Main dish

Improving Instant Ramen

Posted by Michelle on Jan 23, 2012 in Main dish, Recipes | 2 comments

Instant Noodles with homemade Japanese-style cha shu, poached egg and spinach

I have to confess that this household eats more instant noodles than should possibly be legal for three adults who are no longer in college. But hey, you eat what you gotta eat when the economy’s in the toilet, right? Luckily, all the adults have learned to be okay with this arrangement and my preschooler is pretty thrilled with the idea of noodles all. the. time.

Now before you write me and tell me just how horrible instant noodles are for you — and especially for a growing child — let me just stop you right there and say: yes I know. We make a special effort to make sure that TLE’s instant noodle meals only use a touch of the seasoning packet, are portion controlled and always include a protein and fruit/vegetable and make sure she drinks plenty of milk. So nyah.

Of course, I wish I could say the same for us adults.

I think just about everyone has their own way of making instant ramen more palatable and all the adults in my household have their own style. My husband, for example, likes his noodles with an egg broken into and cooked by the hot broth. He’s got high blood pressure so tries not to use the entire seasoning packet but still likes to spice it up with a generous splash of Sriracha. Our housemate came up with the ingenious and energy saving idea to poach an egg in the boiling water first — she adds a teaspoon or so of rice wine vinegar to the boiling water and then cracks an egg into it to poach it. After it poaches, she removes it and then tosses in the noodles to cook. She might also add a splash of sesame oil along with the seasoning.

I like my noodles without the broth. I take the noodles and boil them until they’re cooked, drain off most of the water and add about 1/4 of the seasoning packet which is plenty. Then I’ll put the pot back on the stove and add a raw egg to the mix, scrambling it and cooking it with the noodles until they’re done. For the photo above, I decided to change it up a bit. I poached my egg the way my housemate does before blanching about a cup full of spinach. Once the spinach was done, I cooked the noodles and seasoning them. Then I put it all in a bowl with some slices of Japanese style cha shu pork belly.

Not bad for broke food, really.

What’s your favorite way to dress up instant ramen?

Garlic Tofu with spicy dipping sauce

Posted by Michelle on Jan 20, 2012 in Main dish, Recipes | 1 comment

Panfried Garlic Tofu with brown rice and vegetables

Every so often, I have the urge to eat healthy. Yes, even my body knows that it can’t survive solely on delicious, delicious pork. (More’s the pity.) Whenever I feel like I’m in healthy mode, I turn to my old vegetarian standby: garlic tofu. My absolute favorite way to eat tofu is panfried so that it’s crisp and savory on the outside, creamy on the inside, drizzled with a simple but delicious spicy soy dressing.

I know, pan frying tofu when you’re supposed to be on a diet seems backwards but eating the right kind and right amount of fats is important if you eat a mostly vegetarian diet. (So I learned during my defunct 30 days vegetarian challenge. Which I totally failed after 2 weeks BUT I did learn a lot.) If you’re really squeamish about the oil, there’s always baking tofu which is just as delicious and a great snack itself. The texture is slightly different — far crispier without the creamy center — but just as tasty, though I think it makes a better vegetarian snack than a main dish. I’ve included both directions, just in case.

Whether you’re baking or pan frying, the most important thing when it comes to tofu is that you’re buying the right kind and that you prep it correctly. Staying Vegan has some great tips for tofu buying. I always buy my tofu in tubs from the Asian market though well-stocked American megamarts should also have tub and vacuum packed tofu. (Honestly, these never taste “right” to me but that may be me being picky.) Wherever you buy it, make sure it’s labeled “Firm” or “Extra Firm” — sometimes it may say “Chinese style” or label it as good for stir fry. Silken, Soft or Japanese-style tofu is far too soft for this dish.

Chinese-style BBQ pork (Char Siu)

Posted by Michelle on Jan 16, 2012 in Main dish, Recipes | 1 comment

There are exactly two dishes in my repetoire that is universally loved and accepted by all the adults and the preschooler in my household. This is one of them: Chinese-style BBQ pork, also more commonly known as char siu. Whether part of fried rice, on top of ramen, stir fried with noodles or part of a rice plate, Chinese BBQ pork is always a welcome addition to any meal at this house.

One of my favorite ways to eat char siu --- with rice! <3

Aside from its versatility and the fact that making it at home saves me from a trip to the Asian BBQ counter (which isn’t bad but I always spend way more than I probably should,) another (and perhaps best) reason for making your own char siu at home: BURNT ENDS. Strictly speaking, burnt ends traditionally refer to American beef brisket BBQ but in this case, I’m talking about the charry, fatty char-siu’y goodness of fatty pork that’s been cooked to carcinogenic perfection.

Meaty goodness -- yes please!!

YUM.

A few years back, I found my first recipe for char siu from a now defunct Singaporean blog. I printed it out and have kept it as part of my prized recipe collection. The original recipe called for two types of soy sauce, plus maltose which gave the char siu its lovely sheen and distinct sweetness. I loved this recipe but didn’t make it very often since dark soy and maltose weren’t typically kept in my pantry.

Then one day about a year ago, I stumbled upon this recipe for Chinese-style BBQ Spareribs from Saveur. I was a bit skeptical but I had a hankering for char siu and couldn’t pass up the fact that the marinade was made out of condiments I kept staple in my pantry.

I’ve changed up the recipe somewhat from Saveur’s original, notably by omitting the food coloring and not using spareribs. I know the food coloring is traditional but honestly, the beautiful mahogany color that you get from the soy and the hoisin in the marinade is beautiful enough.

Instead of spareribs, I use boneless “country style” pork ribs, about 1 1/2″ ~ 2″ thick. More of the meat, none of the bone — what’s not to love? If you can’t find “country style” ribs, just get pork butt and hack it up into strips 1 1/2″ thick… that’s all “country style” really is anyway. If you’re squeamish about pork fat, you can make this out of pork loin which is healthier for you but will tend to dry out. Whichever cut you use, trim the extra fat off of the outside. It’s delicious but too much fat means you get a mouthful of lard when you’re eating and that’s no fun.

Korean-style Spicy Ground Pork

Posted by Michelle on Nov 28, 2011 in Main dish, Recipes | 4 comments

Spicy ground pork

I get sad when I think about how many dishes I’ve allowed myself to not taste because I was afraid of them. Take for instance Korean spicy pork. It’s a mainstay of your average Korean BBQ restaurant. I’ve been eating Korean food since I was a kid; my mom’s best friend at work when we were little was Korean and she introduce our family early to the awesomeness that was bulgogi and kimbap. Mind you, kimchee took a bit more convincing; I remember rinsing off the pepper in the sink so I could eat it — yeah, sacrilege, I know. But in my defense I was 8 years old! — but ut no matter what, I always steered clear of spicy pork.

As an adult, I watched the hubs order spicy pork when we went to eat Korean food but I did not dare to taste it because I was afraid it would be way too hot for my taste buds. (And yes, my out right fear of anything spicy has never failed to amuse the hell out of my husband who eats chili peppers for fun… the sick bastard.)

About three years ago, I finally found the courage to take a bite of spicy pork. And the heavens opened up and I wondered, where the hell has this been all my life? Of course the answer is right at my nearest Korean restaurant, just waiting for me to get the courage to try it. And while spicy pork will never replace my love for galbi, I do find myself craving it every now and then.

I bought a container of gochujang (Korean pepper paste) about a month and a half ago when experimenting with budae jigae (another experiment courtesy of that Korean drama marathon the roomie has had us on.) I’ve been wanting to make spicy pork on my own for a bit now and since gochujang is the key ingredient in Korean spicy pork, I figured that this was as good an opportunity as any to try and make some. The only catch was that I didn’t have any pork shoulder or pork loin for spicy pork. What I did have was ground pork which I had meant to save for mapo tofu. But, hey, there’s no rule against using ground pork so I figured I’d use what I had. (Actually, I’m not too sure about this — is there?? j/k)

I have to say that it turned out great! *pats self on back* Well enough to replace our standby Korean restaurant? Probably not but it’ll definitely help sate the craving when we can’t get down there.

Korean Black Bean Noodles (Jajangmyeon 자장면)

Posted by Michelle on Nov 17, 2011 in Main dish, Recipes | 7 comments

I have come to the conclusion that Asian dramas may very well be the death of me. Or at least, the death of any semblance of healthy eating habits I may have. I’m not sure what it is about Asian dramas that just make the food look so. damn. good.

Lately we’ve been watching a lot of Korean dramas, which is new for me, though I’ve watched plenty of Japanese dramas in my time. In particular, our roomie Trouble* showed us  Gourmet which revolves around a family that cooks royal Korean cuisine. OMG DROOL. With every episode we watched of Gourmet, I just wanted to eat everything on screen. In fact, I think we ended up at a Korean restaurant at least twice as a direct result of going on a weekend bender of drama watching.

While not the fanciest dish shown on Gourmet, the dish I wanted to try the most was the black bean noodles or jjangmyeon, which is the Korean take on the Chinese zha jiang mien, a noodle dish with fried bean paste. While your standard Korean BBQ and tofu soups are pretty easy to find, none of the Korean restaurants in this area make this dish. (Anyone in the Bay Area have any recommendations for restaurants outside of the South Bay that may serve this? I haven’t found any in the East Bay at all.)

Of course, without a restaurant to try it out at, that’s where the interwebs comes in handy. (As always!) Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I found two great Korean food video bloggers, Maangchi and Aeri’s Kitchen that both had recipes for this dish. (Maangchi’s video for jajangmyeon is here while Aeri’s Kitchen is here.)  If you’ve never made Korean food before or are unsure about the techniques, both of these sites are excellent resources.

Luckily for me, I have the very excellent HanKook market in Concord where I was able to get all the ingredients I needed. to get  Be sure to get Korean black bean sauce (chunjang) as Chinese fermented black bean paste will not substitute.

Sticky Gochujang Chicken Wings

Posted by Michelle on Apr 12, 2010 in Appetizers, Main dish | 0 comments

For The Little Empress’ birthday, I bought a bunch of chicken wings from Costco. We didn’t have as many guests as I had originally anticipated so we ended up buying more chicken wings than we had originally anticipated needing. No biggie since the Foster Farms chicken wings were oh-so-conveniently packaged in 1 lb increments. Not exactly great for the environment but damned handy, I’d say!

It has been a clean-out-the-fridge kind of week so when I saw the last two pounds of chicken wings, I knew that the time had come to eat them. I happen to love chicken but I seem to be the only one in my house that does. Chicken wings in particular aren’t a favorite of The Hubs unless, of course, they’re crunchily deep fried and slathered in hot sauce. *sigh* What to do, what to do. I found a few recipes for baked chicken wings on All Recipes, the most appealing of which were wings coated in a sweet, sticky sauce. Mmm. I love sticky sauce wings and figured that this would be a great way to use them.

After scanning the recipes — and what little was available in my pantry and fridge — I decided I had enough of an understanding of the basic marinade to make something up on the fly. One thing I wanted to do was to use up some gochujang I had picked up. Gochujang is a fermented Korean red pepper paste which has a tiny bit of a kick but is more like an umami bomb than anything else. It has a great savory taste that is awesome with meats. I also had some mystery Korean “cooking syrup” that I picked up on a whim at the Asian grocery store on a recent trip. I had assumed it was some type of malt or millet syrup. When I opened the bottle and began to pour it out, it was quite thin, much thinner than pancake syrup. Subsequent googling has revealed that it is probably cane syrup.

Sticky Gochujang Wings

The end result was something truly remarkable. The gochujang gave it a tiny bit of heat but was more savory than anything else. The honey and cane syrup boiled down to sticky goodness. This was really good stuff! It would have gone well with some pickled veggies but instead I had roasted veggies on hand (eggplant, zucchini and onions) so that’s what I ate it with. You could eat it as a main course with rice or as an appetizer.

Sticky Gochujang Chicken Wings

Makes about 20 chicken wings/drumettes

Marinade

• 1/2 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1/4 c. Korean cooking syrup
• 1/4 c. gochujang

Chicken

• 2lbs chicken wings, separated into drumettes and wings, tips removed

Mix together the marinade ingredients until well incorporated. (The honey and gochujang are both pretty sticky so you may want to use a fork or whisk to ensure that it dissolves well into the liquid.) Pour over chicken. Let marinate at least an hour, preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 375F. Prepare a baking dish by spraying with non-stick cooking spray for ease of clean up. (When I say sticky, I mean it!!) Remove wings from the marinade and drain well, reserving marinade. Place wings in the baking dish in a single layer and bake at 375F for 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the reserved marinade in a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer until reduced by a third. (It will still be fairly thin.) Set aside but keep warm.

After 40 minutes, remove wings from oven. Dip each wing into the boiled sauce, returning to the baking dish. Bake for another 10 minutes — the sauce will reduce further and get sticky.

For VERY sticky wings, remove baking pan again from the oven. Turn on the broiler to 550F. Brush each wing with a generous amount of the boiled marinade. Return to the oven and broil until a deep mahogany color with some nice, crispy bits.

Serve warm.