Pasta + Noodles + Rice – Page 8 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Soba Noodles with Vegetables

When I want to prepare something quick but substantial, I always turn to Asian noodles. You can see me at Sobaya slurping my soba noodles most Sunday afternoons. Before Honmura An closed, it was the best place to watch a Japanese soba maker perform his art. But it was in Chicago where I first tasted a soba dish tossed like a salad with vegetables and mushrooms. Four years later, I can still remember how Anna made it for the Dr. and me.

In some small way, I wanted to bring back the old with the new by making this familiar recipe the first for this new Web address. For my take, I used carrots and sweet peas. They complemented the soba’s buckwheat color. Soba is one reason why dried mushrooms are great to have in your pantry. You can just soak them in warm water a few minutes before you need to use them. The nori, or dried seaweed, provided an extra crunch. You can make this dish your own by adding any of your favorite vegetables; just julienne them for a prettier presentation.

Ingredients:
soba noodles
dried shiitake mushrooms
1 small carrot, peeled and julienned
a handful of sweet peas, roughly chopped
2 stalks of scallions, finely chopped
nori, or dried Japanese seaweed
sesame seeds, toasted
sesame oil
rice vinegar
light soy sauce

1. If using dried mushrooms, soak shiitake in a bowl of warm water for thirty minutes. After soaking, drain shiitake mushrooms and squeeze out excess water using a paper towel. Slice in strips. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix equal parts sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar.
3. Cook soba noodles in boiling water for about 5 minutes. When done, drain and fluff with a fork to keep the noodles from sticking together.
4. Pour sesame sauce little by little over soba noodles. Toss with the mushrooms and the vegetables. Mix in sesame seeds and crushed nori. Top with chopped scallions.

Green Tea Noodle Soup with Tofu

Dashi is fundamental to Japanese cooking. Kelp and bonito are boiled down to make the dashi broth that’s most popularly known as the base for miso soup. With soy sauce, or soyu, and rice wine vinegar, or mirin, you can make the simplest yet most satisfying Japanese soup perfect for a last course after a heavy meal.

Ingredients:
green-tea noodles, half of the 7-ounce packet
1 quart vegetable stock
2 tsps dashi granules
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
firm tofu, drained, sliced into squares
1 small sheet of dried seaweed, torn
2 tbsps sesame seeds, toasted

1. Cook the noodles in a large saucepan of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.
2. Combine the dashi granules with the stock in another large pot. Stir over medium heat until the granules are dissolved. Bring to a boil and stir in mirin and soy sauce.
3. Divide the noodles and tofu cubes in serving bowls. Ladle hot soup and garnish with nori and sesame seeds.

Vermicelli Vegetable Soup

I adjusted this from a vegetable ramen recipe using rice and potato vermicelli. This may seem to require a lot of ingredients but it’s easier than you think–just put all the vegetables in the pot and boil. Any vegetables will do, really, and I’ve tried this with baby bok choy, Napa cabbage and carrots.

Ingredients:
1 pack each of rice and potato vermicelli
a quart of vegetable stock
1 packaged firm tofu, sliced in small squares
zucchini, chopped in half moons
snow peas, destringed and sliced in half
leeks, white parts only, chopped
shiitake mushrooms, dusted off dirt, halved
a small knob of ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
garlic, crushed
1 packet of white miso powder
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsps soy sauce
sesame oil

1. SautÃ© ginger and the garlic in a stock pot first then add the vegetables, stirring for 5 minutes. Add stock and let boil. Turn down the heat and simmer. Stir in miso powder, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce. Adjust to taste.
2. In a separate pot, cook noodles in boiling water for 4 minutes. Stir with a fork to avoid sticking. Drain with cold running water. When cool enough to handle, use your hands to separate noodles and drain some more.
3. Put a handful of noodles in a bowl and ladle in soup. Add a drop or two of sesame oil.

Related post/s:
Where to get white miso powder

Flank Steak with Sugar Snap Peas on Vermicelli

There have been some wonderful sugar snap peas in Chinatown for less than $2 a pound. I imagined making some sort of crunchy salad with them so I stopped by my butcher on Mott to buy a nicely-red beef flank steak to match. After searing the steak, the sauce caramelized and I ended up throwing the snap peas in the same skillet to wipe it off. The beef came out perfectly medium-rare and pink inside when I was slicing it against the grain. You can definitely eat this with rice but I opted for vermicelli noodles to make it lighter. Because it took less than an hour to make this, two people were able to drink the rest of the night after eating.

Ingredients:
1 pound of beef flank
4 tbsps kecap manis
3 tbsps sambal oelek
a bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp peanut oil
rice vermicelli
1 red bell pepper, julienned
a handful of sweet snap peas, trimmed
salt

1. Marinate the meat. In a large bowl, combine kecap manis, sambal oelek, cilantro, garlic and sesame oil and rub all over the flank steak. Cover and put in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, trim the peas and julienne the vegetables. When ready to cook, heat peanut oil in a large skillet and sear the flank steak in high heat. Let it sit on one side first without moving it and then turn to sear the other side, about 8 minutes each depending on its thickness. Remove to a chopping board and let rest for about 5 minutes.
3. Keep the heat on and cook the peas using the remaining oil and crusty bits in the skillet and then add the peppers. Stir-fry until peas are tender.
4. Boil some water in a pot and then turn the heat off. Add the vermicelli in the hot water and let it cook in the remaining heat for a couple of minutes. Drain and using a fork, separate noodles and serve in a bowl. Slice the beef against the grain and serve on top of the noodles with the vegetables. Pour remaining sauce from the skillet on top.

Related post/s:
More recipes using flank steak

Vermicelli Ground Beef Salad

Hungry when I woke up one Sunday afternoon with a developing cold, I searched for leftovers in the fridge to nourish myself. There was a bowl of fried ground beef. The folks love making their own tacos at home so I’m bound to find ground meat at any time during the week. And when they’re too lazy to buy salad greens from the farmers’ market, I also find iceberg lettuce from the neighborhood grocery store in some sad plastic bag in the fridge. I thought about Buddhai Bodai in Chinatown, where they have this one dish I always order called Lettuce Song. Using the leftovers, I tried to replicate that taste even though I probably came up with a whole new salad recipe. It was still a delicious dish and it put the already-cooked ground beef to good use. If you have fresh bean sprouts, they add nicely to the crunchiness of the lettuce.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound of ground beef
half a small head of iceberg lettuce, cut into strips
1 pack of vermicelli noodles
half a bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
1/2 cup fish sauce
juice from 2 limes
1 tsp brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tbsps peanut oil
1 tsp sesame oil
red chili flakes

1. In a frying pan over medium heat, sautÃ© garlic and shallots in hot peanut oil. Add ground beef and brown. Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan ocassionally to avoid from sticking and burning. Remove to a salad bowl.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve sugar in fish sauce. Whisk in sesame oil. Add chili flakes to taste.
3. In the meantime, boil a pot of water. Add noodles and cook for less than 5 minutes. Drain and let cool with running water. Using a fork, separate noodles to avoid from sticking and forming into clumps.
4. When ready to serve, add the noodles to the ground beef and pour over dressing. Toss with the lettuce to combine.