add in cooked ramen and seasonings except sesame oil.  Stir-fry well and do a taste test to see if you need to adjust the seasonings.  If not, turn off the heat and lastly add a touch of sesame oil.  Stir-well and serve on the plate.

3.  Toast the chicken strips until warm, slice it and place on top of the stir fried ramen to serve.

Flat Rice Noodle Soup (Kway Tiao Deng)

A simple noodle dish can be so satisfying.  I wanted something light instead of stir-frying the rice noodle in oil.  So, I decided to make a pot of chicken vegetable soup to go with it.  Just so happen that I have some chicken bones, so I threw that in along with organic celery, organic carrot, two yellow onions, a piece of smashed ginger, and lemon grass.  Let it simmered for few hours and my stock was ready.

For the topping, I prepared some nai pak, fish balls, fried fish balls, tofu fish cake, ground pork and crispy fried shallots.  Serve it with hot chili padi in soy sauce.  Next time I might just try it with ground pork and veggie.  Evy totally loved this rice noodle soup.  She finished her whole bowl and requested the leftover for her dinner the next day.

Minced Meat Noodle 2

I was experimenting DouBanJiang (Chinese bean Paste) in this minced meat noodle dish.  If you have a DouBanJiang in your fridge, did you buy the spicy one or plain one?  I saw two versions and decided on trying the plain one first because I was afraid the spicy one would be too spicy for my girls.  To spice it up, I can always add chili oil or chili paste in my bowl.

I learned this presentation from Chef Chen Kenichi as this was how he served his minced noodle in his cookbook, cool huh?  I seem to only pile it in the middle but this was a great idea from him.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on July, 2nd! 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 carrot, minced

Some Nai Pak or Bok Choy, minced

1 small bag of Enoki mushroom, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. Chinese rice wine (white)

1 heap Tbsp. DouBanJiang (Chinese bean paste)

1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

Salt to taste

A little sugar

2 cups of water

Thickener:  (cornstarch + water) or (potato starch + water) equal amount

I bag of dried egg noodle, cook as package direction, rinsed in cold water.  Mix in with some soy sauce and a little sesame oil, mix to blend well, set aside.

Method:

1.  Cooked noodle as directed above.

2.  Heat a large skillet, when heated, add in oil.  Then, add in ground pork and stir-fry until pork is no longer pink.  Add in garlic and carrot and stir-fry well.  Then, add in veggie and stir-fry well.

3.  Add in Doubanjiang, hoisin sauce and stir-fry well.  Add in rice wine to deglaze the pan.  Add in water, stir well.

4.  When boiling, season to taste with salt and a little sugar.  Add some soy sauce if needed.  Add thickener and stir until thicken.  

5.  Lay some seasoned noodle in a bowl.  Top with minced meat sauce on the side or on top of the noodle.  Stir well and enjoy!  Of course, you can add minced scallion and crispy fried shallots and enjoy with bird eye chili (chili padi) as condiment.

Spicy and Sour Instant Noodle Soup

I borrowed Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's Knockout Chinese cookbook from the library and couldn't keep my hands off it.  I love the simple recipes with step-by-step pictures and mouth-watering end result to drool on.  This book also introduced me to two new pastes, one is Doubanjiang (Sichuan soy bean paste) and the other is Tianmianjiang (sweet noodle sauce).  He used these two pastes often in the cookbook especially Doubanjiang.  I just bought a bottle of Doubanjiang and couldn't wait to try his recipes.  I am eager to find out how Doubanjiang tastes like, with the new paste, I guess I will have new recipes to share in the future.

For this spicy and sour instant noodle soup, I used his premix sauce (A) but omitted egg and added mini sausages and bean sprouts.  I just wanted to taste the instant noodle the way he had when he was a kid.  It is an easy way to kick the instant noodle up a notch.

Mixed ingredients (A) in a bowl before pouring in the cooked noodle with soup.

Adapted from Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's Knockout Chinese Cookbook with slight modification:

Ingredients:

1 package of your favorite instant ramen (I used chicken flavored)

2 scallions, minced

1 cup of washed bean sprouts

3 mini sausages

(A)

2 tsp. rice vinegar

1 tsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. chili oil

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

Dash of pepper

Method:

1.  Mince scallions and place in a bowl.  Add (A) and instant ramen flavoring.

2.  Boil ramen noodles in approximately 2 cups of water and add mini sausages to heat it up.  When noodle is almost done, add in the bean sprout to quickly blanch it.

3.  Pour into the prepared bowl and stir-well before eating.

Stir Fried Rice Flour & Wheat Starch Noodle

Another easy stir-fried noodle dish.  I fried this noodle before.  This time I just added a little more ingredients.  When I was shopping at my Asian market, I loved to browse through the fresh noodle section and bought few packets of different variety to freeze at home.  I just thawed it the day before and I will have fresh noodle handy for whenever my mood strikes.

My husband loved to buy lots of fried chicken at the supermarket.  I was trying to cook healthier food and he tried to buy unhealthy food home.  He bought so much that I had to freeze portions for later use.  For the one I frozen, I always peeled off the skin, cut off all the fried stuff and just used the meat in my cooking.  I had used it in my chicken noodle soup before, fried rice and all sort of fried noodle.  Leftover for better use huh?

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is  Katie of Thyme for Cooking! Check out her delicious round up on April, 30th!

Ingredients:

I packet of Vietnamese rice flour & wheat starch noodle

1 leftover fried chicken breast, remove skin and bone, shredded 

A bowl of washed bean sprouts

2 scallions, cut into 1 inch

1/4 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced

8 fried tofu (taufu pok), cut

1 small carrot, julienne

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Seasonings:

Oyster sauce

Dark soy sauce

Peppers (black or white)

Salt and sugar 

Method:

1.  Heat up a wok, when heated, add in some cooking oil.  Add in garlic and white part of scallion, fry for a little while, add in carrot and red bell pepper.  Stir-fry well.

2.  Add in noodle and stir-fry well.  Add in cooked chicken breast and fried tofu, mix and add in seasonings.  Add in a little water if needed.

3.  Lastly, add in bean sprouts and green part of scallion.  Quickly stir-fry it to cook the bean sprouts.  Dish out and serve hot.  You can serve it with your favorite chili paste, sambal or chili padi.

Stir Fried Tang Hoon (Glass Noodle) with Ground Pork

I out did myself as this plate of fried tang hoon (glass noodle) was so delicious!  I added my secret ingredient, minced anchovies just to test how it would turn out.  The glass noodle was not broken into pieces and the bean sprout was crunchy and everything just came so well together.  I used chives because I saw a Chinese cooking show which said chives was really good for our body as it had the ability to clean the poison out of your body system. Listening to that I was sold, we needed to eat more chives from now on.  Chives seem to be very easy to plant here during summer.  Guess I will have more chives recipes coming out too.

My plate of fried glass noodle with ground pork!  Another secret ingredients is the fried eggs, you got to have eggs in this to bring out the overall flavor.  The glass noodle I used for this stir-fry is called Special Grade Bean Thread from China.  It has two red dragons on the cover.  I added it here so that next time I would know which brand to get for stir-fry, if my memory served me right, this brand is not expansive.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Cynthia, The Kitchen Slave! Check out her delicious round up on April, 23rd!

Ingredients:

1 package of glass noodle (250gm), soften in warm water.

1 bowl of bean sprouts, washed

1 small carrot, julienne

6 stalks of chives, cut into 1 inch length

1/4 cup of dried anchovies, rinsed and minced

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 lb. of ground pork

2 large eggs, beaten

Sauce:

Soy sauce (Kikkoman)

Sweet dark soy sauce (ABC brand)

Salt

Sugar

Sesame oil (Kadoya)

White pepper

Method:

1.  Heat up a wok, when heated, add in oil.  When hot, add in half of the minced anchovies and garlic, stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in ground pork and stir-fry for a while.  Add in carrot and chives and stir-fry until pork is cooked.  Dish out and place on a plate, set aside.

2.  In the same wok, heat up some oil.  When heated, add in the rest of the minced anchovies and garlic.  Stir-fry until fragrant, add in beaten eggs.  Stir-fry and add in soften glass noodle with a little water.  Use a chopstick to mix well.

3.  Add in 1 and sauce, stir-fry until well blended.  Lastly add in bean sprouts, give it a few quick stir and adjust sauce to taste.  Serve hot.

Salmon Noodle Soup

This noodle soup is almost identical to my Chicken Shells Soup.  The only different is salmon was used and I added red bell peppers.  This is the first time I used salmon in soup and I was impressed at how well it hold it's shape and tastes really good.  Now I have new way of cooking salmon as this gives me an idea of creating other soupy salmon dishes.

I really loved these two types of noodle soup, of course you can use other kind of dried pasta that you have at home.  You can easily cook a big pot and enjoy it for days.  Give it a try and feedback to me ya!

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Daphne from More Than Words! Check out the delicious round up on April, 16th!

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 white/yellow onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

8 grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced or chopped

1 salmon fillet,cut into cubes, marinate with white wine and white pepper

1/2 cup shells 

1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetable

Dash of dried thyme
Dash of dried oregano
Dash of dried parsley

Salt to taste

Black Pepper

Chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

1.  In a medium size saucepan, add in some olive oil, about 1-2 Tbsp.  Add in onion and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in bay leaf, stir-well.  Add in grape tomatoes and red bell pepper and stir-well.

2.  Add in frozen mixed vegetable and stir well.  Add a little salt to season the ingredients.  Add in chicken or vegetable stock, quite a lot because it is a soup and you want to cook the shell pasta too.

3.  Add in the shell pasta, stir and let it simmer until the pasta is cooked.  When cooked, add in the cubed salmon, carefully stir into the soup, cover and let the salmon cooked, just few minutes.  Uncover and season to taste with dried herbs and black pepper.

4.  Take out the bay leaf before serving.

Chicken Noodle (Shells) Soup

Evy was diagnosed with ear infection recently.  It was her first and since she didn't complain about her ear ache, I had no way to know.  It got worst when her ear infection caused her to have high fever and coughs.  Finally we took her to see her pediatrician because we thought she might have flu or H1N1 because the fever was high like 103.7'F.  Then, it was diagnosed to be ear infection resulted from stuffy nose and caused the high fever because it was already inflamed.  She was given antibiotic for 10 days.  How magical was the antibiotic, just one dose and she was feeling much better.  I gave her the ibuprofen for the fever and pain as well.  Just like the pediatrician said, she would be herself and ready to go to school again.


I thought she was suffering from flu and wanted her to drink more fluid and lighter meal.  So, I created this chicken shells soup for her.  I only had shells pasta at home thus the used of shell pasta.  I added mixed vegetable so that she could have some veggie in her diet.  This will definitely be something I would cook when someone is not feeling well at home.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Aqua from Served with Love .  Do go and check out her delicious pasta round up tomorrow, March, 19th! 

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 white/yellow onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

8 grape tomatoes, cut in half

1/2 roasted chicken breast (from store), shredded

1/2 cup shells 

1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetable

Italian seasonings

Salt to taste

Black Pepper

Chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

1.  In a medium size saucepan, add in some olive oil, about 1-2 Tbsp.  Add in onion and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in bay leaf, stir-well.  Add in grape tomatoes and stir-well.

2.  Add in frozen mixed vegetable and shredded chicken breast, stir well.  Add a little salt to season the ingredients.  Add in chicken or vegetable stock, quite a lot because it is a soup and you want to cook the shell pasta too.

3.  Add in the shell pasta, stir and let it simmer until the pasta is cooked.  Season to taste with Italian seasonings and black pepper.

4.  Take out the bay leaf before serving.

Fried Bee Hoon or Vermicelli

 

My simple lunch on Sunday.  I don't normally cooked dishes and rice on weekends.  Usually it would be something simple like fried noodle (any variety) or fried rice.  We had something special today because I saved some jicama beancurd rolls for ourselves like what you read on my last posting. Simple fried bee hoon like what you get at the night market in Malaysia can be satisfying, simple like only fried with bean sprouts. I don't know what is the charm of this simple fried bee hoon, do you know?  Or perhaps it was just something we used to have when we grew up.

Delicious fried bee hoon!  I recommend the Elephant brand bee hoon and also Wei Wei bee hoon.  These brands of bee hoon/vermicelli are thin and won't break easily when stir-frying.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This is my first entry for the new year 2010.  Wow, it has been a while.  This week host is non-other than Ruth herself, do go and check out Once Upon a Feast delicious round up on March, 5th! It is also the Third Birthday of PPN.

This bowl served us for lunch and dinner.  Killed two birds in one stone, hooray for not having to cook dinner.

Ingredients:

1/2 packet of bee hoon/vermicelli, soak in warm water until soften

1 skinless and boneless chicken breast, slice and marinate with rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and cornstarch.

1 carrot, julienned

Some snow peas, washed and cut sideway

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Seasonings:

Oyster sauce

Soy sauce

A little sugar

Method:

1.  In a wok, heat up some oil.  When hot, add in chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink.  Add garlic, carrot and snow peas, fry until the veggies are cooked.

2.  Add in soften vermicelli and some water.  Mix and add in seasonings.  Mix with a chopstick until well distributed.  Fry until cooked.  Dish out and serve.

Minced Meat Noodle

I bought some packets of fresh Pho rice noodle (the noodle that served in Pho soup, Vietnamese beef noodle soup) thinking I can serve it with chicken soup. But I don't normally like to serve the same thing often which brought me to think of another way to serve this fresh noodle. As my readers know, I love Korean drama and almost in all K-drama, there have this so-called Jajangmyeon (炸醬麵), homemade hand pull noodle with dark black bean sauce made by Korean Chinese. So, I had this idea of making my own Chinese version of Jajangmyeon with this Pho noodle. I didn't have the Korean black bean paste, chunjang so I made my own version of dark sauce. The end result, we totally loved it! Evy said it's so yummy, when are you going to make it again? Well, wait til I buy more noodle first, I told her. This is definitely a new noodle dish that I am going to make again for my family.





Ingredients:

1 packet fresh Pho noodle
1/2 lb. minced/ground pork
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 big bowl of washed bean sprouts
4 bowls of water

Sauces: LKK oyster sauce, ABC sweet soy sauce, LKK premium dark soy sauce, LKK black pepper sauce.

Thickener: potato starch/cornstarch + water

Garnish: crispy fried shallots, Kadoya sesame oil and chopped scallion

Method:

1. Marinate the ground pork with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, white pepper to get rid of the smell. Stir well and let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

2. Boil a pot of water. When boiling, briefly cook the pho noodle until soften, according to packet instruction. Drain and place in individual bowls. In the same boiling water pot, quickly blanch the bean sprouts. Drain and set on top of each noodle bowls.

3 In a wok, add in a little oil, chopped garlic and fry until slightly golden brown. Add in marinated ground pork and fry until no longer pink. Add in water (to your liking, but enough to make gravy for 4 bowls of noodle). Then, add in the sauces. Let it boil and add in thickener. Stir until gravy thicken. Scoop into each individual bowls.

4. Garnish with crispy fried shallots, scallion, even sliced red chili if prefer. Add a dash of Kadoya 100% pure sesame oil before serving.

Stir Fried Vietnamese Rice Noodle (Loh See Fun)

I found the Vietnamese rice noodle at my Asian supermarket. This is just like the Malaysia Loh See Fun as it was made with rice flour, wheat starch and water. The texture is soft unlike the previous one that I had. Instead of preparing it in soup, I did a quick stir-fry in white sauce. I was too lazy to prepare the soup for it and wanted a change from my usual black sauce.





Ingredients:

Vietnamese rice noodle (2 packets)
1/2 lb. Ground pork, marinate with soy sauce, white pepper, rice wine and sesame oil (to get rid of the pork smell)
4-5 Chinese dried mushroom, soften and chopped
2 Scallion, cut into 1.5 inch
3 gloves of Garlic, minced
1 bowl of Bean sprouts, washed
1 Carrot, cut

Seasoning: oyster sauce, salt, sugar, white pepper, rice wine.

Method:

1. In a wok, add in some oil, add in garlic. Fry until fragrant, add in ground pork and stir-fry until no longer pink. Add in Chinese mushrooms and carrot, stir-fry well.

2. Add in Vietnamese rice noodle and seasoning, add a little water if needed. Stir-fry well and lastly add bean sprouts and scallion. Stir-fry well and season to taste. Serve hot!

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is Reeni, do go and check out Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice
delicious round up on Dec, 18th! This will be the last Presto Pasta Nights event for this year, the next roundup will resume on Jan 8th, 2010.

Longevity Noodle Soup

Chinese loved to eat long noodle on their birthday because it signify long life, it is like a tradition especially for older people. We will have long noodle, red eggs and peach steamed buns for older people. Today, I made my noodle soup with ShanDong ramen (山东拉面). It is similar to the noodle that Taiwanese served on their beef noodle soup. This noodle is packaged dried in a rectangle box that you can get in the Asian store. Good in soup and stir-fry.



Ingredients:

ShanDong ramen, homemade chicken stock, tofu fish cake, fried fish balls, napa cabbage and mini sausages.

Method:

1. Prepare the homemade chicken stock with 1 chicken, 1 big yellow onion, small piece of smashed ginger, 2-3 stalks of scallions, 3 carrots (cut). Simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste with salt, sugar and chicken stock granules.

2. Cook noodle per package instruction. Set aside.

3. Sieve the chicken stock. Turn the heat to high, when boiling, add in napa cabbage, tofu fish cake, fried fish balls and mini sausages. Let it cook for a minute or two.

4. In a bowl, place in the noodle. Scoop the soup on top with ingredients to serve hot. Eat with chili padi (bird eye chili) for extra kick.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is Kevin, do go and check out Closet Cooking delicious round up on Dec, 11th! Thanks!